I went to Costa Rica paddling in January 2012, following on suggestions and comments from a few including CdB members.
A fairly short trip as I had a new job waiting for me the day following my arrival back to Montreal.
I went to the Turrialba area, and did some 120km of rivers in 8 days of paddling.
Did the Upper and Lower Pejibaye, Upper, Upper Upper, Top, Middle and Lower sections of the Pacuare.
Hell, all the sections of the Pacuare except the Headwaters section that requires somewhat of a jungle expedition.
The Upper and Lower Orosi. The Pascua and Florida sections of the Reventazon.
Did the Lower Pejibaye at flood level, mid-level and normal level. At flood, it was at least 18in higher and a big yellowish toilet flush experience - no eddy. OoooooKeeeeey.
The Lower Pacuare goes through a deep and narrow canyon with 200ft+ waterfalls dropping unto us worthy of Fantasy Island. The end (class IV) of the Upper Upper Pacuare was very nice as well. My favorite was Upper Orosi, set in a more remote valley and is a big boulder congested run. Pristine water, beautiful countryside, minimal traces of human decay.
Overall, I had a 2 swims. Got stuck into a hole near the end of a day (tired) and scared myself in the first day toilet flush... A fellow CCKEVM (Andr?) joined me on day 3 and then another then unknown fellow (Terry) joined us on day 4. The last 5 days of paddling were with Joey from Liquid Skills and Mario, our super Mario and local guide.
Joey is actually a better kayak teacher than Billy is; or so it seems.
Terry knows Leah and Wayne Donison from the Toronto area very well having paddled with Leah several years during her debut.
Terry was also the best paddler of our little group of 3. Andr? had quite a few swims and lots of bruises. He also skipped a couple of the harder sections we did. I sported a large hip bruise from my first swim, a doubled scraped thumb and a colorful right side big toe.
Water levels there vary very quickly. You could get stuck on a river turning into flood mode while paddling...Gulp!
When I first got there, it had rained a couple of days already; no other river than the Pejibaye could be run but even that one moved from a leisure class III to a non-stop class IV flush.
Water is generally fairly warm. A shortly or neoprene top would be sufficient. But I welcomed the dry top on a few occasions, like when the Upper Orosi meets the Rio Macho... the water turns then mighty cold; enough to numb your hands if you stick them in.
If the last 200m of the Rio Macho are symptoms of the rest, that river must be something...lots of gradient.
I wanted to run the Poza Azul - 27 footer drop in the Sarapiqui area, but the earthquakes and heavy rains have shifted the ground and made it less vertical and a big hidden boulder is now waiting for unsuspecting visitor at the base... Add the fact that it was a few hours of driving from our Turrialba base...the Interamericano.
http://hotelinteramericano.com/index.htmlStill would have been a pretty cool drop to add to my list...
You can see it on the cover of the excellent river guide: Chasing Jaguars
http://store.allaboutrivers.com/river-guide-books/international-river-guide-books/chasing-jaguars:-the-complete-guide-to-costa-rican-whitewater-C155-i73.htmlInstead, we did more rivers and less driving. Still I ended up paddling with that yellow and red boat shown on the book cover for the first 3 days. That's the closest I got to that Poza Azul. Book was published in 2003 and the picture was taken in 2002. In 10 years, that boat had suffered worst than me and I spent several hours patching up old holes and even fixing up the caved-in nose following my swim in the toilet flush.
Using the book, I had entered all the GPS coordinates of the sections I had targeted into my new Asus Transformer Prime tablet - equipped with GPS and a outdoor map software with the maps downloaded into the it.
Pretty cool, but wasn't in fact required as my local guide and driver for the first 3 days knew it all. For the second half, Mario Delahof and our hired driver had it covered as well.
You can actually see several pictures of Mario in the Chasing Jaguars book along with Jeremy Garcia who was the son of local rafting businessman Ronald Garcia - Costa Rica Adventures Pura Vida. Jeremy died 3 years ago helping out a swimming rafter. After grieving and then a car accident that nailed him to a bed for a year, he is slowly getting back in business with his step son Julio. I spent many hours babbling and drinking with Ronald and his family. For a mere 80$, he provided me with a car, driver - himself, kayak and river guide - paddling buddy for the day. When you realize that renting a kayak over there can cost you up to 50$ a day...and a car rental a minimum of 50$ a day.
The Reventazon used to the center of the rafting world until earthquakes, broken railroad and new dams changed the dynamics. The Reventazon is a big water river on the like of the Ottawa or the Gatineau. Some of the best sections are now under water reservoir or dry thanks to those dams. When we ran the Pascua which is still quite nice and very Ottawa-esque with large flat and then drops type rapid.
That day we continued onto the abutting Florida section and saw the construction of the next dam in progress. Silt everywhere, water not clean. A few shoots of the local fire-drink was very much warranted.
The Pascua is now the main attraction for rafters and the Canyon of the Lower section pretty remote and very scenic with the waterfalls dropping directly into the river from 200+ft. The Upper, Upper Upper and Top do not see as much paddlers as the technical level is significantly higher. We skipped a couple of rapids on the Upper due to dirt access road on the cliff side being cut by a tree - made for an interesting walk down to the river through cow paths. The cows there must be relatives to our BC mountains goats... It was steep and hot and...Pfiouuu.
Our longest day was 18miles down the extended version of the Lower Pacuare. Boy, were we tired after that day.
The Pejibaye is a narrow river, a bit like the Assumption, a 100 or 150ft wide and more like a creek. Quite shallow and pretty wandering through jungle at normal level. Not so nice at flood level. The Upper section add some very nice boulder congestions and is a class III+ with a few IV steps at normal level.
The Orosi goes through a superb valley and offer a beautiful boulder run on the Upper section. I can imagine this section being terrible at high water and be very pushy - creek boat country. Paddling a stupid old style Super Star 50lb too big for me, I felt like I was driving a minibus equipped with a lazy boy for the driver seat through the tunnels in the Italian Job movie remake. Comfy, but not the best tool for that Costarican job.
After a 20min negotiation with Joey, off I was with my fat and old SStar following those with creekers. Oh!! I missed my H80...
Overall, we saw a bit of wild life, like tracks from a rare jaguar on the Orosi, various birds of prey, herons white and blue, kingfisher, a Jesus Christ lizard - you know, the type that walks on water.
I uploaded some pictures up here on Facebook... I do not think you need a Facebook account:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150542949084306.400269.515674305&type=3&l=8ef2bdb41cStill have to go through the video footage from the Go Pro...
All in all, it is pretty easy to just drop in in Turrialba and get a few days of jungle river paddling.
But as in other South American paddling destinations, locating the put-in and take-out, having a guard watch your vehicle while you are on the river, private land trespassing or fees, changes in the riverbed over time and quakes, getting a decent boat and equipment, language are conditions you must deal with if you plan to travel on your own.
Louis
Already thinking about the next winter trip.... Mexico? Ecuador?
Certainly something with more creeks and drops.
