It's an early morning start as I had signed up for a white water rafting trip with Rios Tropicales, and was picked up from my hostel at 6am.
The white water rafting trip takes place along the Pacuare River, which is located about 2 hours outside of San Jose, and graded with Class 3 & 4 rapids. The highest grading for rafting is a Class 6.
Before getting to the river, we were given a very hearty breakfast at the Rios Tropicales Operations Centre, comprising of Gallo pinto (rice mixed with frijoles or black beans), plantains, scrambled eggs, bread and fresh fruits.
The drive from the Operations Center to the river was an additional 30mins, where we were driven to the river in a bull dozer pulled wagon.
With over 50 people signed up for the same tour today, we were split up into smaller groups of 6 or 8, and paired with a guide.
I was grouped with a couple from US, and a mother from Barcelona travelling with her 2 daughters, and led by our guide Carlos.
After gearing up, Carlos gave us a short briefing about the commands he would likely be calling out during the rafting trip and we headed out.
Barely 5 minutes into the rafting trip, we came across another raft that had left slightly earlier than us, pinned down by a tree branch that had fallen the night earlier.
Pulling our raft to the side of the river, Carlos quickly got out to help the other boat out. It took them about 10 minutes to get put of their predicament, and after some boat changes, they managed to pull the raft out from under the tree branch.
It seemed that Carlos was one of the more experienced guides in the group, as we were subsequently told that we were the "ambulance" raft. We had been the last boat to leave the shore so as to keep a lookout and make sure that the other rafts are doing OK, and thankfully we were still there when the other boat got pinned down.
I felt safe and in good hands already!
The entire river trip was 32 km long and took us about 3.5hrs. The beginning half of the river were mostly grade 1 and 2 rapids, with about 4 or 5 grade 3 or 4 rapids happening in the 2nd half of our trip.
There were lots of swooshing around, bobbing up and down on shallow rocky waters and getting splashed on as we dropped into stronger rapids.
Thankfully no one fell overboard, though we decided to take refreshing dips on 2 sections of the river, while being slowly drifted by the currents.
We were subsequently brought back to the Operations Centre to change and have a late rewarding lunch, and to check out photos that had been taken during our trip.
Great pics and memories of us splashing into the rapids.
PURA VIDA!
Special mention to mytanfeet.com, a fantastic website for travel information related to Costa Rica, and it was through their website I got a special rate of USD89 for the trip (originally priced at USD99).
I had to make some last minute changes with my trip dates over the Christmas festive period, and both Yeison and Samantha who owns the blog were extremely helpful in facilitating communication with Rios Tropicales to get this sorted out for me. Kudos!
The white water rafting trip takes place along the Pacuare River, which is located about 2 hours outside of San Jose, and graded with Class 3 & 4 rapids. The highest grading for rafting is a Class 6.
Before getting to the river, we were given a very hearty breakfast at the Rios Tropicales Operations Centre, comprising of Gallo pinto (rice mixed with frijoles or black beans), plantains, scrambled eggs, bread and fresh fruits. The drive from the Operations Center to the river was an additional 30mins, where we were driven to the river in a bull dozer pulled wagon.
With over 50 people signed up for the same tour today, we were split up into smaller groups of 6 or 8, and paired with a guide.
I was grouped with a couple from US, and a mother from Barcelona travelling with her 2 daughters, and led by our guide Carlos.
After gearing up, Carlos gave us a short briefing about the commands he would likely be calling out during the rafting trip and we headed out.
Barely 5 minutes into the rafting trip, we came across another raft that had left slightly earlier than us, pinned down by a tree branch that had fallen the night earlier.
Pulling our raft to the side of the river, Carlos quickly got out to help the other boat out. It took them about 10 minutes to get put of their predicament, and after some boat changes, they managed to pull the raft out from under the tree branch.
It seemed that Carlos was one of the more experienced guides in the group, as we were subsequently told that we were the "ambulance" raft. We had been the last boat to leave the shore so as to keep a lookout and make sure that the other rafts are doing OK, and thankfully we were still there when the other boat got pinned down.
I felt safe and in good hands already!
The entire river trip was 32 km long and took us about 3.5hrs. The beginning half of the river were mostly grade 1 and 2 rapids, with about 4 or 5 grade 3 or 4 rapids happening in the 2nd half of our trip.
There were lots of swooshing around, bobbing up and down on shallow rocky waters and getting splashed on as we dropped into stronger rapids.
Thankfully no one fell overboard, though we decided to take refreshing dips on 2 sections of the river, while being slowly drifted by the currents.
We were subsequently brought back to the Operations Centre to change and have a late rewarding lunch, and to check out photos that had been taken during our trip. Great pics and memories of us splashing into the rapids.
PURA VIDA!
Special mention to mytanfeet.com, a fantastic website for travel information related to Costa Rica, and it was through their website I got a special rate of USD89 for the trip (originally priced at USD99).
I had to make some last minute changes with my trip dates over the Christmas festive period, and both Yeison and Samantha who owns the blog were extremely helpful in facilitating communication with Rios Tropicales to get this sorted out for me. Kudos!
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