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Our Boys in Costa Rica (March 1 - March 23, 2006)

March 7th

from Rick Wonneberger, Francisco's dad:
The rafting trip was unbelievable. I have never seen anything soo AWESOME. It was like going back in time. It hasn't changed much at all. Steep dark canyons...you look up and see a Toucan or a blob in a tree and realize that it is a sloth. We even saw some beautiful yellow tailed pigeon-shaped birds. Some of the boys had waterproof cameras so I am hoping to show you some pictures. Francisco and I were in a raft with Dylan, Kashi, Ben, Michael. Our guide was Christina. She is a transplant from Colorado. With seven years of experience. She is known as the Wild Woman on the Rio Pacuare. We called ourselves the "Dream Team". Christina would get bored with the usual approach to the class 3 rapids. So we went down them backwards. We all loved it. On this one set of rapids known as the "Witch's Rock" she had us deliberately hit it broadside so we could do our "High side drill". That is when everyone in the boat jumps to the side that the rock is on so the boat will slide past the rock. Everyone else did their drills in the calm portions of the river, but not us. It was great; everyone did what they were supposed to and we sailed right past the rock. We have seen a few snakes, and held them, when we found out that they were not poisonous. We have seen some Banana spiders that are 4 inches in diameter (including legs), I saw this lizard that was lime green under the body with really wide frog like legs. This guy would jump into the river and run across the surface to the next rock.

It has rained every night; it shouldn't be a surprise but I thought that it was funny...

The boys have been great, and no significant injuries to report or slow anyone down. Tomorrow we get on the class 1 river and start to head to Parismina which is an island with a village and approx. 40 inhabitants. Holly was one of our river guides and she said that when she was there two weeks ago she saw a 7 ft long leatherback turtle laying eggs. I am hoping that we will be as lucky, and yes, I will take pictures.

We won't be near any computers or phones for the next two days. Hopefully Parismina will have something.

From Francisco:
We are currently in Siquerres after eating at a pizza place at the request of some who were tired of Costa Rican food. We just finished our white water rafting section which was a lot of fun (it made me want to learn how to do white water kayaking). Dad, Ken and myself made a really good Pasta Primavera two days ago, with some bell peppers, jalapenos, corn, green beans, and lots of garlic and olive oil. That had to make up for the lack of real cheese as the only kind of sandwich cheese available is "American" cheese (Dos Pinos' Kraft like cheese :p ).

Although I cannot imagine snow, I can imagine lots and lots of rain; last night it rained several inches as well as today. We have over 200 photos so far. I have been needing more food than was available so this evening I went to the bakery and got several loaves of bread (more than 4) for approx. 4 dollars! Tomorrow we leave on a 3 day journey down another river which has crocodiles; then we will make a huge addition to the population of an island where we will spend the next 2 weeks. Getting to town to buy food will be an all day expedition as the ferry leaves at 6 in the morning on a 2 hour ride to shore, then does not go back til' 1500 (3PM).

It was quite amusing that we were not able to go to the Indian villiage as they were in the middle of a family feud so even though they reformed from cannibalism four years ago, the guides felt it was better to not risk an arrow in the back!