Shipwrecked

It was a four hour drive from selve verde to puntarenas and we began our journey early this morning. Thankfully I slept most of the way, even though Edwin was chattering most of the way!! He had promised he would keep quiet on the long trip! This did not happen. Every time he spoke louder, I turned up the volume on my iPod. I'm sure he was talking about the great biodiversity (we've heard tons of lectures on the topic), but I couldn't have cared at this point.

We got to our new hotel called villa llapas which means "macaw" in Spanish. The macaws are these huge birds that are endangered here in costa rica. This part of the trip was way close to the beach on the pacific side.

Our new digs weren't as nice as as selve verde. After lunch, we got our rooms and had to change for our outriggers adventure. We were going to kayak out into the bay looking for birds and other wildlife. Our room was okay,(it actually had air conditioning in this humid jungle!) but of course as soon as susie went into the bathroom, we found a large spider in our shower!! I turned on the water to flush it down the drain!!

All our clothes are wet from perspiring in the humidity, and I swear nothing dries here!!

We got ready for our adventure and after a short drive, we arrived. We were going to take 2 kayaks because there were 14 of us. We went through the safety instructions an signed our lives away (yet again) and got ready to go. We saw the scarlet macaw as we were walking down to the water. A very big honor...Edwin ordered them just for us!! :)

We went through the paddling lesson and then split into groups. The first guide said "who are all the strong ones?" and you should have seen all of us spring into action!! Me, susie, karla, jake, lesley, angie, and Kelly our leader. That left the other group a little more "experienced" than us.

We took to the water first and had a very successful transition from land to water. It was very pleasant on the water. A little cooler than when we'd been hiking in the rainforest. During outrigging, you have to work to paddle together, which we did with Kelly leading the way.

So our group sort of thought it was a competition to get to the beach, so we didn't want to let the other group catch up to us. I guess the more experienced guide was in their boat and he wanted to take his group in first. We sat out on the open sea looking for birds and sharks and whatever else while they landed. They got everybody onto dry land and then it was our turn!! By the way, did I mention that the waves were about 10 feet high?? Our guide had to gauge how large he thought the wave would be and then tell us to paddle harder.

He finally found something he liked and we started in to the shore. As we got closer to the shore, our guide must have realized that he sorely misjudged the water and he started shouting "Paddle harder!" Now...what does that mean? Faster? Deeper? There was some miscommunication happening. As we approached the shore, the other guides who had already landed were helping us steer it in. The front of the boat where Kelly, Lesley, and I were filled with some water by our feet. What we didn't know was that a huge wave had come up behind us, taking out half our crew while they tried to get the boat on shore. Susie and Karla banged into the seats in front of then, bruising shins. Jake tried to help the guys push in the kayak, only to be knocked down by another wave. Flip-flops and sandals were flying in the water while the guides were frantically trying to get all of us out of the water. We did and then we watched as they tried to get the boat in. It was a sight!! These guys were fighting the ocean and the ocean was winning. We wanted to help, but couldn't do much, and waves kept crashing into the boat. One of the wooden seats went flying and was washed ashore. The whole front of the boat was missing it's top so it was filling with water. At one point the boat flipped over and as the guides tried to push it to shore, it filled with sand, making it even heavier!! Some of the wood cracked as they were pushing it. We lost the outriggers which are there to help the boat balance. Finally, they got it far enough from the water so we could all start bailing water and sand from it. Once we'd bailed enough out, we could push it further inland.

Now that it was inland, the guides went to work to are if it was going to be seaworthy to get us back to Edwin. The guides' boss came to the beach with some kayakers and he discussed with them what was going to happen! In the meantime, we all had some fruit!! They provided us with pineapple and watermelon, perhaps trying to lull us into a sense of calm before telling us that our boat wasn't going to be going back on the water! Should we be rationing out fruit??

It was decided that the first group that landed should take the seaworthy outrigger and go to the closest beach. Then two guides would bring it back for us and we would row ourselves from the deserted beach. They came back and got us and we paddled ourselves to safety; this time the landing went much mrore smoothly and Edwin was there to welcome us!!

It was really funny talking afterward and getting Edwin's side of the story. Edwin is one of the most caring people ever and he wants everyone to have a great time, so we knew that he would freak out when he heard about the dilemma. He said the boss of the outrigging place called him and said, "Dont panic; everyone is fine. We've had a slight problem with one of the outriggers!". Edwin jumped into action, got permission for us to get picked up on a private resort, and get us home to safety!!

Whew! What a day! We returned to the hotel and showered for dinner, sharing all our different perspectives of the catastrophe.