H 2 the izzO

We went white-water rafting along 18 miles of the Pacuare River today, which was super-fun and absolutely gorgeous! We stopped at a restaurant on top of a mountain for breakfast before reaching the rafting area.. that place would definitely get the best window scenery award if there was one 'cause man, what a view. I should probably just start photo blogging, 'cause my descriptions don't do these places justice. Photos don't really either actually. xD

The sign in front of the super-scenic restaurant - "PDA Prohibited" haha

The bus ride was a bit nauseating, whipping around the mountains and bouncing along the rocky one-way roads; in fact, we did a quick stop at a pharmacy to buy motion sickness pills haha. When we finally go thtere, I randomly formed a team with Yujing, Julie, Benny, and Will - Team Duke/Best Team/PurA VidA. I was really tired by the end 'cause the course lasted a while (almost 4 hours), but the experience was incredible and different from the two other times I'd rafted in America. I think it was just exhilirating rafting and swimming through the canyon of huge cliffs and tropical rainforests, and misty rain clouds making the whole experience even more wet. The wildlife here is so exotic and vibrantly colored too - at the restaurant, Rob, our engineering instructor, found this HUGEE computer mouse Lion King sized multi-coloured beetle and posed with it on his shoulder, and on the river I saw brilliantly blue butterflies, a loud sleek black toucan, and a wild brown horse that was just standing there on the bank stone still, we all thought it was fake until it twitched a bit in response to our obnoxious paddle smacking. Halfway through the course while we were attempting some crazy level 4 rapids, the raft flipped over twice and everyone in the raft fell out! We all survived with minor cuts and bruises and were rescued by another raft close by, thankfully. That experience was a bit terrifying, it happened so fast I didn't even realize I had to stop breathing for a few seconds until I swallowed a bit of water. We were pretty shaky and cautious afterwards, but the rest of the course went well (high five the best team)! Hannah and I went to the supermarket to stock up on Costa Rican snacks and goodies after we got back to San Jose woohoo! I wanted to go check out the night scene with some of the others after dinner, but the rain was making me a bit lazy and Hannah wanted to stay in anyways, so I didn't want to risk walking around alone outside at night. It gets so dark so early here, at only 6PM!