Dec. 21st - Rafting Extravaganza!

Carrie wakes up this morning in the best mood she's had this trip, as today is the day she finally gets to go rafting! We enjoy some eggs and toast in our cabin, and then Carrie, Rich, and I take off for our rafting trip booked through a local adventure company. We would be going through some big class 3+ rapids, so Betsy stayed behind to go swimming with Bryce in the pool.

We met up with our guides Pepe and Andres (who was

the most Irish looking Norwegian any of us had ever

seen, and two 20-year old Belgium girls who were the our fellow passengers. On the way there, we finally managed to see our first full-fledged volcano, as the rain finally let up and left us alone for the rest of the day.

After a very pretty drive through the mountains, we arrive at the put-in. They guides hooked us up with a wet suit, splash jacket, helmet, and life jacket. Here we are looking ready and eager for the river. The river itself looked quite big, and after a long safety talk, we walked a quarter mile along the bank to a landing with a nice eddy. After a brief introduction to how to paddle, we take off into the first rapid entitled "Terminator." This was a very long class 3 with huge waves, that segued into "Terminator 2" and then "Terminator 3." Not very imaginatively named, but all in all it was essentially a 2 mile wave train with massive waves but not very many rocks or holes. In other words, it was about 10 minutes of the most fun rafting Carrie or I have had. No real worries, just big waves over and over.

After that couple of miles, Carrie and I switch out of the front of the boat (the front of the boat is like the front of the roller coaster; it is always more fun) to let the other passengers have their turn. We continue to go through very similar class IIIs for another hour or so, and then we finish off with 20 minutes of floating and simply enjoying the view. We finish off with a tasty lunch prepared by our guides, and the head back into town weary but extremely satisfied. In fact, Carrie has proclaimed this "the best day of the trip so far." Dave is uncertain about that, but is definitely in agreement that the rafting is the most fun we`ve had.

Luckily for us, Betsy has dinner waiting for us, so we enjoy another home cooked meal of Mediterranean salad and pasta, and we soon thereafter pass out at the unseemly hour of 10:00 (a record for the trip).