It was not the first time I went to whitewater rafting but like every time before I felt a mixture of excitement and tension when I went to bed the night before. At 6am the people from the tour operator Rios Tropicales picked me up from a hotel in downtown San Jose. It was really early and I was dreaming of a nap on the bus, but on the other hand I was too excited.
I felt free spirited. Kareema from New York
Braulio Carrillo National Park
We drove for two hours across the Braulio Carrillo National Park to El Cairo de Siquirres, on the Caribbean side of the country, where Rios Tropicales has its operations center.
On the way, we got to enjoy the views of this amazingly lush national park under the early morning light.
At El Cairo, we had time to eat a delicious traditional Costa Rican breakfast: good coffee, rice & beans (the traditional dish known as Gallo Pinto, or spotted rooster), potatoes in tomato sauce, scrambled eggs and of course, a lot of fresh tropical fruit.
After changing into the proper clothes for white water rafting (swim suit, shorts and shirt of either cotton or fast drying material, and shoes that attached to our feet), we jumped on the bus for another 40 minutes to get to where our journey on the water began. This is when I noticed that the range of ages of my group was varied as I saw there were parents with grown up children. This definitely was reassuring.
Then Jorge said:
If you ask me what the best day to do rafting is, I have to tell you it's today, because we are here and we are going to have fun and enjoy the day.
All of a sudden I didn't want to wait any longer to start the adventure. I agreed with Jorge.... today was the best day.
The Pacuare River is one of the top five rafting rivers in the world. It is located on Costa Rica's Atlantic side and borders the Talamanca mountain range. What is so special about this river is that you get to raft for 14 miles (23 Km) in rapids that range from class I to IV (out of 5 levels), and also enjoy the scenery. The land that the river crosses is mostly protected primary rainforest and belongs to a Cabécar indigenous reserve.
Before getting to the river, a truck took us down a gravel road fora few minutes. All the rafts, safety equipment and guides were waiting for us. They helped us to put the safety equipment on, divided us into groups of 5 or 6 and then sent us to the water.
For Mónica and Marco, a Mexican couple that came to Costa Rica to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, this was one of the highlights of their trip. At that time, I remember something else Jorge said on the bus: "If I can do it, you can do it." So I put aside the fear I had left and jumped into my raft which held 7: two Mexican couples, one Costa Rican, our guide and me.
The first wave is very exciting, you get a lot of adrenaline," Sebastian, a Frenchman that came to Costa Rica for business and took a day off to do whitewater rafting, told me later.
I agreed with him. The first strong rapid we did was a class III and is called "Welcome." In our boat, Monica was quickly ejected into the water. A safety kayaker, who follows behind on all of Rio Tropicales' raft trips, scooped her up and brought her back to the boat almost immediately.
That gave us an idea of how exciting the trip was going to be and also helped us realize that we were
going to have fun but we had to take it seriously.
You have to be strong and aggressive when you are paddling a big wave," said Johnny, our raft guide. And remember to work as a team.
As we were approaching a rapid known as Cimarronas, Johnny gave us a warning. We were coming up on a level IV rapid and this one had a very impressive wave right in the middle.
A raft with 6 people flipped over yesterday on that wave," he said. The water was exploding into white eruptions.
When we got in front of the wave, Johnny shouted at us to keep paddling. Our boat sank like it was going to be eaten by the water, then floated out of it and it felt like we were flying. The waves dumped their fullness over us, filling the bottom of the raft. We were drenched from head to toe.
The boat passed through the rapid navigated masterfully by our raft guide and propelled by our furious paddling. It was amazing teamwork that took us through and out of this powerful rapid.
The trip down the river took us almost four hours. We rafted incredible level IV rapids like Upper and Lower Huacas and Cimarronas.
But we also got to swim in very calm water at Dos Montañas, a rock canyon where the river is deeper (around 10 mts).
We made it out of the water safely and with lots of adrenaline still running in our veins. And just in time too, because it started raining. A short bus ride took us back to the operations center at El Cairo, where nice and clean showers and dressing rooms were waiting for us, as well as a delicious and splendid lunch. After all that exercise, we were all very hungry. While having lunch, I had the chance to talk to a group of Americans that had done the two and three day trips with Rios Tropicales.
They did the first half of the river on the first day, then stayed at the Rios Tropicales' Lodge for one or two more nights. During those days, they got to do some hiking around a 1,500 acre private reserve along the river that Rios Tropicales owns, and then enjoy some waterfalls and natural pools on the river.
On the last day, they did the second part of the river, where the level IV rapids are.
"This was Costa Rica in its purest form," said Cory, a biologist from California that has been in Costa Rica before, but always for work. This was his first Costa Rican vacation.
We came to Costa Rica to see the Pacuare River, Cory said.
We knew we had to see it, and it was a lot of fun. We were surrounded by very beautiful things. I would recommend this to anyone.
To finish our trip we drove back to San José through the Braulio Carrillo National Park again, but this time I did take my bus nap, and so did everybody else. We were exhausted but content. We had just experienced one of nature's most exciting displays.
Activities and Sports 
