by Ryan Harris
03/04/2009, Playa Dominicalito, Costa Rica

On a calm day we anchored the boat in a small bay. The inhabitants of Gone Native decided to have a pleasant swim to the beach.

As we were leaving Wesley and I saw quite a few good waves, so we decided to retrieve our boogie boards so we could body board. We jumped in with everyone else to swim to shore. We started swimming, we continued swimming, we swam, and we were swimming... WE MADE IT! We didn't notice until we arrived to shore that the swim was almost a quarter mile long.

We all made it past the surf without getting slammed on. We all gathered up at the beach and decided what we would do. Wesley and I decided to stay and play in the waves, while everyone else would go look at the small town that was nearby.

After everybody started going to the town Wesley and I rushed onto the waves. We surfed them in, dodged them, and ran into them for about 30 minutes until my parents came back from town. We both walked to them and asked what they had they had done in the town. They replied that they signed up for some surfing lessons! They continued saying that we would start surfing....now.

We gleefully asked where it started. They took us straight to the instructors, who had two other young adult girls with them, who were also learning how to surf. The two boy instructors let the two girls go on ahead and surf, while we got the "2 hour safety and tips lesson." After they showed us the basic position on a surfboard, which took 2 minutes, they said that we could go and surf. I thought "whoa" that safety lesson took almost 3 minutes! We all suspect that when they saw us playing in the surf unattended they thought we should be spared the safety lesson.

We all started running into the surf with some surfboards that they let us borrow. I saw a wave start crashing and I got into "basic position" and the wave pushed me and I got up!!! I road the wave to the beach and did some basic turns by leaning on one side. After surfing for almost two hours the instructors told us to take our surfboards to the boat and to bring them back the next day.

After swimming on the surfboard back to the boat I thought...surfing was a totally excellent experience.

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by Wesley Harris
02/27/2009, Savegre River, Costa Rica

Our guest and crew, Bill, has been appointed tour director and with some ideas from Dad, they decided on a few, and landed on a white water rafting tour. We signed up and the next day, we showed up and hopped into the company van. All five of us sat into the back, and no sooner did we pick up two more tourists we were off to the river, the wonderful river of Oz (actually, the Savegre river). On the way the guides asked us what we wanted for lunch after our tour. The menu was chicken, beef, or, pork. It all sounded so good it was hard to choose from. We then all decided, and placed our orders.

After another thirty-minute drive, we reached the river. While the guides blew up the rafts (three single rafts, and two group rafts) we were given a small safety lecture. We received our gear and went into groups, then off on the river. Two of the guides got the single rafts, while Dad got the other one. The other guides were with the two groups. We went down the river paddling, turning, zipping around rocks, and having water wars with other rafts.

For a halfway stop, we pulled up our rafts, and proceeded to a waterfall, for a snack and a rest. The guides cut up two pineapples and laid out some cookies. All around, there were frogs everywhere, at least a hundred in our area. Everyone had their snack, and then a guide painted our faces with wet stones. What a look!

After the break, we went back to the rafts and one of the guides asked me if Ryan or I wanted to try out a single raft. I answered first and said that I wanted to. Dad gave up his raft and I put it in the water and got the basics down. I went down a white water set, and did exceptionally well. I really impressed the guides, and I really impressed myself to. Then after a few more sets, I handed it over to Ryan. He did really well too, and after a few more sets, Mom gave a try at it. She used it all the way to the end of our tour, and then we pulled over to deflate the rafts and put them in the van. We also put our gear away, and went in to the car to wait for the ride to the boat.

We had a very exciting time white water rafting, now its time to go surfing! Check out Ryan's story....

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by Wesley Harris
02/21/2009, Isla del Rey, Las Perlas

If you have read from the Captains log, you would know about Chuy and Susan, who gave us some cool places to explore and this is one of their top recommendations. It was an exciting way up a river mouth.

The Gone Native sailed to an anchorage called Isle Cana. Ryan and I set up our dingy and told everyone it was time to come. Bill, our guest, and Mom and Dad hopped in. We then motored over to a small river mouth. We putted along and saw many tropical birds and weird species of trees. We slowly went along, and arrived into a fork in a river. In the distance of one direction, we saw a small waterfall, so we went there to check it out. We approached it slowly and then turned off the engine and pulled it up. We put our anchor out and used it like a grappling hook to keep the dingy in place. We hiked up a little then I felt something on me. It bit me... Hard. Black flies! We got the heck out of there.

Then we went up the other way of the river. We ended up at a little dirt opening where we guessed villagers head up the land to pick fruit. We decided to go and explore. We saw several fallen palm trees, lots of coconuts (of course), lizards, birds, and some weird looking fish. When we had our fun looking around, we got in the dingy and Bill and Dad paddled for a while. It was a lot nicer, and much quieter. We all talked about what we could eat... On a boat you often miss familiar foods. When we were almost out of the river we started the motor again for the rest of the way. I have never hated the motor so much. Now I see how my dad complains sometimes how much noise it makes. Well in the end we got back alive, not eaten by anyone in the jungle and had a great meal of fish that we had caught on our last crossing.

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