Amazing Vacations Goes the Extra Mile
Costa Rica is a rainforest. While that brings much that we love – green jungle with lush vegetation and incredible animals, it also brings with it a lot of rain.
When our family traveled down to Costa Rica with some friends, we happened to come on a week where there was a lot of rain. Usually rain doesn’t bother us. It’s a warm rain, and rarely makes it hard for us to do an activity. But this day – there was more than usual.
We had enjoyed a day on the river. It was raining, but that didn’t deter our fun. As we were leaving the river we noticed that the water was rising quickly. We headed back towards our hotel and as we would cross a bridge over the river, our guides would get out to check the bridges – the water was rising so quickly and there was concern about the bridges being washed out.
About 15 minutes before arriving to the hotel we started getting reports that the town we were staying in was flooding and authorities were worried about the safety of the buildings near the river. Our hotel was about 75 yards (69 m) from the river! Reports kept coming in via Facebook that the hotel was shaking like there was an earthquake from all the boulders rolling down the river. The river was eroding the land up to our hotel.
We sat for about an hour in standstill traffic and learned the roads were closed and only accessible by foot. Our guides went to work and rerouted us to a different hotel were we were safe and they had room for us. We all had a pretty good attitude and we even had some fun at this new hotel. We were grateful to have some place safe to stay, but we were a little uncomfortable. Some of us only had our swimming suits. We had none of our luggage. None of our toiletries. Everything was back at the first hotel.
However, none of this lasted for long because in came the team from Amazing Vacations. They had risked heading to our hotel and grabbing as much of our luggage as they could see before it was damaged by water or swept away. (Our hotel ended up standing and is still one of our favorite places). Some of our luggage was wet – but we had it! They had risked their safety to help us be comfortable!
We were so touched and cheered by this extra mile by the team and were so happy to be able to shower and change. Then the rainy fun began as we played games and enjoyed each other’s company. But the guides extra mile didn’t stop there!
We were trying to figure out options as this rainy storm was affecting our plans. It was obvious we wouldn’t be able to raft into Jungle Camp. The rains were continuing, the roads were closed. People had died and there was little food and water in the area. Our plans were completely stopped.
As we were discussing this and dealing with the stress and chaos and worry, in walked Walter, the head guide with a pie! The pie was a special treat we had planned for the Jungle ‘camp that we were supposed to stay at that night. Walter had made the effort to get our pie and bring it to us with all the chaos going on.
Our guides were able to get us to help volunteer with some aid and clean up as well as serve those in shelters. As we were doing all of this, we learned that we could no longer stay in the hotel we were currently in. Our guides were still on our team and came to our rescue finding an open road that could take us out of the area into a safer section of the country.
They got us a place to stay for our large group and while flooding continued in the areas we had planned to visit. Instead of being a burden or adding to the crisis, we were able to see waterfalls and go sea kayaking and enjoy the rest of our trip in safety.
We have been so touched by the extra effort they took to take care of us when our plans had to be changed and how they made what could have been a miserable trip ending situation into something that our family remembers and is grateful for. The changes in plans, bringing us clothes and the pie was a completely unnecessary extra effort as they did everything they could to give us the best they had. I am so grateful for Amazing Vacations!
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