Costa Rica 2009: 4/4/2009 San Jose/Grano de Oro, Pacuare River white water rafting, dinner at our hotel

This excursion with Rios Tropicales had been made when I first booked our trip to Costa Rica. I know Richard is happy about it-me, not so much. Our pick up is 6:00 am. Ouch!

Horay is our driver and Enrique is our guide. There are going to be 10 people on this bus/coach. We make a stop in town to pick some people up. The scenery is nice on our ride to where we will do our rafting.

Stop for breakfast at the operations center of Rios Tropicales. We have omelets, fruit, juice.

We're given safety instructions as to how to follow directions on paddling, what to do if you go overboard,,,,,, We put on our equipment-helmet, life vest. Kevin is the guide for our boat. Besides Kevin there are Richard and me and another young couple. Our raft is one of several in our convoy. The young couple is in front, then Richard and me, with Kevin in the back. There are straps on the floor and I wedge my feet under them. No way do I want to go overboard. Although if our raft tips over what then! We're told that normally our run is a class 3 experience but there's been a lot of rain before we arrived in Costa Rica so the river is running class 4/5. OMG. I feel sick but try to smile. Pictures will be taken and then you have the option to buy the CD for $40.00 USD. I hope I survive this without any unfortunate results.

Geared up and ready to go!

The young couple in front really do not help with the paddling so it's all up to Kevin, Richard, and me. Sometimes Kevin tells us to paddle on the left, sometimes on the right. Sometimes Kevin tells us not to paddle at all and a few times he told us to crouch down low. We got stuck/hung up on a huge rock. Actually we got stuck more than once. At one point Kevin had to get out of the raft and pushed and pulled to get us going again. Our raft almost tipped over. I did see one raft tip over. The young guy in our raft did fall out but was able to get back in with all our help. Midway we pulled our rafts out of the river and tipped them over to make tables. We had lunch. I have no idea what we had as I took no pictures but it was good I believe. Then we return to the river to finish our run. Towards the end the water was very calm. This is where you can get out of the raft and go for a swim. Everyone but me went in for a swim. I remember one summer while visiting Dorie in Arizona we went tubing on the river. When it was a calmer spot where you could swim I did get off the inner tube. But then I had a hard time climbing back on the inner tube. So this time I stayed in the raft.

Our raft

Our rafting group/convoy

Our raft

There were solo kayakers doing the white water with us

Our raft

Another raft in our group/convoy

Our raft

Another raft

Our raft

Richard

Back at the operations center I bought the CD of the pictures. It will be delivered to our hotel. At the gift shop I bought a T shirt, mask. I try to buy a mask from our trips. I have ones from Beleize and Guatemala. Cost 21450 colones.

CD of pictures of our rafting experience

T shirt I bought

Mask I bought

We are given juice and cake before we leave to return to San Jose. I gave Kevin a tip of $20.00 USD. He did most of the work and when all was said and done I had a fabulous time. I'd do it again! We got back to our hotel around 7:00 pm.

Bus ride back to our hotel

Kevin was a terrific guide for the rafting!

Since it's our last night I've decided to have dinner at our hotel's restaurant which is very nice. I had made reservations for 8:30 pm. Richard had sea bass with rice and vegetables. He said his fish was cooked perfectly and was delicious. He opted for ginger ale which surprised me. No Imperial?? I ordered the spinach ravioli that was also filled with ricotta cheese. The sauce was 3 types of goat cheese. I had a virgin mojito. Dessert. Richard had banana ice cream while I had the trios chocolate-chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, and coffee mousse. I also had a cup of something chocolate with whipped cream. So decadent. What a way to end our trip! Cost without tip was 34102.72 colones.