Costa Rica (July 2024)

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Saturday July 20

Our new friends we had met at a food and beer tasting invited us to join them on a trip to Costa Rica, one of them had been before and wanted to do the adventure again. Seemed like something Rebe and I would enjoy so we said yes.

After our direct flight to San Jose, we were met by our bus and taken 3 hours into the jungle, which after looking at the map was only 40 direct miles from the airport.

This is slated to be an adventure trip with kayaking, rafting, hiking and zip lining.

Our first hotel actually didn't have a/c, and while it's not as hot as Houston it was definitely above 80F so this first night of sleep was interesting... Our guide came to the hotel at 7pm to give us a run down on the schedule and to eat dinner.

Our guide for the week is Henry, also known as Ninja for some weird reason. First day started tomorrow at 9.

View of the hotel campus

Sunday July 21

After eating breakfast at 8am, we were picked up at 9am to go kayaking. It was our group of 5, a couple from Indiana and a German-English mother son duo. It was a short drive to the river and we were on the bank of this raging river (class 2 rapids) with Ninja explaining everything to us. He explained hand signals, how to paddle, what to do if you fall out, etc. The instructions were... well I guess they were clear enough and so they sent us on our way down the river, the helper guides were also already down river in case we flipped the inflatable kayak.

Rebe in her kayak

Then came the moment of truth, who was going to ride the bull first? It actually looked a bit wicked out in the water but I volunteered to be the first tribute. After a few "oh shits" I made it past the two sets of rapids we needed to clear, then one by one the rest of the crew made it down. We all regrouped and then continued down the river through two more sections of rapids before we hit the take out point. It was a short run, but we were going to do it for a total of 3 times. 1 down, 2 to go.

We got out of the river and the bus took us over to a farm to stretch our legs and take pictures of the countryside.

The group

Costa Rican Countryside

It was then back to the river for round two, exact same adventure but on this time down, one of the ladies from Indiana flipped, no worries she was fine. With round 2 complete we headed back to the top again but this time we chilled for a bit and ate tuna salad burritos for lunch, no one was enthusiastic about this meal but it turned out to be surprisingly good.

Round 3 down the river was started slightly further up the river, this allowed us to go through 2 more big rapids before running directly in the original starter rapid from the first two runs. Rebe had had enough stress of guiding her own kayak and decided to ride with the guide (passenger princess).

All in all it was a fun day on the river, we headed back and sat around in the pool chatting while birds and butterflies flew around us.

Dinner was at 7 again and Ninja gave us another run down of what to expect tomorrow. Tomorrow is a moving day.

Monday July 22nd

After breakfast we packed our bags and loaded into the bus for our adventure for the day. Today was going to be a day of whitewater rafting but first we were going to a small farm to make tortillas.

During the drive to the farm we stopped at a grocery store to buy some snacks (plantain chips of course) and then we arrived at the farm. The farm had a small pavilion with tables and an outdoor kitchen for cooking. There were 4 women working at the kitchen but they were not going to be making the tortillas, we were. We all cleaned our hands and got to kneading our dough before flattening the dough and slapping them down on the flat top.

Our tortillas at on the flattop

The woman didn't let us flip the tortillas, so they did the actual cooking but they did allow us to eat our creations when they were done. When we were finished eating we hung around for an hour or so talking and playing cornhole.

We all hopped back on the bus and headed for the river, the bus took us down an unpaved road before U-turning and backing down the road further. We then reached as far as the bus could safely travel and we had to get out and walk the rest of way down to the river. When we got there, the rest of the tour guides and our rafts were ready to go downstream.

Today's rapids were class 1-3, so nothing too heart racy but definitely a good time with our guide Ninja attempting to rock the boat by taking slightly more aggressive lines. We stopped in the rain for lunch before continuing down to our exit point.

Our put-in point

A point of interest, there are still indigenous tribes that live in the forests of Costa Rica and while we were leaving a young lady with a 40lb trash bag came down to the river. She was coming from town before heading back to her village on the other side of the river. How was she going get across (it was pouring down rain)? Ninja thought she would swim across as there were no rafts coming by, but we gave her and her bags a ride across the river. Once to the other side she disappeared into the jungle.

The exit point was after another two rapids and this was still deep in jungle, we pulled our rafts ashore and started hiking into the jungle ourselves. At the top of the hill was our camp for the next two days, the Pacuare River Camp, also known as the Eco Lodge. The lodge has a number of open air cabins, all have running water (hot too) but no electricity on site. Soon after we arrived we were met by the loudest thunderstorm I've ever heard in my life and it was pouring buckets. But soon after the rain stopped a sloth made his way across a zipline and he was moving really quick for a sloth.

The crew made us mojitos with a local sugar cane based liquor before serving us dinner under string lights. We stayed up chatting until 10 and of course joined later by the nosey 14 year old (the son of the German-English woman).

Central Living Area of the Eco Lodge

Tuesday July 23rd

The day started with another monster storm of mostly rain and a few flashes of lightning. And like many places in the world, "if you don't like the weather just wait 30 minutes and it'll change."

We ate breakfast at 8am and the rain was still going, in the current state all activities would be impossible so we had to wait until the rain calmed and the lines could dry. Luckily a little after 9 the rain paused so we were able to get to our first activity, "The Tarzan Swing."

The swing pulls you from a platform, yes pulls, so that eliminates the need to have the swinger jump. But it does require the tourist to agree to be pulled and to be pulled one must yell the magic word "PUERTA" which means door in Spanish. Think of the door in a rodeo before they let the door open for the bull. Once you say the word, you're gently pulled from the platform and down into the ravine you go for a big "Tarzan Swing."

Rebe on the swing (mild language)

Me on the swing

Everyone in the group did the swing, accept for the German-English duo, mom had already said this was a no for her but her son got to the edge of the platform twice and backed out. Just couldn't say the word.

With everyone Tarzan approved, we hiked further into the woods to get a few runs on the zip line before the rain came back. Just a typical zip line, each line averaged about 180m in length.

Rebe on the zipline

By the time we completed the 3rd zip line, it was starting to rain again so the group hiked down to eat lunch. After lunch a hike was slated but due to the rain it was going to be unlikely or unsafe, so we all chilled and took a nap.

Wednesday July 24th

It was an earlier start than usual as we had a bit of a long day and Ninja wanted to get on the river in front of other rafts who might also be on our section. We met at 7am, ate breakfast and we were walking down to our rafts by 8am.

Today was the more technical section of river with more class 3 and 4 rapids. The rapids were great and we had a few scary moments where the raft leaned or twisted heavily, but in between the crazy rapids we were greeted by lush green jungle and waterfalls of all sorts. Ranging from small trickles of streams to raging waterfalls plunging from above 100' high. Definitely the most scenic wooded/jungle river I've been down (not really fair to compare it to the Grand Canyon as they are so vastly different).

Before lunch we reached a steep walled canyon, the guides said it was safe for us to jump out and float in our life vests down to the lunch spot. Of course when we got closer to the lunch spot the current picked up and we had to swim a little. Speaking of swimming, earlier in the ride down our guide gave us the opportunity to go down a class 1 rapid on our back, also this would simulate as if you had fallen out of the raft and had to make it down on your own. Initially I knew this was a bad idea but Rebe gave me the "c'mon" face so I jumped in. The result was like being waterboarded in a fun lazy river, moral of the story is don't fall out of a raft in a big rapid.

We completed the run of all the rapids and got out of the river before reaching the calm bits where the crocodiles hang out, showered and got in the bus for our ride to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

The ride to the coast passed the famous banana fields of Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte where it was just rows and rows (on both sides of the road) of trees. Each giant bunch of bananas was covered in a blue sack to keep the birds from attacking the fruit.

Field and fields of banana trees

We checked into our hotel, which had a/c this time, then we all took a stroll down the beach in what was some of roughest wave breaks I've seen so close to shore. After the stroll we grabbed a few beers and coconuts and headed in for dinner.

Us on the beach

Beach volleyball at sunset

We had 5 choices for dinner, Rebe and I both went with the local chicken, black beans and rice. It was so delicious, the food in this trip has been very good. Easily some of the best chicken I've ever had.

It was then back to the air conditioned room and showering under the weakest water pressure known to man before heading to sleep.

Thursday July 25th

We were on the coast so it was only apt that the activity for the day would be coastal, but this wouldn't happen until after we checked out of the hotel at 11:30am. With the afternoon sorted we had options in the morning, our friends decided to attempt to see the sunrise at 5:20am. I awoke at 4:30am and 5:30am but didn't make the walk out. Rebe and I eventually got up for breakfast around 8:30am and afterwards we had booked a massage at the onsite spa. Rebe always has high expectations for these massages, I know it's not going to be hard enough so I just relax and enjoy the rubbing and kneading.

After checkout we headed into town to pickup lunch and grab more snacks at the grocery store. The boat dock was only 15 minutes from the hotel, Rebe and I had decided against snorkeling as we don't enjoy it as much as scuba, really wanted a dry day and the water looked a bit murky and choppy. While the rest of the group was in the water Rebe and I headed back to town and into the Parque Nacional Cahuita to enjoy the beach, monkeys and sloths. A few local guides tried to sell us services and warn us we wouldn't see anything and they were right.

Random raccoon we saw before it fought another raccoon

The snorkel boat dropped off the group along the beach in the park and everyone walked back along the path that Rebe and I had been walking down. Of course our guide immediately points out 5 monkeys in a tree. Then ten minutes later he finds a sleeping sloth, which I still can't figure out how he found that animal.

It was then back to the bus for our 3.5 hour ride back to our original hotel near Turrialba. Dinner and sleep before our last day of activities.

Friday July 26th

The last day of our tour was canyoneering, basically we would be hiking through the jungle and repelling down waterfalls. The day started with breakfast at 8 or so and then pickup for our ride to the activity at 9.

We drove to our meetup with Ninja and met up with the rest of our tour guides and prepped for the repelling, which was really just getting suited up with harnesses. We then took our walk into the jungle, posed for pics and then the repelling. Our guide gave us a quick tutorial on how to use the rope to lower yourself down and then we were on our way. Throughout the day we went down 5 waterfalls, with the last definitely being the sketchiest but all in all it was an amazing time in the jungle.

The Crew before the canyoneering

Look at brave Rebe go

Kiss while going down the waterfall

After the repelling we dried off and headed into to town (Turriabla) to see the town and do the tourist thing. We stopped and had some ice cream, picked up some local mariande (Salsa Lizano, which you cannot get in the US) and then a quick stroll through the farmer's market for some knick knacks if you were interested.

The evening was back at the hotel for packing and prepping for the trip out.