Broken Ribs...One Guide Down

Last week was training week for the new guides. Marcus, Zach, and I loaded up the cruiser and headed out with our new driver Alfredo. It was great to get out on the river and remember why I decided to do all this stuff in the first place. Water conditions were really high that day, but we weren't worried with 3 experienced guides and no paying customers to worry about. Things were going really well, we ran Come Gringo (Gringo Eater, pic on left) a class IV rapid right through the sketchiest part and came out with no problems. Then we got to Upper Rio Blanco another class IV rapid. The first wave we hit stopped us in our tracks and we barely got through it, but the next one was even bigger and we just didn't have the momentum to get through it, our raft dump trucked us. A dump truck is when a raft flips up and throws everyone out but the raft doesn't flip over. By the time I got back to the raft and located the other two guys, I could hear Zach groaning pretty loud. He had hit a rock on his side pretty hard in the middle of the rapid. He took it easy for a day, went surfing, said he felt ok, so we hit the river again on Friday. Once he started paddling he started the groaning again, it was obvious to us all that it wasn't just some bruise, he had cracked a rib or two, he couldn't even paddle, let alone breathe without serious pain. He flew out today. We decided to change the name of the Upper Rio Blanco rapid to Bodi Safa. You guys remember the movie Point Break with Patrick Swayze, it's terrible but it's a must see. We had nicknamed Zach Bodi, so we thought it would be a good tribute to him. We had to take this pic from a rock cause there was nobody there to take it, so it's not that great, but we had to document the Pure Life Expeditions virgin run, I hope the rest go much smoother! Marcus on the left, Bodi in the back, and me on the right.

0-11

O-11, I changed my passport this year and I guess I need to register that with the country, you think my attorney would've mentioned that 2 months ago when we were going over all this stuff.....

0-10

Seriously, 0 for 10 on attempts to open a bank account. Tomorrow is my day, I can feel it!

New Compadres

Wow, more has happened in the last 4 days to even begin to tell, it has been interesting to say the least. I have two guys who came down to help me out for a few months. Marcus and Zach are long time guides from Moab and Idaho who found me through people I used to work with down there. Their getting in touch with me has been most helpful and it's great to have helping hands with the madness. So my one bedroom bungalow landlord lady said, "NO WAY" leaving us high and dry and on the streets, however, Kaisha a friend of mine down here from Canada swooped in with the rescue. She has another friend named Tina who owns a beautiful ocean view condo and Tina is not there for a week and half. So we went from sleeping in the back of my truck to ocean views from our beds, and cable TV. I don't know how, but I convinced another lady to rent us her basement apartment, she said, "No Way" to the 3 guys in her place too, but somewhere in our conversation she changed her mind and I have no idea why! Once again where doors are closing others are opening, I am so thankful for the support of great friends here and there, I am truly never alone.

I went to church at my new branch today....where to start.....can't even go there, let's just say that in Elders Quorum today I felt like I was in an episode of "The Office" sitting in one of Michael Scott's crazy spur of the moment meetings.

More pics coming soon....

O-5

I went to the bank to make a deposit into my new bank account and apparently they made some sort of a mistake and I have to re-open an account all over again. If your just catching up on the bank saga, I have tried now 4 times to open an account and thought I was finally succesful but apparently 5 failed right at the final buzzer. I will win, I don't know how, but I am gonna give these people my business if it's the last thing I do.

Just got back from Utah for a week, went home to take care of some things and hang with an awesome girl I met a few months ago named Kim. We had a blast and it was a nice break from the craziness that I have been dealing with here. I am also glad I got to catch some conference and a week of the fall season.

My flight home was crazy, we could not land in Costa Rica so I ended up in Panama at 4 AM, they did take good care of us with hotels and such. I got sick on the flight down, fever, aches, and chills + delayed flights and traveling = perfect storm. When I got to CR I found out that the two guys flying in to work for me were nowhere to be found and they were supposed to arrive a day before me. We finally got in touch with each other that night, I am getting better, and everything is moving forward with or without a bank account. So I am hopefully moving to Dominical once and for all tomorrow. I called my landlady today to tell her that I would be moving in with two other guys and needless to say she was not pleased, 3 guys in a one bedroom bungalow....what landlord wouldn't want that? I told her we would be super clean and that she could kick us out if she wasn't happy...this could get interesting fast.

I hope I don't sound like I am complaing, cause I am having an absolute blast here and I know this is what starting a business is all about. However, maybe someday it would be nice to write something like "everything is going as planned and nothing new here".....someday.

ps- The road to Dominical is closed for two weeks because of landslides from heavy rains, now I have to take the long way (5 hours driving as opposed to 3).....touche!

Going with the flow

So yesterday I had my cruiser all packed up, ready to make my official move to Dominical when the power went out in the house, no big deal right? Well, the property is enclosed by a giant red gate that only opens and closes by electricity, brilliant! So instead of flying over a mountain road mach 10 with my hair on fire to my new place, I was stuck in this house with no way of getting out, no internet and a million things needing to get done. I had only one day to head down there and get moved in because I will be traveling all next week, pushing things another week back, so that puts me about 3 weeks behind planned schedule now. So what do you do? Fortunately and unfortunately this is what living is Costa Rica is all about. It can drive you crazy if you let it, and some days it does. I have gone to the open an account at the bank 4 times now, everytime I go they tell me I need something else. As frustrating as all of these inconveniences can get, I am thankful for them. They help me remember it's really just small stuff at the end of the day. I actually really enjoyed my afternoon and evening, I wrote in my journal, played my guitar, and took a nap in the hammock on the back patio. I don't know when I will get another afternoon like that again. Ole!