Rio Pacuare

¡Hola de nuevo Mis Amores!

Life continues to be más bueno here in beautiful Costa Rica, and today was no exception. We found ourselves, once again, signing a safety waiver and donning a helmet, this time for white water river rafting in the famous Rio Pacuare, an exceptionally popular spot for kayaking in the Caribbean. If you’ve never been white water river rafting (I hadn’t) the safety rundown is quite the experience, particularly if it’s being delivered by yet another unruly gang of charming ruffians. They argued and laughed their way through procedures such as What to do if you fall of the boat, What to do if you can’t get back to the boat, What to do if you tip the kayak over that is attempting to rescue you. Cristopher, our guide, who looked about 17, demonstrated everything with a tiny blow-up replica of the kayak during our two-hour ride to the base camp, on the back of which was inexplicably scribbled “PANIC!!!!!!!” (Inexplicably because I did ask, and no one could explain it.)

When we got to the base, we put our stuff in a giant locker and ate breakfast with our fellow kayakers in a big mess hall; it smelled of sunscreen, deet, and adrenaline: basically it was like summer camp. After breakfast, we took a small shuttle the 40 minutes up to the starting point of our ride; on the single-lane, winding gravel road, we hoped to make it to the boat at all to fall out of it and get lost in the Rio Pacuare forever.

A helmet, life jacket and paddle donned, and we were on our way, situated on an eight person boat. For anyone who has ever had the pleasure of seeing the animated classic Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, it was exactly like that (and for those of you who haven’t: do.)

The section of the Rio Pacuare we traveled has 30 some-odd rapids, such as the “Double Drop,” “Pinball” (it literally felt as though we were pinging between rocks,) “Cimmarones” (Spanish for “Wild Horses,” we might refer to it as “Saddle Ranch” in LA,) and, after lunch, the “Lost Burrito” (ha ha.) It was, once again, a lesson in humility, courage, and teamwork.

There were a couple of quiet pools between rapids, where we were able to jump off the raft and just float for a bit; the experience was once in a lifetime. I usually don’t even like walking around my apartment in the dark when I don’t know what I’m stepping on, so diving into a rollicking Caribbean river was not something I ever saw myself doing, and it was my favorite part of the entire experience. Letting the Rio Pacuare carry us away, looking up to see the rainforest canopy all around, you feel as though you’re being swallowed up by it. It is ineffably massive, and it is nearly impossible to believe we have come so close to laying it all to waste.

Fortunately, we happen to know a bunch of kids who are going to grow up to save it.