Cruising - Restful or Adventurous?

We all take a vacation from time to time. We need to get away from our everyday lives to refresh ourselves. Everyone is different some want to take vacations where relaxing is everything. For others action and adventure is everything. I have done both.I have taken cruises where my shore tours consist of nothing more than a simple walk. Sometimes just to stroll through a port and have lunch or a drink is enough. I purchase a few souvenirs take a few pictures and head back to the ship. In that time on the ship when most everyone is gone ashore. I take advantage of the empty hot tubs and just relax. For my last cruise I spent a lot of time researching shore tours. I had months to wait so I read the cruise lines offerings over and over. Something I had always wanted to do was white water rafting. I had never done it because I could never find anyone to go with me. There it was offered in the cruise lines website for my cruise. The place was Limon, Costa Rica. I kept the idea in my head for a while. then one day I asked my group mates what they thought. To my surprise several people said they were planning to do just that. I decided to book this tour. Finally the day came that we were in Limon, Costa Rica. Off we went to find the bus to take us to the white water tour. I was nervous. What if something happened? Suppose I fell off and hit my head on a rock? All these last minute worries were running rampant through my head. We were taken to the place where we boarded a bus to the river. The bus was a rickety old school bus. The road to the river was steep, bumpy and very narrow. On the way down it looked like we were going to slide off the road and crash on the rocks below. Finally we made it to the river. We got our rafting gear, life jacket, helmet and oar. The guides gave us instructions and we boarded the rafts. We paddled when told to and off we went. we hit the first rapids. Water splashing over us. We were all screaming and laughing. When we got to the bottom of the rapids the water was smoother and we paddled some more. We did this through several rapids. Our guide was very experienced in this and I felt comfortable that he would get us there safely. At the end of every rapid the guide had us raise our oars and clap them together and yell "puta rita", that is what it sounded like to me. It was sort of a white water version fo the "high five". After doing this for a while the rafts all went to the side of the river for a rest period. Back on the river we hit the rapids again and were again all screaming and having fun as we rode down the river. I watched as the raft in front of us disappeared down a narrow passage between high rocks. Our guide was taking us toward the same passage. We missed the passage and bounced off a rock. One of our raft mates went over backward and slid off the raft. He came up and grabbed the rope on the side of the raft. Other raft mates held him. The guide came and got him safely back on the raft. He assured us he was alright. Off we went again into the rapids. We did several more rapids and clapped our oars together yelling "puta rita" after each one. Finally we reached the point in the river where we had to end our adventure. We pulled to the side and got out. We made our way to the bus that was waiting for us on the road above the river. The buss took us back to the place where we could change and dry off. There was a nice lunch of local dishes waiting for us. Black beans and rice and a meat dish and a salad. We could purchase beer and alcoholic beverages if we wanted to. Along the trip down the river the photographer took pictures and we could buy a cd of our trip. Later we were transported back to our ship. Everyone I talked to said that they had a great time. All said they would do it again in a heart beat. I have to agree, it was fun and I really had a good time that day. I have to agree with the others. I would also do this again. I highly reccommend this tour. It was fun and energetic. Definately worth the price.