Rafting and crafting

What an awesome weekend. After I wrote the previous post, I read about the Pacuare River, where we were going to go rafting, and my guidebook said it's one of the best in the world, for the combination of great rapids and gorgeous views of jungle and canyons. And they were absolutely right. The rafting was definitely the wildest I've done, although it's not THAT much crazier than the Deschutes, in Oregon. The canyon was marred by a couple adventure resorts early on, but after that it was beautiful. I also read that Ticos in the area have done a lot of lobbying to keep the river as pristine as possible, fighting off a possible dam (Costa Rica gets the large majority of it's energy from hydroelectric dams), and getting (one of?) the first designations as a protected wild river in Central America. Well, it was worth it, and I may actually return this coming weekend, since Hart didn't get to go. Her arm got crushed in a collision during pickup last Thursday, so she stayed away from paddling-related activities.

Speaking of pickup, I played with those people again last night, and it was equally awesome. There only around twenty players this time, so I got a lot more playing time, and had a lot of fun.

And continuing the story of last weekend, on Sunday I went to a great festival spread out among four parks in downtown San Jose, called Transitarte (like Transit and arte). There were tons of musical performances, from an a cappela group to latin jazz to a fantastic celtic rock group. There were also a lot of street performers, art installations, over a hundred people selling arts and crafts, and other cool stuff. It's one of the city's big festivals of the summer (otherwise known as the dry season), and it's proof to show the people who say that San Jose is a boring city. Unfortunately, I can't figure out where all these really cool performers go after the festival, or where they were before. But they're around?

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to go to the Jazz Cafe, one of the premier live music venues in San Jose, for their live jazz night. Every night of the week is different, although I'm not sure what the other nights are. And there are a bunch of restaurants I want to go to before leaving. I feel like I'm packing in as much culture as possible before we leave city for more biological stations and jungles. So much to do!