MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY

While in Dominical, we went on a white water rafting tour on the Savegre River. The initial booked tour was for the El Chorro river, but there was record-breaking amount of rain in the weeks prior to our trip, so it was too dangerous to raft. We were told the Savegre River, which is typically a more mild experience, would be faster than normal due to the excess rain. This was not a huge disappointment because none of us had ever rafted before and were worried we bit off more than we could chew with the El Chorro River experience. The drive to the river was through a forest on dirt “roads” and the guide educated us about the local plant and animal life along the way. At one point, they pulled over and the guide carved a shaving off of a tree and brought it to us to taste. Cinnamon bark! I had no idea cinnamon was a tree bark.

After a safety briefing, we all (Mike and I, my mom and step-father, and the 3 other tourists) pile into the two rafts. One raft was larger for the 6 of us and one guide and the second smaller raft was an emergency raft with the more experiences solo tourist and a guide. We started making our way through the wide river and it seemed a bit tame, so Mike turned off his head-band strapped go-pro to conserve battery until we get to the more exciting rapids. Little did he know, those were right around the corner.

As we made our way around the first bend, we headed into our first set of rapids. The guide wanted to make sure we got plenty of excitement and steered us towards the most active area of the rapids. As we topped one wave, we nosedived into what looked like a small whirlpool, which stopped the raft dead in its tracks. With the raft pointing down and the water still rushing behind us, the raft flipped, sending all of us into the rapids. One second, we are laughing and paddling and the next we are gasping for breath as our bodies tumble through the fast-moving river.

The small raft didn’t follow the same course and therefore did not flip. The guide and solo tourist start pulling people up into the raft while the other guide worked on getting the big raft flipped back over. As the final person is dogpiled in, we get maybe 2 deep breaths and the small raft flips on it’s side. This is the point where Mike and my experiences diverge and vary greatly, so each perspective will be included.

I (Jessica) along with my mom and stepdad get caught under the small raft when it flipped. Knowing they need to flip it and I need to make my way from under the raft (while still going through rapids!) I took a huge breath and pushed myself underwater, hitting my foot on the rocks below and losing a shoe. Once I got my head above water I see Mike, one guide, and the other couple floating around the river bend out of sight. Our guide is pulling us up into the small, now right-side-up raft so we can make our way to a small island along the river. My mom, stepdad, the solo tourist, one guide, and I all beach up on the island and take some needed rest. I (one shoe missing) am *slightly* panicking because I had no idea if Mike was safe and how we were going to traverse the rest of this river with one oar. After 10 minutes or so, our guide convinced us that we needed to leave the safety of the island and get back on the river. There was no other way. Thankfully, the next stretch of water around the bend was not as fast and the guide and one oar paddled us to where the rest of the group was safely (yay!) beached on the river’s edge with the large raft and (somehow) 6 oars.

While all of that was going on I (Mike) found myself on a different adventure. After the second boat flipped, I surfaced ahead the pack, and began floating down the river. We’d cleared the worst of rapids, so while the water was moving quickly, it wasn’t too scary. Thankfully, I remembered our earlier training and floated on my back with my feet out in front of me. While floating along, I found myself mostly alone. The first thing I saw wasn’t a raft or a person, but an oar and then a shoe. I swam toward them, but they weren’t right next to each other. With the fast-moving water, I felt I had to make a choice… the shoe or the oar. Well, assuming we ever got back in the boats, I thought we’d need the oar more. So, I made my way to the oar and grabbed it as the shoe floated down the river. I managed to collected another oar or so before eventually spotting one of the guides in the larger raft. He’d flipped the boat upright, collected another couple and then came for me. After handing over my oars and climbing on board, I noticed we had far more oars than people. It was at this point the river rounded another corner and slowed a little. So we steered the raft onto a sandbar, collected ourselves and waited for the other raft and the rest of the group to show up. Up until this point, everything happened so quickly and there was so little I could do, that I’d just focused on myself (and the oars). But now that we were on solid ground I started to become quite worried about the fact I’d not seen my wife, our family or the other members of the group in a little while. The next 5 to 10 minutes were tense while I waited for any sign that everyone else was OK. Eventually the overloaded small raft rounded the corner and I could see the rest of the group was packed onboard. They beached on an adjacent sandbar and I quickly made my way over to check on everyone else. Then my 1-shoed wife gave me a huge hug.

After a rest and catch-up, we piled back in the rafts and made our way down the river, avoiding all the action for a smoother ride. Halfway down, we stopped at a small inlet with a waterfall for a rest. The rest of the tour went along without another hitch, but we all kissed the ground when we got to the end.

As a group, we stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch and shared stories. Mike realized that he never turned his go-pro back on! When he mentioned this, the German couple we toured with mentioned that he had his head go-pro on the whole time and would send us the video, which he so kindly did. Whew!

In Puntarenas, Dominical, we had amazing fish tacos and fried pickles at El Pascado Loco. We followed up with a couple beers at Dominical Sushi.  The patio overlooks the river and makes for a nice view.