18 May 2015

After leaving San José we traveled down to Dominical, Costa Rica. As soon as we drove into the town there was an amazing environment of a surfing town. Every person was extremely laid back and going with the motion. No one was in a hurry to do anything other than hitting the waves. Once we got off the bus we all headed towards the beach to get food. As we looked around, we were amazed because there was the most wonderful market right in front of us.

There was a great amount of time spent at the market. Throughout the time we stayed there we had a pool and a much needed hangout area. On the second day we did a thirty minute walking tour plus zip lining. We all had to get strapped in and sent off with a leader and a catcher. There was a total of eight different zip lines that lasted an average of 15-18 seconds of air time; while zip lining it did not seem that long because we were all admiring the beauty around us.

The last day we packed up and went white water rafting. As we got there we were split up into four different boats. In those boats there was one leader and five to six of us sitting in the boat. After the rafting was over we ate fruit and cookies and then made our way to the next location.

Rafting experience:

My instructor had us sit and practice our instructions and once we were done he decided to splash all of us. We started our way down the water and we went over our first rapid. The instructor yelled out LEFT, we all leaned to the left but then Rachel S and I figured out he was trying to tip us all over so we backed off while Morgan, Matt, and Elisa fell into the water. The whole time our instructor was splashing me and stating there was a large fish jumping in the water and at one point he slapped his paddle on the top of the water and told us it was a small crocodile. As the trip went on we all started to sing songs. Then the instructor told us about how he and four more instructors were leaving soon to go compete in the preliminaries for the world white water rafting competition. Their group had taken I believe third in Brazil in the last world competition. This personally reassured me that we were with a professional that knew what he was doing. -Becca

That was the first time I have ever been white water rafting, and I did not know what to expect. My instructor’s name was JJ, and he did not realize that we were all first timers, so he was a little rough. As we went along he decided to flip us because that is something they do along the ride; all of us fell in. We got around another corner and we all flipped into rocks. After falling into the water I found out there are many rocks in the river because of the amount of bruises I have on my body. But that moment made me laugh the hardest I ever have in my life. Overall a great experience and would do it again. -Aislinn