Saturday/Sunday – 8/3-8/4
Costa Rica Baby…Rafting to be precise…OK, we know we have been really out of touch lately, but not on purpose. We have had a lack of Internet access…Miami Airport had it, but it was out of service, imagine that. But here we are now on Sunday night…maybe Monday morning…whenever I get upstairs to use the Lodge’s Internet and post this little message and we have just returned from two days in the Costa Rican Jungle river rafting.
So more on our little river rafting experience…so again, we were up at 5am to meet our ride…this is becoming more of a habit than I would like…but I digress. We then embarked on our 2 ½ hour drive to the river…again, 2 ½ hours seems pretty standard. We arrived at the “operations center” and were fed a great breakfast and given a quick debrief of our adventure…24 miles of class III and IV rapids on the Rio Pacuare (said to be one of the top 5 rivers in the world). We then headed out for another hour drive to our put in location. The ride was beautiful. The forest seems much denser here, much more vibrant…I cannot really describe it. Also, just for scene setting, Costa Rica is much more mountainous than Belize was…making for much more dramatic visuals from the roads. Anyway, back to our little adventure. We were dropped off again and loaded into tractor trailers for our ½ hour ride thru the hills down to the river (very nice ride…and we saw a sloth…he tried to get away, but I got a snap of him…speedy little suckers!).
On the way, we met a couple other super nice people from Arizona...Chris and Meena..kinda sucks we couldn't raft with them....but it turns out only a couple of us were taking the two day trip, meaning we got to go in our own boat of five people (Plus our super cool guide Juan). In our little boat was Paula, Marisa, Loren, Jori and Myself…everyone super excited to get this little adventure underway. 
The two day trip covers the same amount of river, but half in one day, and the second half on the second day. After the first day, you stop at a secluded lodge on the rivers banks (when I mean secluded, I mean secluded…but they had power provided by a small hydro system and the accommodations were very nice). So were where off…the river was a bit low, but that didn’t seem to quell the rapids at all, they were pretty damn sweet…bigger than anything I have done in the states. But I think the best thing was the scenery along the way, the jungle canopy climbing hundreds of feet right off the rivers edge…awesome. I will share some pics, but when we get back there are tons. Oh!, before I forget, I must say the one purchase that has been the best to date…waterproof digital camera…fricken brilliant. We would have missed some great photos if we didn’t have it with us. After being bucked around the river for about 4 hours, and stopping here and there for some lunch and waterfall exploration, we made it to the lodge…simply stunning. It is located right on the edge of this powerful little river and just seems to blend right in…very nice I must say. 
We pulled the boat up the beach and picked a room…there were plenty of open ones! Jori and I took one looking right down over the river…actually they all did, but I thought I would point that out for effect. From there we hit up their little zip line course (4 lines in total, but super fast) and a short hike to a couple waterfalls…so nice and relaxing. After that, it was time for HH (that’s right, our own little best damn email, but without the email), and some dinner. I think we crashed at like 8:30…it was a busy day.
Sunday…Day two on the river. We woke up to sunshine and hot coffee…I must say the coffee here is all that it is cracked up to be…so tasty, even for a occasional drinker like myself. Then some breakfast and off on anther hike to some waterfall/slides and a couple view points…very relaxing.
On the trail we encountered mostly crazy bugs and frogs (one huge stick bug…it must have been 14’ long…oh and it was having some bug sex with a little male…check it out), not allot of wildlife we could see…oh but could we hear it. 
We made our way back from the hike in time to catch that days one day rafters as they passed the lodge. We packed up our things, wished our hosts well and were off down the river in a flash. Today’s rapids were bigger and much more technical, but our guide Juan was on top of it. Let’s just say I was wet the entire trip…fill it up again…it is so good when it touches your lips! The class IV rapids were very impressive to look at, and I must say even more so up close and personal as you rode thru them. As we rolled down the river we were hit with quick bursts of rain, followed by sun shine, just as I had imagined it. 
After another four hour trip, we pulled out (ha…keep it clean) of the water and again boarded a huge Mercedes bus back to the operations center. Once there we had lunch…well almost dinner…and had a shower before we headed back to San Jose. Before we left, Paula and I went off with Juan to try to find a couple poison arrow frogs…and guess what we did…they are crazy looking, florescent green and black…I didn’t get a picture, but Paula will be sending me one…
From there we headed back…not the way we had come, but a much longer route due to the fact that there had been a landslide and the road blocked…instead of an hour ride, it turned into 3…oh well time for a nap. Tomorrow off to Arenal volcano…cannot wait.
Cheers! RB
Costa Rica Baby…Rafting to be precise…OK, we know we have been really out of touch lately, but not on purpose. We have had a lack of Internet access…Miami Airport had it, but it was out of service, imagine that. But here we are now on Sunday night…maybe Monday morning…whenever I get upstairs to use the Lodge’s Internet and post this little message and we have just returned from two days in the Costa Rican Jungle river rafting.
So more on our little river rafting experience…so again, we were up at 5am to meet our ride…this is becoming more of a habit than I would like…but I digress. We then embarked on our 2 ½ hour drive to the river…again, 2 ½ hours seems pretty standard. We arrived at the “operations center” and were fed a great breakfast and given a quick debrief of our adventure…24 miles of class III and IV rapids on the Rio Pacuare (said to be one of the top 5 rivers in the world). We then headed out for another hour drive to our put in location. The ride was beautiful. The forest seems much denser here, much more vibrant…I cannot really describe it. Also, just for scene setting, Costa Rica is much more mountainous than Belize was…making for much more dramatic visuals from the roads. Anyway, back to our little adventure. We were dropped off again and loaded into tractor trailers for our ½ hour ride thru the hills down to the river (very nice ride…and we saw a sloth…he tried to get away, but I got a snap of him…speedy little suckers!).
On the way, we met a couple other super nice people from Arizona...Chris and Meena..kinda sucks we couldn't raft with them....but it turns out only a couple of us were taking the two day trip, meaning we got to go in our own boat of five people (Plus our super cool guide Juan). In our little boat was Paula, Marisa, Loren, Jori and Myself…everyone super excited to get this little adventure underway. The two day trip covers the same amount of river, but half in one day, and the second half on the second day. After the first day, you stop at a secluded lodge on the rivers banks (when I mean secluded, I mean secluded…but they had power provided by a small hydro system and the accommodations were very nice). So were where off…the river was a bit low, but that didn’t seem to quell the rapids at all, they were pretty damn sweet…bigger than anything I have done in the states. But I think the best thing was the scenery along the way, the jungle canopy climbing hundreds of feet right off the rivers edge…awesome. I will share some pics, but when we get back there are tons. Oh!, before I forget, I must say the one purchase that has been the best to date…waterproof digital camera…fricken brilliant. We would have missed some great photos if we didn’t have it with us. After being bucked around the river for about 4 hours, and stopping here and there for some lunch and waterfall exploration, we made it to the lodge…simply stunning. It is located right on the edge of this powerful little river and just seems to blend right in…very nice I must say. We pulled the boat up the beach and picked a room…there were plenty of open ones! Jori and I took one looking right down over the river…actually they all did, but I thought I would point that out for effect. From there we hit up their little zip line course (4 lines in total, but super fast) and a short hike to a couple waterfalls…so nice and relaxing. After that, it was time for HH (that’s right, our own little best damn email, but without the email), and some dinner. I think we crashed at like 8:30…it was a busy day.
Sunday…Day two on the river. We woke up to sunshine and hot coffee…I must say the coffee here is all that it is cracked up to be…so tasty, even for a occasional drinker like myself. Then some breakfast and off on anther hike to some waterfall/slides and a couple view points…very relaxing.
On the trail we encountered mostly crazy bugs and frogs (one huge stick bug…it must have been 14’ long…oh and it was having some bug sex with a little male…check it out), not allot of wildlife we could see…oh but could we hear it. We made our way back from the hike in time to catch that days one day rafters as they passed the lodge. We packed up our things, wished our hosts well and were off down the river in a flash. Today’s rapids were bigger and much more technical, but our guide Juan was on top of it. Let’s just say I was wet the entire trip…fill it up again…it is so good when it touches your lips! The class IV rapids were very impressive to look at, and I must say even more so up close and personal as you rode thru them. As we rolled down the river we were hit with quick bursts of rain, followed by sun shine, just as I had imagined it. After another four hour trip, we pulled out (ha…keep it clean) of the water and again boarded a huge Mercedes bus back to the operations center. Once there we had lunch…well almost dinner…and had a shower before we headed back to San Jose. Before we left, Paula and I went off with Juan to try to find a couple poison arrow frogs…and guess what we did…they are crazy looking, florescent green and black…I didn’t get a picture, but Paula will be sending me one…From there we headed back…not the way we had come, but a much longer route due to the fact that there had been a landslide and the road blocked…instead of an hour ride, it turned into 3…oh well time for a nap. Tomorrow off to Arenal volcano…cannot wait.
Cheers! RB
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