www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I go rafting every trip. I've used Rios Tropicales, Aventuras Naturales and one other whose name I've forgotten. IMHO, they're all pretty good with not any huge difference between them (all the guides I've had were great). Toadtamer, if your river really was running at Class VI consider yourself lucky you DIDN'T run it. On the International Whitewater Rating System that means its unrunnable. Generally, CR w/w rivers are rated at 3 (med-mod difficulty) to 4 (difficult to very difficult) including the Reventazon-Florida section (class III) and the Pacuare (class III-IV). Neither require prior rafting experience. The most difficult trip (and really only marginally so) is the Pascua section of the Reventazon (class IV) where prior rafting experience is recommended but not necessarily required. I've done all 3.

Some other tips:
1) Its nice to have some souvenir photos, but those CDs can be pretty pricey and most of the photos will be of others in your group. Also be aware its a real crap shoot whether the pics they take of you will come out all that great. You do usually get to see them in a slideshow at the end of your trip but if you blink you may not get a good look at your shots. If you're a shameless intellectual property pirate like me, you might want to share e-mail addresses with another techsavvy member of your group and split the cost. That way if the pics don't turn out that good you're not out as much. I've gotten my photog pics from my first trip and don't bother with them anymore. I still bring a waterproof disposable camera and have taken some good shots. You can pass it to another paddler in your raft to snap your pic between rapids but don't count on being able to get any shots off while you're in the thick of it.

2) The 2.5 hours that Toad spent on the river seems very short for the Pacuare, but for a full day trip the time actually spent on the river is not all that long on any of these trips.The Reventazon is normally less than that even and the Pacuare never takes more than 3.5-5 hours. The Pascua is another one that only takes 2.5 hours (but it is much more intense than the other trips). the biggest part of each of these trips is transportation there and back, meals and shore side instruction and preparation.

3) The overnight Pacuare trip basically covers the same ground as the 1 day trip with exact same amount of river time. If you want to spend your night out in the woods, then that might be your thing. At Rios Tropicales, it costs $250 per person for the 2 day trip. At Aventuras Naturales the prices start at $289/pp double occupancy and $375 for a single. With day rates running now running around $95 ($75 for the Reventazon and apparently less than that for Costa del Sol), thats seems to me to be a pretty hefty premium to pay for a night in a jungle lodge, however lush, and a few extra meals. YMMV. I never heard anything about the indians turning tricks. Was that a joke Toad? If so, it would have to be done very cagily as I can't imagine having all those ecotourists as fellow guests at the lodge would be very conducive to either outfit letting you bring strange chicas back to your room. Personally, I'd rather do it as a day trip, cover the same amount of river, head back to SJ to enjoy its greater night life and pay for my chica that night with the money I saved by taking the shorter tour. Plus I have the next day free to enjoy doing something entirely different.

i booked my july 1 day pacuare trip with www.exploradoresoutdoors.com.
they will pick you up in SJO and drop u off at other locations for NO additional costs. saved me $29.99 for a shuttle to Puerto Viejo.

Wow that a great post Prolijo.

I did not realize that I paid that much for a completely basic room and two extra meals that were not that good.

I booked a few things together and paid one price. However, I do not think it was any cheaper.

I like to spend at least one night outside San Jose on a 7 to 10 day trip. During the rainy season I thought this would be a good option who care if it rains when you are on the river, it feels good and it makes the river faster.

It is easy to make plans for a side trip away from the gulch in the dry season in February I plan to go to Quepos/Manuel Antonio for a couple of nights.

Is there anything you would recommend for the rainy season?


Thanks for your help and your map and the Spanish tapes I down loaded.

Gino

Gino,
I'm like you. I don't a little rain stop me from having a little outdoor fun. I usually spend more than a night or 2 outside the Gulch each trip, but if you're biting off just a little bit more each time of CR outside of SJ, there is plenty there to keep you busy for many trips. During the rainy season the driest place to go is probably to one of the beaches in Guanacaste in the NW part of the country. Unless you fly, thats probably going to be at least a 2 night trip outside of SJ because it's a least a 5 hour drive each way to get back and forth. I'm not a big beach person and general prefer the highland parts of CR more and because of the higher elevation they tend to be a bit cooler than the coasts which is particularly a factor during the summer.

The Fortuna/Arenal area is one of my favorites. You're odds of being able to see the lava flow are greatly reduced during the rainy season, but I go as much for the hotsprings which I enjoy nearly as much when it is raining (like you said, who cares if it rains if you're going to get wet anyway). BTW, that outfit that Blaze mentioned (exploradores) also goes between SJ and Fortuna and is a good way to get from one place to the other if you're planning to do some rafting anyway and want to kill 2 birds with one stone. You could do it as just an overnight but, since you'll be getting in fairly late if you go rafting, I think at least 2 would be better if you want more than just 1 morning checking out what there is to see around there.

Monteverde is another nice area, but requires 2 nights even more so than the Arenal/Fortuna area for 2 reasons. One, its a rougher ride to get there. And two, wildlife viewing is best done in early morning or late afternoon (or even evening) so you'll really miss out on most of it if you bop right in and out. You'll get wet in the rainy season. It is a cloud forest after all and is already pretty wet even during the dry season. OTOH, in some ways the rainy season is actually a little better because you get much fewer crowds.

Other potential places to go include Tortuguero in the north (caribbean side) or Osa in the south (pacific side), but those get particularly rainy during the green season and usually involve having to fly to get to them. Rincon de la Viejo is another volcanic area in the Guanacaste province that will probably be drier than Arenal but like the beaches up there it is pretty far. If you want beaches (I'll assume you've already checked out Jaco) and don't mind the rain (mostly just in the afternoons) and a lot of humidity, my preferred candidates would be Montezuma/Mal Pais/Sta Teresa on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, Dominical south of MA on the Pacific side and Cahuita/PV on the southern Caribbean side. Again, unless you fly, each of these are probably at least 2 nights outside of SJ to make the time it takes to get there worthwhile. So with all these you're good for, how many is that, what, at least like 8 more trips?

I did the Pacuare on Thursday, went with Exploradores Outdoors, no problems with them and had a blast. I've held off going rafting in CR because I was leery of doing this kind of river on a paddle-raft with a bunch of total novices. I've done Colorado River trips, but those were with oar-boats (Westwater Canyon) or the big J-rigs (Cataract Canyon). I'm also a sea kayaker (have my own boat) so I do take paddling a little more seriously than the newbie tourists, who seemed to just want to splash other rafts with their paddles. In the end it turned out fine, there was a sufficient amount of passably coordinated paddling in my raft to prevent any problems. I think the guides do the real work anyway with their steering. The scenery is spectacular, with two canyons containing the biggest rapids. The biggest and baddest of them all is the Huacas (Juacas? sp?) pair in the first canyon; the second canyon has a very narrow and high-sided section with calm water.

Was just curious as to the river conditions lately. Is there any rafting to be had, any rain? I'm coming in early April looking to go out of SJO for a day. It would be interesting to hear what the deal is. Thanks guys.

Alright, white water rafting added to trip itenary. This is going to be a damn fun trip.