Coast to Coast Adventure Race
They're off! Paddling down the Pacuare River....
Jacqueline Windh / 28.02.2006
Judging by my experience at the internet cafe in the little town of Soquirres last night, it may be tough for me to keep things up to date here.... Just because it looks like an internet cafe, and looks like a computer, doesn{t seem to mean that anything will happen.
So, a very quick report from the field while I am in contact. And apologies for unusual punctuation... it seems that this keyboard cannot manage hyphens or colons or a lot of other symbols, so I am restructed to commas and fullstops.
I travelled out to Adventure Racing Costa Rica´s outpost on the Pacuare River yesterday. We had a fine meal, and camped in the middle of a banana plantation, with the sounds of frogs croaking through the night and strange jungle birds waking us up early.
The first section is a paddle down the river to the Atlantic coast, and then northward to the first Transition Area. They will find out when they get there what the next section will be, but since they are on the water, I can tell you now. It will be a bicycle segment heading westward...
So just before 9am we all waded into the Pacuare River. The day is beautiful so far. It is warm and humid, but not outrageously hot.. Although I am sure that will change over the day, it is still early.
After a big group hug,. Teams lined their kayaks up in the river. The start was just beautiful, brightly coloured kayaks lined up in the shallow river (I felt like plunging right under, but was carrying two camers), and the Volcano Turrialba shrouded by mist in the background.
So at the moment teams are paddling downriver. I will meet up with them at the rivermouth, on a boat in the ocean, and will report on progress as soon as I am able to after that.
SleepMonsters
