Rafting: 23 km.
Descent: 175m.
Wow! After napping and doing nothing all day yesterday, I can't believe how well I slept last night! My "rafting" clothes are still quite damp from 2 days ago. Oh well - they're going to be drenched after going through the first rapid.
What a great day on the river!! Maurice is such a good guide. He's very competent, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and friendly. He has represented Costa Rica in the last 2 World Rafting Championships. They came in 5th in Japan last year.
It's a good thing I didn't bring my camera along today. It would have been soaked the whole way which would have just resulted in blurry pictures. Plus, the rapids come so quickly one after another that I would hardly have had time to take a hand off the paddle. We had about 4 or 5 Class IV rapids today. Most of them were in the gorge, which was a narrow section with really high walls on either side. We were treated to amazing vegetation all day as well as lots of birds and butterflies. The most striking butterfly was the morpho butterfly - a beautiful electric blue on top and brown underneath. Some of the birds were: tiger heron, several types of egrets, hawk, osprey, vultures, dippers, swallows plus lots of smaller colourful birds.
We passed quite a few camps along the shoreline in places today. Some were quite swanky-looking and some more basic. We also passed a number of places that served as access points to indigenous camps further back in the jungle.
We did get stuck in one rapid. Maurice called for a "lean in". I lost my grip and ended up on the floor. Mary fell out of the boat and Jean was able to pull her in. Maurice's lifevest got caught on a caribiner and he was immobilized. The raft was stuck between a couple of rocks so Maurice had everyone move to the back of the boat. Yes, that's where I was still sprawled on the floor with limbs going in every direction, so everyone just piled on top of me. It was a bit of a minor miracle that all my joints held up to the load.
Maurice said that this river is rated #9 in the world. I believe it. It was a wonderful ride. Rapid after rapid after rapid with gorgeous scenery throughout. Especially early in the day we passed many, many waterfalls coming into the river from both sides. At one point we stopped at a waterfall and hiked up to where it cascaded into a lovely pool. Most of us went for a swim and sat under the waterfall for a bit. Wow! Here's a picture that Liam forwarded to me.
On a relatively quiet section of river we jumped in and swam beside the boat for a while.
Gradually the river widened out and the rapids diminished. Towards the end we were repeatedly buzzed by a yellow cropduster spraying some type of pesticide on the banana crop in the area. We were done on the river by about 1:30. We pulled over and walked a short distance to another C to C camp. Another lovely spot! My left leg and toes are felling a bit bashed up from 2 days of rafting. Overall, though, I feel much better now than I did yesterday and first thing this morning.
We went for a little walk around the perimeter of the camp. We saw lots of colourful little frogs - mostly red ones, but also two green (almost teal) with big black blotches. Thankfully, no snakes today.
Our toys for tomorrow..............
Another yummy feast for dinner before retiring to my elevated tent for the night.
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