Friday, March 23, 2012

From SusanM...

Let's make this clear- I am not an adventurous person. So when I heard our first activity in Coast Rica was rafting, I was less than thrilled. As I put on the life jacket and helmet, my nerves mounted. When I finally stepped into the raft, I was terrified. However, we began on relatively calm water, our guide Taz explained the commands and demonstrated how to implement them. Just as I was feeling better, we approached the first rapid. Even With Ron and Q as the fearless leaders of our raft, I was terrified of the rapid. After what seemed like an eternity of Taz screaming instructions at us, we finally made it over in safety. However, my nerves were far from settled, as I was soon informed that the previous rapid was only a class one, and we would be going over class four rapids before the end of our 18-mile adventure.
The day continued in much of the same fashion, where the "stop" command (don't paddle and just chill on the side of the raft) quickly became "put down my paddle and grab the rope on the side for dear life." my favorite command was "get down," where we jumped inside the raft and rode down the raft in (relative) safety.
Despite these terrifying experiences, we all made it through in safety, and no one in the group even fell into the river! Overall, the day was a success. The best part of the day was not "Extreme Angel" doing a flip off the side of the raft into the river, or the two adorable Costa Rican kids who jumped into our raft near the end of the journey. It was Beau, after lunch, jumping into a pit of mud and proceeding to chase a pig around our camp.
PS: Parents- Please have French fries ready!

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