Killerś Central American Travel Log: 4

Sorry for the delay. We have been in some pretty remote places where the internet cafes are so slow it would not even let me log in.
I believe the last time I wrote we were in Tamarindo, since then we have dived two dives in Tamarindo that were okay, but no where near Thailand. The visibility is poor this time of year due to the rainy season, but we did manage to get underwater, so that is always a plus.
We spent a few hard partying nights in Tamarindo with Brian, he was very disappointed that we would go to bed at two am. It seems Brian has been acclimated to the Tamarindo night life that does not stop until five or six.
We woke up Wednesday morning and set out for a grueling drive from the North East corner of Costa Rica to a small surfing town at the very South West corner called Puerto Viejo. It was a ten hour drive that, with an American interstate, should have taken about three hours, but since the major highway through all of Central America is a two lane road used as the primary commercial trucking route, and through a large mountain range, it took ten hours.
We arrived in Puerto Viejo late Wednesday and found a really cheap "cabinas", which usually consists of a few mosquito nets and cots or hammocks, but this one actually had a pseudo room that was screened off from the bugs with, what at first glance, appeared to be beds. Luckily we were so tired from driving all day that we could have slept on the ground, because the beds were not much better.
We awakened the next day and set out to find a better place, which we finally found one with air conditioning, which as a spoiled American is a must. It was a much nicer room, and right across the street from a dive shop.
We managed to get two dives in on the Caribbean side which were pretty good dives, but not great visibility, and considering I am still aching to get some good shots with our new, and expensive, dive camera, I was disappointed that there were not more chances.
We checked out the town of Puerto Viejo, and it has been officially decided that almost every country that touches the Caribbean thinks it is Jamaica. The Bahamas had a large percentage of their population wearing, selling, and promoting all things Rasta, Bob Marley, and marijuana. I think if must be somehow related to the sun and sea combo that is created from the tropical waters in the Caribbean. It is a cool town none the less, and it really is worth checking out if you are wanting a few low key days to relax and get away from the daily grind.
We had to get up at 4 am in order to drive to Turrialba to make a white water rafting trip on Saturday. We arrived just in time to turn around and back track almost a third of the distance we just traveled to put into the river with the guide group. The white water trip was incredible. The views were amazing, the rapids were almost non stop and a perfect mix of class 2,3, and 4 rapids. We had brought the underwater camera along to take some shots, but the camera had not been charged back up after the last diving trip. I am going to blame Bam and Chad for not charging the camera, and since they have no blogs of their own to tell you the truth, it will officially remain their fault. We did get some good shots of the raft trip since the guide group had a guy with a camera speed ahead of us and set up at the rapids to take shots, and for the low price of thirty dollars we could purchase a copy. I think the bulk of Costa Rican economy is supported by financial rape of gringos.
We finished the raft trip, changed clothes, hopped into the Terios and ripped down to San Jose. We will be spending the final few days of our journey here. We fly back on Tuesday. Hopefully, we can not get into too much trouble in two nights, but so far this town seems chock full of trouble.
See you all soon.
Killer