Pacuare River Rafting

This week we decided to go to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, drawn by promises of hands-on monkey time at the Jaguar Rescue Center. It’s about 4 hours from San José to Puerto Viejo, but luckily there is a much better mode of transport than taking a bus, or even a private van. Exploradores Outdoors offers a river rafting excursion on the Pacuare River allowed for pick up in San José and drop off in Puerto Viejo!

They picked us up at about 6:10 AM on Saturday and drove about 2 hours (during which I fell asleep) to the basecamp where we had a hearty breakfast of all-you-could-eat gallopinto, scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, granola, coffee and juice. They had lockers for all our luggage and after a few rounds of breakfast and major sunblocking, we took a bumpy 30-or-so-minute ride to the start of our river rafting ride while a guide gave us a brief intro into into what to expect.

This wasn’t just a lazy river tour, it was an active tour where we’d be expected to follow his calls of “forward!” “paddle back!” “left forward, right back!” “get down!” and so on. We geared up, got into groups of 6 and set off! Our guide, Beto, had over 10 years of experience. He said he came from a nearby village of a hundred-and-some-odd people. The first 30 minutes of rafting was the tamer class I-II rapids.

Sadly, I didn’t have a full charge on my GoPro and wasn’t able to capture the class III-IV rapids. I know, I can hear my dad sigh too—he surely would have had the camera ready. The internet here in Puerto Viejo is too slow making my upload fail -.- Hopefully I can upload a few videos later.

There were several rapids where we went under waterfalls, against rocks, and even had a few people fall off the raft (not me, thankfully!). Our boat mates, who were also from the USA (Ohio and Virginia), liked their seats in the middle and back, allowing Jon and I to enjoy sitting in the front for the entire boat ride!

About an hour or so down the river we stopped for lunch. Beto said the local indigenous people built our stopping point for us the traditional way (with available materials from the surrounding jungle). We wandered a bit before lunch, looking at the local flora and fauna and managed to spot a poison dart frog.

Lunch consisted of warm flour tortillas, beans, lettuce, bell peppers/jalapeños, and sliced ham. Essentially, it was a make-your-own ham burrito station (a first for me)—but it sure hit the spot. They had a bit of fresh pineapple for dessert, along with Maria crackers with a bit of jam and cheese on top.

Back to the river, where we continued down a few more class IV rapids, saw more waterfalls, some old bridges with railroad tracks (not all were still in use), and were able to get off the raft and let the current float us down the river a bit. The water felt a bit cold, but nothing like the Pacific Ocean. Besides, it felt perfect against the humidity and sun.

The rafting excursion ended right next to the breakfast base camp where we changed and got to see these awesome pictures by the photographers. The whole rafting experience was far better than I expected and worth every penny!