After catching some much needed z's, we got on the bus and departed from San Jose to the countryside for white water rafting and our rainforest tour. There are no interstates here, so it took us a while driving down two-lane highways constantly passing bikers and slow-moving cars to get to our destination. It was also raining pretty hard, which we've come to expect. The rural areas were beautiful. Parts of it reminded me of similar areas back home, but simpler. And with mountains.
By the time we got to the river, the rain had subsided. Rafting was pretty intense. Two girls in my raft and I fell out on about the fifth big rapid. Thankfully no one got hurt, despite the giant rocks hiding underwater. After rafting, we ate an extremely big and tasty lunch. Overall, it was a pretty awesome experience.
After we ate lunch, we went to the rainforest for the chocolate tour. We walked on a very long and very wobbly bridge to get to the forest, and saw some howler monkeys on the way. They weren't too excited or upset to see us, so I think that's a win. After hiking for about 20-30 minutes, we arrived at a pavilion where we watched a presentation on how chocolate is made. Turns out cocoa fruit is pretty gross looking, and does not taste like chocolate until much later in the process. I had no idea how much sugar, milk and other things are put into chocolate. Most "chocolate" we eat is less than 50% chocolate. And eating 100% chocolate isn't too pleasant. You learn something new every day.
After the chocolate tour, we sat through a presentation on how Costa Rica encourages environmental sustainability. They defined sustainability as meeting the current generation's needs while keeping the future generations in mind. AKA, keep people happy now without destroying the environment for our grandchildren. Eco-tourism is the main way they get revenue to do such things, which we are a prime example of. I can only hope the United States and other countries catch onto things like this. Unfortunately, it appears Costa Rica is the exception to the rule at this point. But I'm proud to say that I am participating in their initiative.
Tomorrow, we get to rest a bit longer before we have a full day of lectures. Should be very informative, and I'm looking forward to it.
Buenas noches!
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