Our 2nd adventure we signed up for was the white-water rafting. I knew if I didn't do it here, in the warm waters of Costa Rica, the chances of me doing this in the cold California or Colorado rivers seemed a bit bleak. And it almost didn't happen...
Sean's brother and his 2 friends (Thavery and Mike) who were traveling with us, wanted to leave Arenal two days early and head out to Los Suenos. Sean asked if I thought it was a good idea to stick together and follow them. We discussed it further and both realized this was too big of an activity to pass up since we both were looking forward to this the most. We let them know we were going to stay in Arenal the full 3 nights as oringally planned. But after a phone call to Marriott they learned that there weren't any vacancies. Luckily for everyone, it all worked out.
Bright and early in the morning we all piled into the air conditioned bus (those are rare) for about an hour and a half drive to the Carribean side of Costa Rica.They made us sign a waiver stating we acknowledge the dangers of white water rafting...you know, the typical kinda dangers like: flipping out of your
boat, hitting boulders, branches, serious injury or drowning and death! Haha. Once we arrived to the location, we all hopped outta the bus and for the next 20 minutes they taught us rafting commands such as, forward, back, in, down, high-side right, high-side left...and SWIM FOR YOUR LIFE! Haha, ok that last one I threw in there just to see if you were paying attention, it wasn't really a command. They told us if the boat flips over or someone gets thrown out, its aaaaalllll just a part of the ride and its more than likely this will happen. 
Each group was assigned a guide and headed down to the river and piled into their rafts. There, the guide had us practice all the commands in the calm water to make sure we all knew them. Once he felt comfortable that we all knew each of the commands, we headed out. Our guide, Yonni, let us know that the beginning was going to be rough and we had to pay attention and follow his commands. 
Yonni told us in Costa Rica they have a saying, PURA VIDA! It means "full of life" or "this is life". He said we would all raise our oars and touch them together and yell "PURA VIDA" everytime we go down a fall and no one gets thrown out.
The 18 mile ride was exciting and fun and we were all laughing and having a good time, until...the raft started to lift on Sean's side until we were completely vertical and one by one we were all thrown out and the raft flipped over. I thought, no big deal, just hop on top of the raft, right? Wrong. The fast flowing waters had us flying down the river. Sean and I popped out of the water near each other so he grabbed my vest and held my head above the water, but we must have hit a "hole" because we were both briskly sucked under water. What was going through my mind? Lots of things, all at once.
I remembered they said keep your head back and your feet up and so, where I could, I did. We headed toward boulders and down small falls and our bodies scraped every rock in the river, but we were protected by our helmets and life vests.
Eventually the river slowed down a bit and it gave me time to check how deep the water was by putting my foot down. Thankfully the water was about knee high so I stood up and fought the water upstream to catch an oncoming raft. As the raft got closer, I made a jump for it and slightly missed. Half hanging on, the others in the boat pulled me in. It was at that second, I remembered, Thavery, she doesn't know how to swim. I started to ask the people on the boat, and then I saw her...in the front part of the same boat that I was in. 
The river slowed and everyone paddled to shore. We got out to catch our breaths and meet up with the rest of our group that had been tossed out of the boat. Sean came straight towards me and said, "I tried to keep you up, but we got sucked under and I didn't know if you made it ok". I think we were all in shock because it all seemed so surreal. We walked over to Thavery who was being assisted with first aid. She got the worst out of the 5 of us. Her knees and legs were badly bruised and bleeding, but even more than that, the fall shot her confidence and we were only 1/2 done with the ride. Reluctantly, she climbed back in the boat as we were told by the guide there was no other way back. 
We weren't out of the
guide isn't yelling "high-side right or left" commands, instinctively Sean, myself, Thav and Mike now knew what to do. (If you notice the pic to the left where all of us but Sean's brother lean or jump to the left to keep that side of the boat down)The boat didn't flip again, although we came close a couple of times as we got stuck on some of the bigger rocks sticking out of the water. The guide had to get out of the boat several times, balance himself on the rocks and push and pull our boat off the rocks. One of the times we were stuck on top of a rock, all three of the guys had to get out of the boat and help the guide unstick
the raft, leaving Thavery and I inside by ourselves. I was hoping when they got us loose, that all 4 of them jumped back in the boat in time.About 45 minutes later all 4 boats pulled over on the rocks, got out to stretch and refuel on some pineapple and watermelon the crew had cut up for us. We had about 30 more minutes to go and by the time we were finished snacking it hit me, I was exhausted. We all climbed back in hoping for calmer waters and before we knew it, our ride was over. I was relieved and
bummed at the same time that it was over. I wanted to jump up and down and celebrate our exciting ride, but I couldn't...not in good conscience. Just knowing that one of us was badly beaten and frightened, I would not celebrate in her presence. To do so would be extremely inconsiderate of me.Thankfully, we all made it back in one piece and can proudly say we survived Costa Rica's roaring rapids, and to that I say, PURA VIDA!!
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