Costa Rica: If you find yourself Whitewater Rafting (part 2)

You thought I was kidding when I said there would be many blogworthy Costa Rican posts up ahead?

Oh, dear.

I wasn't. Not even the slightest bit.

Nor was our rafting guide, Kevin, when he said, "Guys you have to listen to my commands. This river is a dangerous place if you don't." Sure, we understood. But, it seemed that each member of our rafting group felt as if they could man the wild rapids, with no problems at all.

That's what we thought in the beginning!

And, things started out that way. "Left side forward! Right side back!" We caught on quick to Kevin's commands. Then things started to get a bit intense.

And at times, our situation seemed a bit out of control.

I could sense fear within the crew members seated next to me. And the farther we moved down the Pacuare River, the more extreme our Whitewater Rafting adventure became.

This rafting adventure was the one and only thing that we came to Costa Rica having planned. Mr. Marvelous first rafted a river in Montana, then the Nile River--while studying abroad in Africa--and is now determined he's a rapid thrill seeker. So, he signed us up for this National Geographic favorite. I'm glad he did. But there was one moment during our ride that I wasn't. It was right after we entered this section of the river:

That's when we got caught in a swirling rapid, our raft thought about flipping but changed it's mind, Mr. Marvelous went under, and we couldn't find him. Thoughts like, "What the heck are we doing rafting a river with 4 children at home?" And, "Oh my gosh! Help!" And, "Forget all these commands to get us out of this mixer! Where's my husband?"

But after a few minutes, we manuevered ourselves out, moved down river, and found him:

Thank goodness.

It's a good thing everyone in this raft came up too.