John Sawyer and Huckleberry mann

One or two days a week I take the bus to Palmar Norte, (my closest “big” town) to make copies for class.  I love staring out the window at the the river, which runs parallel to the highway.  I’m always amazed at how beautiful it is. One day while riding home I had great idea; build a log raft, and float down the river from Rey Curre (my friend Jeremy Mann’s Town) to Vegel (my town).  The Rio Terreba, the largest river in central america, flows directly behind my house. It starts high in the mountains of Costa Rica, wines through the jungle, passes through Rey Curre, then through El Vergel, until it finally empties itself into the Pacific Ocean.     I thought the trip would be an awesome experience, just like Tom Sayer and Huckleberry Finn.  I presented the idea to Jeremy who said he would defiantly be interested.  

When we told our host families about what we wanted to do they thought we were absolutely crazy.  They advised us that it probably wasn’t the best idea, but wouldn’t stop us if we really wanted to do it.  We were known as Los teachers locos for days prior to our launch.  As far as we knew we were the only people to ever attempt something like this, so had no idea what to expect.  We didn’t know if the raft would hold up in the rapids, if we were going to be eaten by crocodiles, or if It was even possible to make it the whole 15 kilometers in two days.  

  

The plan was to start early Saturday morning, raft all day until about 2 or 3 in the aft

ernoon, stop and set up camp for the night, then wake up early the next morning and finish rafting whatever river was left.  

The morning of our departure we woke up at 5, allowing enough time to make a few last minute preparations before our planed launch time at 6:15.  Jeremy’s Neighbor was nice enough to drive us and the raft down to the river. We unloaded our things, he wished us luck, and then left.  We laid out our supplies on the beach and took inventory.  

1 balsa wood raft, 2 avocados, 2 coconuts, 15 small mangos, 1 swiss army knife, 1 machete, 2 cameras, 1 mosquito net, some fishing line and bait, 2 hooks, 2 head flashlights, 1 bottle of bug spray, 1 bottle of sunscreen, water, and 1 harmonica    

We were ready... or at least we hoped we were.

We knew that there were two solid rapids 

just around the corner from our launching point.  These would prove be our first true test.  The raft would either hold up and we would make it through safely, or it would be smashed into a million pieces prematurely ending our trip.  

We launched the raft shortly after 6am.  Neither Jeremy nor I having had any prior rafting experience figured it was probably best to gain speed as we could before heading into the rapids. Using scraps of wood as oars, we paddled like crazy toward toward the rough water.  We were relieved to find that we flew through them with ease.  Elated with how well the raft held up, we cheered out with screams of joy.  However we weren’t out of the woods yet, we knew there was a HUGE rapid a few more minutes down the river in a town called Las Vegas. 

The river was calm between the first set of rapids and Las Vegas.  So we sat back and enjoying sights and sounds of the jungle.  We were blown away at how captivating and peaceful it was.  We looked on as a countless number of birds flew above, Iguanas and squirrels scurried up trees, and fish swam around below us.  We couldn't believe how well the trip was going so far and we kept talking about what a great idea it was to do it. Our bliss was short lived however, when Jeremy spotted 20 yards up ahead a rope stretched out across the river  The rope had been placed there by fishermen and had fishing lines attached every ten feet or so.   Upon closer examination, we noticed that one of the lines had a fish attached to it.  

The next thing we know, a huge crocodile emerges from the water only 15 feet from us and bites the fish in half.   Then another crocodile emerges and tries to steal the fish out of the first crocodiles mouth.  At this point we are freaking out.  We were stuck in the middle of a river at feeding time, while two crocodiles were fighting over a fish only a few feet away.   Jeremy quickly grabbed the machete and I pick up a piece of wood ready to fight them off just in case they got too close.   Luckily, as we drifted by they hardly noticed us, they were more concerned with keeping their breakfast, then they were the two dumb gringos floating by whom had just wet their pants.  

We paddled away from them as quickly as we could, rounded a bend, and then resized we had arrived at the huge rapid in Las Vegas.  We pulled the raft to the side to see if it was even possible to float down it.  After talking it over for a few minutes we agreed it was probably best not to test our good luck and decided to carry the raft around the rapid.  We walked back to the raft, shared a mango and some water, then started to carry the ra

ft.  The raft, after soaking in the river for a few hours now weighed almost twice what it had before.  Realizing that it was much too heavy and we weren't going to be able to carry it, we put the raft down and dragged it across the rocks. It turned out to be much harder than we anticipated, we were only able to move it a few inches at a time.  One hour later we had finally made it other side of the rapid.  Sweaty, tired, and hungry we decided it was time to eat breakfast.  

Over breakfast we talked about our expectations for the rest of the trip.  We had crossed two rapids, fought off crocodiles, and carried the raft a few hundred yards, all before 10am.  We felt confident we could take on any challenge the river could present us for the rest of the way.    

We spent the next few hours navigating rapids, fishing, cliff jumping, taking turns on the harmonica, and relaxing.  It was awesome.  At around 2 o'clock we decided we should start looking for a good place to camp, however at about the same time the wind came up.  The wind blew hard right in our faces. So hard that it pushed us up river.  We had to paddle with all our strength just to make forward progress.  We would have stopped and set up camp but the area we were in looked a little bit too crocodile-friendly.  So we trudged on into the wind until our arms were tired and we could no longer paddle.  We found pretty good spot to camp, so we stopped and unloaded the raft.  I was so tired I could hardly move. After setting up a shelter and making a fire I laid down on a log and fell asleep.  When I woke up I found Jeremy next to the fire preparing our dinner.  That afternoon we ate the fish, coconuts, and mangos.  It was delicious. 

However our dinner was interrupted when a herd of bulls decided to walk into our camp.  We spent thirty minutes trying to shoo them away with no success.  Luckily a man came walking over to corral the bulls back into their pen.  Once the bulls gone, we talked with the man for a few minutes. We found out that the bulls belonged to him and that he lived just up the road with his family.  He was very nice and didn't seem to mind that we were camping on his property, especially when he found out that I was his kids English teacher.   Having no idea where we were, we asked him how far it was to El Vergel.  He told us were we in Guasimo, which is the next town over from Vergel, and only a 15 min trip down the river.  Jeremy and I, having been on the river all day, were exhausted, sunburned, and hungry.  We both thought to ourselves that we would defiantly be a lot more comfortable if we just sailed the last bit of river to my house however we never talked about it.  

At around six o'clock, just as the sun was gong down, Jeremy walked into our shelter to find it teeming with spiders.  He told me that there was no way he was going to sleep in there and asked if I wanted to raft the fifteen minutes to vergel.  I said yes.   So we packed up camp, loaded the raft, put on our head lamps, and started paddling to Vergel.  I knew that sunrise and sunset are the the most common times to see crocodiles, because this is when they come out to feed.  I could tell from the frantic  way that Jeremy was paddling that he knew this too.  

Within two minutes of entering the water, the batteries in Jeremy’s head light die.  The sun has already set and it was almost completely dark.  At this point we are more than a little bit nervous.   We paddled as hard as we could for a few more minutes trying the best we could to keep our eyes out for crocodiles. Then, we heard a sound down river we were both wishing we weren't going hear, a rapid.  At this point we were really freaking out. We were paddling, completely blind, down a river filled with crocodiles, and now there is rapid up ahead we can’t see. We couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous situation we had got our selves into.    What the HELL were we doing?  

Luckily, within a few seconds of hearing the rapid our raft ran aground.  We used the flashlight to look around.  We realized that we had ran into a huge island in the middle of the river and that there was a rapid just ahead that was much too big to float down.   Ahwww crap!! Now we were really in trouble. We were stuck and weren't going to be able to raft anymore at night.  We didn’t know what to do.  Should we ditch the raft on the island, walk across the river, and climb our way through the jungle up to the road?  Or, stay where we were and spend then night on the island.  Both scenarios had the risk of crocodiles, but we decided it was probably best to say on the island.  

It was only seven o’clock when we curled up for the night inside of Jeremy’s mosquito net, the sun doesn’t come up until after five. We had ten hours to kill before we were going to be able to raft again.  I was so tired to even think about crocodiles or mosquitos, I fell asleep almost immediately.  I think I had the best night sleep I could have possibly had considering where I was, I only woke up a few times during the night.

We woke up the next morning just before sunrise, packed up the raft, and started paddling down toward my house.  It only took us twenty minutes to get to El Vergel.    

The trip was defiantly not one of the smartest things we had ever done, but it was an adventure and a lot of fun. And having adventures is defiantly one of the reasons we came to Costa Rica.