Travelling Free

Hi again fans and friends,

After finishing my lab and statistics work at La Selva and Laguna Del Lagarto, I was able to reap the reward of 10 days to travel freely. I first headed back to the Rio Sarapiqui valley, just up river from La Selva. I ended up staying with some raft guides I had met on the bus to Peurto Viejo a month previously. Being a fellow raft guide, they invited me in like a brother. I was fortunate enough to get a free trip down the class IV section of the river and was invited to a house party afterwards. All I can say is; in my experience, raft guides are the same wherever you go. A few days later, I was able to coordinate a discounted trip down the Pacuare River (see previous posts) through some of my raftguide friends. The Pacuare is rated in the top five river trips in the world, and justifiably so. It runs through one of the largest preserves in Costa Rica flush with tropical flowers and butterflies, down raging rapids, and past towering waterfalls. It was heavenly. From there, I took a bus to the other Peurto Viejo, a surf town on the south carribean coast near Panama. My days were filled with surfing on the famous wave "Salsa Brava," bicycle rides down the coast, and lounging on the beach at sunset. As nice as conditions were, I got itchy feet with only a few days left to travel. I decided to head over to the Pacific side and check out the culture and surf conditions on the southern Nicoya peninsula. The beach town Monteczuma was a quirky ex-pat hippie town that kinda reminded me of Sedona, Arizona. Mal Pais and Santa Theresa and the west side of the peninsula had consistent, powerful waves and all night beach parties. Here is where I awoke on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 14th. Not knowing that monday was Costa Rica's equivelent of July 4th, I had planned on taking a bus, ferry ride, and another bus back to the San Jose airport in order to catch my 4am flight much later that night. I got side tracked at a bar next to the bus stop watching the nfl opener and thus didn't notice that no busses had gone past. Around three o'clock I began enquiring about the typical arrival time of the last bus when I was informed that they had cancelled bus service on Sunday due to Monday being independence day. At that, I took off down the with my overstuffed backpack and an outstreched thumb. After numerous rides in the back of trucks, with and assortment of farm animals, being driven at full speed over bumpy roads by patriots celebrating early, I made the last ferry to the mainland. Another long, sketchy bus ride and I was at the airport and on my way back to the states. Once I got back, I was home for about 4 days and then off to Idaho for a two week raft trip down the middle fork of the Salmon River. I was somewhat obligated to go as it was the end of the season trip for Olympic Raft and Kayak, the company I guide for. Once I got back from that trip, I was a week behind and crunched for work although I doubt I'll ever regret taking the trip. My REU work for this fall is data collection from the NASA forcasting model weather stations, completing a carbon footprint for Peninsula College, and working on a paper for the Western Snow Conference.