I'll start the beginning and by the end I predict jaws will have dropped. Michele's response was classic after hearing this adventure story from the past week all she could say was 'Wholly Balls!'
Here it goes..... I was suppose to have a little over a week of whitewater kayaking in beautiful Costa Rica. Instead I had the following adventure. On Friday 11/2 a group of 6 of us all headed to the airport to catch our flight in route to Costa Rica. We had 6 kayaks, 6 dry bags and 1 very confused counter person who wasn't sure to do with all that gear! It went smoothly though as the counter lady eventually accepted that we needed these boats on the plane.
From Denver we stopped in Mexico City, Mexico for a 2 hour layover. I was sitting on the plane while landing with my passport out filling in the immigration/customs forms and when done put my passport back into the travel pouch that held onto my cash, bank card, credit card and my liscense. I locked my backpack best I could and we deboarded the plane. Once we walked through the crowded airport, sat and had a soda in a little cafe, we headed to immigration so we could board our final flight to Costa Rica. I start to go into my backpack while waiting in line and my heart sank. No pouch with my passport or anything else. The whole thing was gone. Panic set in and ran back to the cafe to look and ask if anyone saw it, then I ran back to the gate we exited after deboarding and argued with the policia and airline people trying to get back on to the plane. No one was interested in my urgency, they just shewed me away and said go to this person or that person over there...not a helpful person in the bunch. When I retured to the immigration section I saw two people...and I was so happy to see these two women I can't even tell you. Prior to running back to them I thought to myself 'I'm alone without any documentation to say who I am, in Mexico city one of the most crime infested cities and some of the most corrupt police and government. I'm without any money, very little spanish...OMG!'. So my friend Patty was standing there crying, and Rachel who grew up in Mexico City and speaks fluent spanish was also there trying to find me. We went through hell trying to get in touch with the US Embassy and anything we could think of to fix this. We were told to go to so many places to look for my stuff which lead us to have to be seperated from Rachel who ended up having to leave the aiport security area and not allowed back in. Eventually immigration caught up with me and put me in a temporary holding tank which I was guarded with armed guards and not allowed to leave. Patty ran back and forth to make phone calls to whomever she could, trying to find Rachel and to keep her sanity. Eventually my fate was in the hands of the immigration people, and I was stuck for the night. They let Patty stay with me in the holding tank until 4AM when they kicked her out. I didn't sleep for a second...eyes wide until noon when they escorted me to the very exact place I entered the airport and sat me in my seat on a plane back to Denver. I was the first US citizen to be deported from Mexico!
So, I do everything I need to do to get back to Costa Rica....which didn't happen until Tuesday. I returned after another layover in Mexico city ( I was on the exact same flight and one seat over from my orginal seat). I made it safely into Alajuela, Costa Rica around 11PM, took a taxi to the hotel and had Cacho (hotel owner, kayaker and Costa Rican Hub for this group, plus he was one of he drivers) waiting for me with open arms. He wanted to get me to the others in the group that very same night. So we loaded my kayak and gear into his van and headed out. Cacho was very worried when driving, it was downpouring the entire time, which then creates flash floods, mud slides and many dangers while trying to drive through the mountains and rainforest...int he middle of the night... Our first route was long and windy with lots of rain....every now and then I'd heard Cacho unclip his seat belt...and say 'It's not wise to have your seatbelt if we see mud slides'. So I follow his lead unclip my seat belt and we saw numerous mudslides that happened right before our eyes... we then get to a sharp turn in the road and see a full sized tree along with a mountin of mud which had wiped out the road...there's nothing to do but turn around. We turn around and back track about 1 hour and a half to our starting point. Cacho asks the Red Cross about the conditions on the other route which they said if you go now you might make it. So we're off again following the second route. It was also filled with lots of mudslides but the bigger danger was the roads being flooded and washed out. We saw a entire community being evacuated from their homes....their houses were filled with water up to the roofs, and babies crying, family members from different villages bicycling in to help. It was very sad...very serious! Cacho and I at this point were both clenched and wide awake...seatbelts off ready for whatever might happen. We get to one section of road that had a full stream of water flowing over it...Cacho said we need to go through this fast so we don't get swept away...so he punches it and I can feel the large van being pulled with the flow of water and hearing the engine fight to keep us going forward... We made it and high fived each other ! We came accross a few more villages being evacuated and more sections of road that had water flowing over them. Cacho says we're almost there...and then we see it...a river where the road was! The water was so forceful coming down the mountain and over the road that at the downside of the road was a full sized rapid with whitewater on it. My stomach sank and I look at Cacho, he said we're gunna punch it and he was visiblly worried as was I. We started high on the left hand side and by the time we made it to where we could feel the grip of the road we were on the very edge of the right hand side. Whew...another high five! about a mile down the road was where the group was and at this point it was about 4AM. I see Patty waiting for me and took a sigh of releif that I was finally there. Come to find out in the morning that minutes after Cacho and I made it through that section of water/road a tour bus tried it and failed. They were swept off the road and turned upside down.
Day 2 it was a long day in the van as all the rivers that we were by had flooded and were unrunable. so we headed for the beach on the Carribean side. It was still downpouring...actually the entire trip it didn't stop raning for more than an hour...the entire time! We had a really good time here... I got to surf my kayak in the ocean which was the most fun I'd had in a long time!! I loved it...then a nice dinner, lots of drinks and off to bed. The next morning we got up around 6 AM for a morning hike through the park in the rainforest which was also along the beach of the pinnesula we were on. We saw some monkeys and snakes but most of all we saw the largest mosquitos you'll ever see. We were suppose to hike and then go snorkling which didn't work out. We hiked in a ways so we could be picked up by this very small dingy like fishing boat (think canoe that can hold 14 people (barely) and then put a motor on the back). We were told once we loaded this thing to not move much...there's a good chance we'll capsize. SUPER! We slowly made our way to the tip of the penninsula and got off that death trap of a boat! We then find out that the smaller boat which carried our snorkling gear did capsize...sank the boat and the gear. So we had to hike out without snorkling. It was a long hike and if you didn't walk fast enough you were engulfed in a cloud of mosquites who were eager to bite you. I hit a pack of about 5 all chomping down on my neck and thought to myself as I looked at the smeared puddle of blood on my hand...hmmm I wonder if I just got some rare diseas or malaria... how fun!! We finally got back and I took a 4 hour nap then went back to the beach to surf in my kayak again....so much fun!!
The next day was uneventful...we found some water run that wasn't flooded and got a nice day in our kayaks on the river. It was short but the wave trains were HUGE and it was fun!
Saturday...the last day .... We ran the same river but put in a little higher this time. It wasn't anything we all couldn't do...just a big wave train, no moves to make or anything. A smaller group put in even higher to get in some tougher water. They were going to meet us at the put in in about 30 mins.... an hour and half later they still hadn't shown up....we were all worried and just staring upstream hoping to see them any second now...tick toc tick toc. We had been in our boats...in the water....getting rained on the for the entire time they were gone...too long, we were all cold at this point so nothing good could come of it! They finally arrived and we could all breath again. We found out Dede who is a solid class V boater, very strong, ended up swimming twice. That's not a good sign! She had to hike up a trash heap in barefeet at one point during her swims to get out... GROSS!!!
So we sat and sat until we were realy cold, then all of a sudden we were off... with a bang! I flipped when we got into the wave train and attempted to roll 4 times before I coudln't take the beating anymore...the water was running SO FAST it was so pushy! Then Patty flipped and ejected, then Jeff flipped and ejected... 3 swimmers on class II/III water ... ridiculous! Patty and I went for possibly the worst swim either of us has ever had. I got hit by so many rocks...I bruised my ribs on my left size, almost deflated my left breast, scrapped off a lot of skin from my right hip and butt cheek, my knees were bloody and instantly bruised as well....then the water got shallow again and patty and I both had to let go of our of recue boats that were trying to tow us to the shore to avoid having our arms ripped out of the socket. I found myself feel the bottom of the river which was like gravel there and I could sit down without being pushed by the water.. I was literally in the middle of the river sitting on my butt catching my breath. I look to my left and Jeff is on the banks of the river, safe! I look to my right and at the exact position I was in about 10 feet away from me was Patty. We looked at each other and just kind of giggled out of nervousness and said 'Hey, how's it going for ya'. We sat in shock for about 5 mins...then attempted to make it to the left hand bank of the river. The water started to pick up pace and get deeper and within a second we were again swimming full speed down the river hitting every rock and pour over it had to offer. I see Max, our group leader, with safety ropes so I started to swim as hard as I could to get to him and then I was sucked into a hole...a hole which didn't spit me out right away...but bobbed me up and down, I felt it suck me down deep and I tried to relaxe...i finally found the exit stream and got some air into my lungs, caught onto the resuce rope and stuck my foot out so patty could grab on... we got pulled to the banks and Patty and I both threw up buckets of water. But we were safe. Patty was done and wasn't going to boat anymore. I wanted to finish it so I got back in my boat. We sat on the banks and eagerly waited while the lost paddlers roaming the banks were found and back in their boats. I noticed the water was changing colors...from milky brown to dark chocolatly brown and it was rising fast...so fast you could watch it go up and up and up. We went about a half mile down the river and the guides pull over and said we have to get off the river now... it was a flash flood and we were in some serious danger... come to find out there was a keeper hold not that much farther down the river which would have easily swallowed the entire van we were driving in....not to mention what it would have done to any of us in our kayaks and worse yet if anyone was swimming. So we hiked out with our boats, waited for our ride and tried to keep warm. We finally got to the hotel after we stacked the van 10 boats high, got in a car accident on the freeway and huddled together for warmth. Whew...we're back...finally.
It was late, people were frantically packing their things as just about everyone was leaving the next morning (except for me) and I look down the hallway to see Patty fainting...and Max catching her. We get her back upstairs into her bed and she's twitching and halucinating, her eyes rolling back into her head, when she did speak it sounded like a child...high pitched, scared and weak. The night was long and filled with sounds of retching and convulsing. The morning finally came and Patty tried to get herself together so she could get on her plane...she could barely walk. She fought hard, but failed...and at about 6AM Max and I took Patty to the clinic while the rest of the group was headed for the flights home. She was admitted immediatley and pumped with fluids for sever dehydration and also testing for Dengai Fever. Oh those two days she can barely remember but they are burned in my brain forever... two american women in a foreigh country, receiving medical care with an obvious communication barrier... It was scary....I can say it now ..... I was scared shitless at this point. If it was Dengai she couldn't fly for at least 5 days if not longer... I wasn't going to leave her.. she stayed with me while I was being deported and I couldn't imagine leaving someone in that situation while hallucinating and not knowing where she was...it just wasn't an option. So when the docter came in the next morning and said she was cleared to fly and must see a DR when she gets back home (he pretty much said run while you can get back to your own country), I was so releived. I arranged the next flight I could get for us which was Tuesday afternoon... We made it home safe and compared to the rest of the week it was a piece of cake. Patty was very weak still, but she was a tropper and we pulled in to my house around 12:30. Whew...never been so a happy to be home in my life!!! And this all is the short version of the trip. Just a string of events that alone would be scary but tollerable... all happening in the same week on the same trip is just beyond my comprehension. I woke up this morning and had to think hard on whether or not I dreamt it all :) I did not...As Michele's put it so accurately.... WHOLLY BALLS!!!
I did manage to get a few pictures...which with my luck probably didn't turn out.. But when I have some I'll post them!
