Getting from point A to B in Costa Rica can sometimes be a little intimidating and likely involves lengthy journeys with multiple types of transportation, So, when we found out we could use a whitewater rafting excursion to get from San Jose to Puerto Viejo, Jessy was into it for the adventure and I was into it for the ease of logistics. In all honesty, I was a little worried it was going to be too long and too hard for me, a rafting newbie (we picked the section of the river that has class IV rapids). I was worried for no good reason because this ended up being one of the highlights of my trip. I LOVED this experience! I-told-you-so credit goes to Jessy.
The rafting company handles all of the logistics for you as well as takes photos for you along the river. Sweet deal! Photo credit for all of these pictures goes to the gentleman from Rio Tropicales who rushed ahead of us in a kayak so he could be there waiting for us from a good vantage point when we hit the rapids. I caught on pretty quickly to what he was doing and cheesed it up for this picture:
Only to be smacked in my smiling face with waves a millisecond later (see below). It was all in good fun!
The Pacuare River is stunning. We passed through and by gorges, wide open areas, waterfalls and so much more! One side of the river is protected reservation land so it is totally undeveloped.
Before we set out on the river, we were given a set of instructions that our guide could yell out to us and the appropriate actions to take. "Lean in" and "All in" meant two different things but as you can see below, you might miss the "lean" part depending on where you were in the boat and just go with "all in" anytime you hear anything that ends with "in."
All in total, we spent about 3.5 hours paddling on this river with just one short swim break in a smooth section of the river. Despite applying sunscreen numerous times, we fair ladies ended up with some pretty serious sunburns in some pretty weird patchy spots. It was totally worth it because in pretty much every picture on the set we got, I am smiling a wide, happy smile and enjoying the physical challenge and a rush from experiencing mother nature's power.
One flaw in the plan to use this trip as our way to get the coast was that we overextended our sun tolerance right before we headed to the beach! It's ok, though, there was still plenty to do and see from the safety of the shade.
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