Day 12

This day we drove from the Pacific coast, across the central ridge of volcanos, back to the Caribbean side of the country. For this we passed through San José again and I was just impressed with our driver. Due to the late realization of officials that growth of a city needs to be accompanied by some planning, the city has mostly grown organically and an efficient road network is lacking. So this city of one-million consists of many winding one-way streets that crisscross through the city and I guess that signs are just considered to be overrated here. I completely lost track of direction, but given that we made it through the city relatively quickly, I assume that Chavo took us straight (or at least straightest possible) through. Either that or he drove around in some circles and the city is in fact a whole lot smaller than Dirk suggested.
Chavos skills got us to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui on time for our rafting tour. Yay! Tonnie was also still intent on joining. Just to be safe (and a little bit much for his own pleasure) Dirk decided to join as well, although he made sure to stress that the stretch of river we were taking was safe enough for all of us. As he mentioned a couple of times, he had done this about 10 times before and nobody had ever fallen out of the raft and he wanted to keep it that way (words to live by!). After the safety instructions we left in two rafts. I was in a raft with Tonnie right next to me, Dirk was in front of me and the guide behind us. At first we were all a bit worried about Tonnie. The first few rapids I would grab her a couple of times as I was afraid that given her weight she might get catapulted straight out of the boat. Also the guide told her a couple of times to get in the boat (as opposed to sitting on the side) as a precaution, but she did not like that a bit and she did not have to anymore after a while, as she was doing fine. As a matter of fact, she thought that it could have been a bit rougher and I have to agree. Some of these rapids looked pretty impressive on our approach (and whenever Tonnie was asked to get into the boat, I made sure to slide down a bit as well, just to be sure), but because the size of the raft is much bigger than those waves were, and because the bottom needs to be tough enough to deal with the parts were we were rasping (on the stones) instead of rafting, the actual experience gets dampened quite a bit, so I (being much less gutsy and thrill-seeking than Tonnie) could also have handled more than level II / III rafting.
We started with sunshine and it was amazing going through the jungle like that. Then rain approached us and we were going straight towards two rainbows arching over the river. It’s impossible to describe the combination of sun, rain, and colors, but it was spectacular (and fun). By that time we had all gotten quite comfortable in that raft and Dirk was just talking and talking to our guide in the back of the raft. And then when we were taking on a very small rapid I saw him fall over the side of the raft in slow-motion. We managed to get him back on board quickly (as the rivers was really quite calm there), but you can imagine that some of us seized this event for an endless stream of comments and jokes on his account for a couple of days. I mean, don’t say you cannot remember the last time you fell out of a raft, because then I’m obliged to remind you that it just happened 10 minutes ago. Also, Dirk would usually get off the bus first to hold the hand of those needed help getting off and after this event it seemed smart to change that policy. So I made sure to get off before him so he would have a hand to get off safely. It seemed only fair for me to do this, as by that time I had gained the reputation of assistant guide. I’m still not quite sure when and why it happened exactly, but at some point Dirk decided that I would be quite suitable for this job. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that both of us spend at least part of our professional life talking to people who are sleeping or just generally interested in anything except in what we have to say. Or it was because Dirk thought I communicated so well with various different people (Really?!? You’d think someone with his job is a better judge of character – sure, I was on my best behavior and being the only one in the group travelling alone, I had to be a bit socially promiscuous, but that still does not mean that I can be accused of having good people-skills). Maybe it was because I could also manage to get heard in the back of the bus sitting in the front without microphone. Or maybe Dirk considered himself to have great potential for modeling work as well and figured that that made our jobs pretty much interchangeable. Either way, the group seemed to agree with Dirk, but I was and am still not convinced. If this whole modeling thing goes south, I don’t think being a guide to tourists is what I would or should do. Still I figured I could help out occasionally. You know… when I was in the mood.