The first 48 hours in Costa Rica have been BRILLIANT! White water rafting on the Pacuare River was SO good. The river is recognized as one of the top 5 most beautiful raft-able rivers in the world (National Geographic Magazine) and I see why it would earn that status.
Our rafting company Rio Tropicales was great; safe, organized and fun! Our guides were Matise (Coldplay’s Chris Martin lookey likey), Rasta Jonathan (mesmerizing brown eyes and the longest lashes I’ve ever seen) and David (one of 7 brothers and 7 sisters).
Interestingly most of the guests were Costa Ricans, there were very few international tourists so it was really nice to be outnumbered by the locals and to see them enjoying their own back yard.
The launch spot was a few hours ride in a minibus from San Jose but the scenery was gorgeous and the guides entertaining. The highlight of the ride was seeing my first sloth – not in a tree as you would expect but trying to cross the road and since it was moving at sloth speed it was in very real danger of becoming a bumper sticker so Matise and Jonathan ran to the rescue, carefully picking it up and placing it on the other side of the road.
Once on the river we rafted for a couple of hours before reaching our drop off point. I wasn’t ready for the rafting to be over but there’s more to come tomorrow. Most of the group were just doing a 1 day trip so they continued on down the river and were heading back to San Jose tonight, a long day for them. We were lucky enough to be on a 2 day trip so our rafting was split between 2 days with an overnight at the eco lodge in the jungle. The lodge typically caters to ~100 guests per night in the busy season but since we are in the lowest of the low season there were just 3 of us staying overnight which made it feel extremely remote
The other guest was an American woman, Leaha, who is staying with a local family and doing volunteer work in CR for 3 months. Leaha was very likable with lots of stories to tell and has possibly travelled more than us. A relief to spend the evening in a jungle with someone we liked, I hope she felt the same way!
David (one of 7 brothers and 7 sisters) was our host and chef for our stay. Through the many stories he shared with us we found out that the lodge is built on land owned by his family for many generations and when he was part way through preparing our dinner his mum showed up and watched over him very intently making sure he was cooking the way she expected him to. It was really funny and we ribbed him about it in good fun for the rest of our stay.
As well as cooking for us, David took us for walks in the rain forest pointing out flora and fauna and sharing his favorite natural water slide where he used to play with his brothers and sisters when they were kids.
