I decided to start my trip with a little bit of action after sitting on 3 planes for over 15 hours to get to San Jose and rafting the Pacuare river is probably one of the most popular things to do in Costa Rica and for good reason. It’s a fantastic ride and is definitely worth doing even if it feels a bit expensive at first (99 USD for 4 hours on the water including transport, breakfast & lunch). You just have to consider that a lot of things are expensive in Costa Rica, especially the food.
The tour company sent a taxi to pick me up from the hostel. It was a very simple hostel, but the girl working there was very nice, spoke great english and had just cooked some dinner when I arrived from the airport. So she invited me to join her and her brother’s girlfriend along with another guest at the hostel. There was no way I was going to turn down a free home cooked meal. It was kind of like a lasagne but instead of pasta she used tortillas and instead of bolognese she used a creamy rice & tuna mixture. I like the idea but it needed something more intense than rice and tuna, I guess I will experiment with it sometime soon. The hostel turned out to be their childhood home and room #3 was her’s as a child. Now they run it as a family, while she looks for a new job as a food chemist in the food flavor industry.
Anyways, the taxi driver was extra punctual and got me to the pick up point very early, so he had to wait with me for his money. As it turns out, he’s a choreographer for a school dance group and they had a competition a couple of hours later, so actually he didn’t want to be late for that. He mainly dances folklore routines and has performed himself on stage with another group he dances with. He showed me a few videos of his dance choreographies until the bus arrived.
The bus took us to the tour company’s base site on the Pacuare river, where we had breakfast and suited up: Life jacket, helmet & a paddle. Afterwards we got some saftey instructions and they shared the 5 main commands we’ld need to know for the day; (paddle) Forward, Back paddle, Left forward Right back (or vice versa, basically to turn the raft), Get down and Hindsight (!?) left/right, which basically means that everyone on the raft goes to that side as a last attempt to stop the raft from flipping over.
Now I won’t bore you with the play by play details but it was a lot of fun and if you get a chance to do it anywhere in the world you should go for it.
There are 6 white water classes or difficulty levels. The Pacuare river goes up to class 4, which was tough but still fun. It didnt feel dangerous at all, in the raft at least, so you should try and fight to stay in there! Other rafts lost a few people on the way, but they were easily picked up again. The guides also stopped in the middle for lunch, which they prepared themselves. Chopping veggies and preparing a burrito buffet.
It was quite impressive to see these guys in action. They are jacks of all trades. From being guides and learning the languages to do so (out guide was studying for mandarin test in the bus for example), to ensuring our safety and pulling people back on the raft, not to mention shouting all the commands and actually guiding our raft (which must be amazing), to training a new guide who joined our raft and finally stopping to chop veggies and prepare lunch. I have great respect for these guys and can fully understand if they are mentally and physically dead at the end of the day and forget to drop someone (unfortunately this time it was me) off at the right spot. Next, I’m off to see some wildlife…
Me and my rafting buddies
Our guide Albert shouting out something important I guess hehe
… and then hiding behind us :-p
The washing machine experience