Locos!

This past weekend was a great diversity of adventure. On Saturday we had to venture into Cartago to find an ATM that would let us access our money (mucho importante!). The ¨big¨ city was interesting, lots of stores...but not like in the U.S. There were people everywhere, it was a little chaotic. I got a Tico Futbol shirt to adorn during the rest of the Cup. We couldn´t for the life of us find a restaurant, so back to little Orosi where you can see your options standing in one spot :) That night some new hostelers arrived...these were 2 boys from Belgium. They were very nice and joined us for dinner. Its been so interesting to hear about peoples lives who take so much time off to travel. One guy had been away since January and is thinking of moving to Argentina now. We quickly learned that speaking politics to Europeans is not a good idea-bottom line-they hate Americans. We attempted to calm their emotions and explain some things but in the end there´s no use. They were very amiable despite their views of our country; the learning experiences never cease here.

Sunday we took a 2 hour bus ride to Turrialba-the unofficial white water capitol of Costa Rica! We were set to run the Pacuare with Locos Tours! We have been so excited about this trip-the Pacuare is the most talked about River in Costa Rica...and now we know why! In our raft were 6 people and a definitely Loco Guide! The river has NO buildings, homes, etc built up on it. The whole time we were rafting through a virgin canyon, it was breathtaking! We dropped 1,000 feet during our 4 hour trip down the river...meaning the rapids were flowing! Brian received the honor of the front seat (because of his strength) and I was assigned the back of the boat (because of my weight, or lack there of). Brian would hit the rapids head on and receive a wall of water in the face! We all got soaked but luckily no one went over board! Our guide was great, he would take the ¨hard line¨on the rapids so we could get the extra exciting part. We are soooo sore today though! Our bodies got knocked around and of course the paddling was strenuous. We loved every minute of it though and we really want to find the money to run another one of the great rivers of Costa Rica!