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 Pascua and Florida sections of the Reventazon. The Upper and Lower Orosi. The Orosi being the nicest river.
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| Beautiful Orosi |
The Lower Pacuare goes through a remote, 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 consisting of a big boulder congested run. Pristine water, beautiful countryside, minimal traces of human decay. The water level was just right, Joey indicated he had run it at much higher level and it was then very pushy. But not this time. Beautiful river.
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 (aka the toilet flush)... A fellow CCKEVM (André) paddler joined me on day 3 and plus a third paddler (then unknown fellow Canadian, Terry) joined us on day 4. Those last 5 days of paddling were with Joey from Liquid Skills, helped by Mario Fernandez, our super Mario and local guide.
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| Tough day on the river |
Our third paddler, Terry, actually knows Leah and Wayne Donison with whom I was in Chile last year. Terry was from the Toronto area and has paddled with Leah several years during her debut.
Terry was also the best paddler of our little group of 3. André 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. I also lost my filtered equipped water bottle in that toilet flush.
Water levels in Costa Rica vary very quickly. You could possibly get stuck on a river turning into flood mode while paddling...Gulp! When I first got there, it had rained for 3 days already; no other river than the Pejibaye could be run commercially 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 for added warmth 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 glimpse of the last 200m of the Rio Macho are significant of the rest, that river must be a hell of a run...lots of gradient.
I wanted to run the Poza Azul - 27 footer drop in the Sarapiqui area, but word is that the earthquakes and heavy rains have shifted the ground and made it less vertical and then 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 Interamerica. Still 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.
Instead of driving around from region to region, 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. This 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 of the first day.
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-Fernandez 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 several hours babbling and drinking with Ronald. For a mere 80$, Ronald provided me with a car, driver - himself - a kayak and a river guide for the day. When you realize that renting a kayak here cost around 30$ a day over here and in Costa Rica can cost you up to 50$ a day...and a car rental a minimum of 70$ in high season.
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| Ronald and Julio |
That day we continued onto the abutting Florida section and saw the construction of the next dam in progress. Silt everywhere, water not clean. Afterward, few shoots of the local fire-drink was very much warranted to kill stuff which got in our systems.
The Pascua is now the main attraction with commercial rafters and the canyon of the lower section is 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 18 miles down the extended version of the Lower Pacuare. Boy, were we tired after that day.
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| Getting ready for the Upper and Lower Pejibaye with André |
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| Joey leading the little ducks |
After a 20min negotiation with Joey, off I was with my fat and old fat Fun following those with creekers. Oh!! How I missed my Habitat 80 that day...
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.
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| Looking closely, Leaf-Cutting Ants |
Still 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, and language are all conditions you must deal with if you plan to travel on your own.
Louis
Already thinking about the next winter trip.... Mexico? Ecuador? Back to Chile?
Certainly something with more creeks and drops.
