Part 4 of 4
Day 11 & 12: A Two-Day Misadventure on the Pacuare River
February 8, 2023
My eyes flutter open about 15 minutes before my alarm goes off, which is a relief because I was having some anxiety about it being too loud and waking everyone else in the hostel dorm. I quietly gather the clothes I’d laid out the night before and head into the bathroom to get dressed and brush my teeth. I organized my luggage last night before bed, so this morning all I have to do is put away the clothes I slept in and get going.
I remove my bags and myself from the shared dorm as quietly as possible and head toward the front desk to check out. My shuttle to the rafting outpost is supposed to be here at 0600. I’ve decided, a bit warily, to leave most of my luggage here at Selina while I’m away rafting. Carina, an employee I spoke with yesterday, assured me it would be safe in their locked luggage room. I’ve packed my daypack with a change of clothing, clothes to sleep in, a towel, sunscreen and bug spray, my water bottle and rain coat, and my GoPro equipment. I also bring my “pillow” with my warmer layers in it. I don’t have any idea what to expect about the accommodations tonight, much less what will be provided or not.
Field Note: This is probably a good place to mention that prior to arriving in Costa Rica, I booked this rafting trip with Exploradores Outdoors based on a recommendation from a popular Costa Rica travel blog. I cannot in good faith recommend this company. More on this later.
I store my suitcase and duffel in the luggage room at Selina Hostel and sit to wait on my shuttle, sending out a few messages and checking emails because I doubt I’ll have the opportunity to do so again any time soon. My phone STILL doesn’t work here, so I’m still relying on wifi. I’m hungry but nothing is open this early and I don’t have time to walk anywhere, so I resign to not eating until I arrive at the rafting outpost. The itinerary said breakfast is included, so at least I’ll get to eat once I’m there. My shuttle arrives promptly at 0600 and I’m off! Its a 2.5 hour drive between San Jose and the rafting basecamp further south, so I settle in with an audiobook. I don’t listen to very much of it however before I doze off.
When I arrive at base, the first thing on the agenda is breakfast. As usual, breakfast is of the traditional Costa Rican variety: rice, beans, scrambled eggs, and fruit. I scarf down my food and wait for instructions on what’s next. It’s nearly 10am before we finally depart for rafting. I board the bus I’m directed to, but there’s a lot of confusion from both passengers and staff because I’m doing a 2-day trip and everyone else is doing a 1-day trip. I’m on the bus for a short ride and then am told to get out of the bus and into a 4×4 truck waiting at the entrance to a dirt road. I’m the only traveler that has to depart here, on the side of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. This strikes me as rather odd, and potentially unsafe; nowhere at any time was I told that I’d be traveling alone or that I would have to transfer between vehicles.
Feeling as though I don’t have much of a choice, I get off the bus and into the truck. The driver, a gruff but otherwise friendly-seeming man who appears to be in his 40’s, introduces himself as the owner of the company. He tells me he will be taking me and three other people down to the put-in for the two-day trip. We are meeting up with the others, at a lodge nearby, and if I’d like a few beers for the trip I can buy them there. We drive off down a bumpy dirt road, and, unbeknownst to me at the time, I’ve left my cell phone on that bus. Since it doesn’t work, I’m not thinking about checking it and I fail to realize I don’t have it.
When we arrive at the meetup point to pick up the other three guests, I get out of the truck and am instructed to sit under a shelter and wait. Another woman is there, and she introduces herself as Kat. I learn that she is also traveling alone and has also been feeling a bit wary about the way things are transpiring. I’m happy to now be in her company. The driver returns to where we are waiting with several bottles of beer. He informs me that he received a call from the bus driver and my phone was left on the bus. Damnit! Not only was I planning to use my phone for photos (we will be hiking AND rafting on this trip), it is also my flashlight, journal, and book to read! I’m quite upset but the driver assures me my phone is safe and I will be reunited with it when I return to basecamp tomorrow. With no choice, I head on without it. A rough ride stands between us and the rafting put-in: I guess this is why we are in the 4×4 truck. The dirt road is long, winding, steep, and full of washouts and potholes. I’m about ready to lose my breakfast by the time we make it to the river, but we finally arrive and it’s rafting time!
Our guide today is David (Daveed), and he gives us the typical rafting orientation. Kat and I take the front seats. The river is beautiful and the weather is perfect. David informs us that we will be rafting for an hour to an hour and a half to the lodge. I’m immediately a bit put-off. I could have sworn the itinerary said today was a 2-3 hour trip, covering 8 miles of river and 14 rapids. I looked it up after I returned to civilization and I was right– the trip was supposed to be longer. I decide to enjoy what time we have, however, and after a few class 2 rapids and some shoals, we arrive at the lodge where we will be spending the night.
Our group hauls the raft up onto the shore, grabs our gear, and hikes up many steps to the lodge, where we check in and are shown to our rooms. I’m not going to lie– I thought this was a lodge. It is really more of a river camp. The “rooms” are small huts with a bed or two in them, four walls in which the bottom half is wood planks and the top half is screens, covered by curtains. The accommodations are very rustic. My hut is also very far from the bathrooms, which I’m not happy about because I don’t have a phone, which means I don’t have a light, which means I’l have a lot of trouble walking over the cobbled paths to the bathrooms in the dark. Oh well, make the best of it.
I change into dry clothes and head back to the outdoor kitchen area to wait for lunch, which will be served at 1:30pm. I have no idea what time it is (no phone) so I figure I’ll just go up there and wait rather than risk missing lunch. Much to my relief, I find a stack of paperbacks on the outdoor kitchen counter. At least I can read and not be stuck with nothing to do but think for the next 8 hours. I pick out a fairly short book titled Push — it’s short enough that I figure I can probably finish it while I’m here. I sit in an Adirondack chair overlooking the river and begin to read. This place really is gorgeous, and peaceful. Toucans fly around in the trees as I become involved in the story of Precious Jones and wait for lunch to be served.
The lodge staff and our guide David serve up a delicious meal of pasta, salad, and bread. No, it isn’t “traditional Costa Rican” but I’m personally happy for something other than rice and beans! After lunch, David offers to take Kat and I hiking to a waterfall, which we both eagerly agree to. It’s a short hike, but he advises that we will get wet crossing the creek and should change back into our river clothes. We do so, and begin the hike by exiting the lodge behind the kitchen and walking down a crude trail. Pretty quickly the trail crosses a creek and David tells us we will be creek walking from this point. Sounds good to me! David, Kat, and I walk up the creek and soon come to a deep crossing; the water is up to my hips! After working our way up the creek for about 10-15 minutes we arrive at the waterfall, a short main drop with a smaller upper drop totaling probably 20ft, and falling into a deep, blue-green pool at the base. Kat and I decide to swim and take some photos, and we easily spend 20 minutes fooling around with our GoPros capturing photos and videos. I’m thankful to have packed my GoPro since I don’t have my phone for photos.
Once we are sure David is sick of waiting on us, we head back toward the lodge. I once again change into dry clothes and head to the community kitchen to wait for dinner. It will be served at 6:30pm, but again I have no way of telling time so I figure I’ll sit in the common area and read. I’m over halfway finished with Push whenever the hosts announce that dinner is ready: some conglomeration of Costa Rican food consisting of rice, beans, corn, cheese, lettuce, and tortilla chips. I make something akin to nachos and once again scarf down my food. I’m so hungry! Kat agrees, she’s also feeling ravenous. At dinner I meet Mary Beth, from California, and a young couple from Canada who are on a year-long global adventure. Rain slowly starts to patter the tin roof while we are eating dinner and I decide I should shower quickly and get to my cabin before a real downpour begins. The showers are outdoors, and while spacious they leave a bit to be desired. The “shower head” is just a pipe, and there is no warm water. The warm water part doesn’t bother me much; I actually came to Costa Rica expecting nowhere besides the city to have warm water and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the availability of it. What is less pleasant than the cool water is the army of enormous ants marching along every surface of the shower stall I’m in. I bathe quickly and return to my hut, eager to get some rest and enjoy a longer day of rafting tomorrow.
February 9, 2023
I awake with the sunrise, get dressed into my still-damp river clothes from the day before, pack my daypack, and head to the outdoor kitchen to await breakfast. I slept surprisingly well, despite the fact that my hut was inhabited by an army of ants and one very large spider last night. Later, I’ll come to find out that I had another, more sinister visitor that night, one that would leave me clamoring for answers for months and permanently disfigured, but that’s a tale for another blog. Today, I’m ready to get on the water. Kat and I meet up in the dining area and I pass the time until breakfast finishing up Push. After breakfast, we are instructed to grab our gear and hike up to a higher pavilion, where we will meet the rest of the crew rafting with us today. The couple that shared the boat with us yesterday is spending another day at the lodge, and today we will be rafting with a new couple from Belgium, along with the Canadians we met last night.
Yesterday, our day packs were put into large dry bags and carried on the rafts with us to the lodge. Today, we are instructed to leave everything behind. We are told it will be transported to the outpost where we will end our river trip. I’m hesitant to leave my things behind; my dry clothes, my passport, and my wallet are all in there. One of the couples with us agrees, the keys to their rental car –which is at the same outpost– are in their day bags. But none of us are given a choice, so we leave our gear in a pile on the side of a washed out dirt road and begin hiking down toward the river, carrying nothing but our paddles and PFDs.
Our guide today, who I’m going to call Jorge, isn’t as nice as David. David stayed behind at the river lodge with the other guests. Jorge acts like he doesn’t speak English, though I’m quite certain he understood more than he let on. Kat speaks decent Spanish, so she can communicate with him a bit. Right from the start he begins giving instructions in Spanish, and I don’t have a clue what we are doing. According to the itinerary, today is supposed to be 14 miles of class 3 and 4 rapids. Some research after the trip showed me that this was probably close to being correct; my maps showed about 12-13 river miles between the “lodge” and the outpost. The itinerary also said we would stop for a hike to a waterfall and stop for lunch. One of the reasons I picked this expedition, specifically the two-day trip on the Pacuare, is because of all of the access to waterfalls. There are supposed to be two waterfalls that fall directly into the river, and the opportunity to hike to others. I’m excited to see them, but ultimately the trip did not go as expected.
We pass one of the river-side waterfalls very early on, but Jorge refuses to slow the raft or stop to let us enjoy the sight. Later, we pass another HUGE river-side waterfall. Seriously, one of the tallest and most beautiful falls I’ve ever seen. Other rafts are stopped in eddies near the base, and other rafters have even been allowed to get out onto the rocks for photos here. Again, Jorge acts like he doesn’t understand us asking him to stop and flies right by the waterfall. Thankfully, my GoPro was on and I was able to capture a fleeting glimpse of it. I have no idea where we were supposed to stop for the hike, but we never did. I’m fully convinced Jorge wasn’t even going to stop for lunch but the folks in our second raft finally demanded it of their guide and we did stop, about an hour from the end of the trip. The lunch the company provided for us was great! Pasta salad, a taco bar, and juice. We were all absolutely hangry by the time we stopped to eat, and devoured the meal.
After the last of the major rapids, our photo-boater, Diego, came up to the raft and asked if anyone wanted to ride with him in the ducky the rest of the way. I was so ready to get out of that raft with Jorge that I practically bailed out of the raft and into the river, then climbed into the ducky to join Diego. This ended up being my favorite part of the trip! Even the small rapids were fun in the ducky, I was down in the water vs. being up on top of it, which was nice in the afternoon heat, and Diego was conversational and educational, telling me about the river, the forest, and the indigenous people who still call this jungle home.
We arrived at the outpost to, no surprise, find that our gear had not made it there yet. We had to sit around for nearly an hour waiting for the truck to arrive with our day packs so that we could change into dry clothes. It finally did arrive, and Kat and I climbed in after changing for the drive back to the basecamp, where we would catch our buses back to San Jose for me and La Fortuna for her. Arriving back at the basecamp, the first item on my agenda was finding my iPhone. I ended up having to ask several staff members, and threaten to have them call the owner before someone finally produced it from a drawer. With phone in hand, I boarded my bus back to San Jose, bringing my epic two-week Costa Rica adventure to a close.
Want to see the video footage of this trip? Check out the video below!
Some notes about whitewater rafting on the Pacuare…
Given the opportunity to do this trip again, I would go again in a heartbeat. This was one of the coolest trips I’ve ever done. However, I would not choose Exploradores Outdoors again. Here are the pros and cons of the experience I had:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Gorgeous scenery | Lack of transparency about trip details |
| 1st day guide was phenomenal | 2nd day guide kinda sucked |
| Got to see three waterfalls | Wasn’t given time to enjoy riverside waterfalls |
| Lodge was beautiful, if rustic | 1st day was significantly shorter than advertised |
| Food provided was exceptional | Sketchy transfers, especially as a solo female |
| Proper safety equipment was provided | Advertised hikes during trip on both days were totally skipped |
| Photo boater provided on 2nd day | No photo boater 1st day despite being told our trip included photos |
| Transfers to and from San Jose provided | Photos were not sent after MONTHS of begging for them; finally received after threats of poor reviews |
| Contracted a potentially deadly parasite due to exposure to biting insects while sleeping |
While I feel like Exploradores is providing a safe trip down the river, and the “river lodge” provides an authentic and rustic overnight experience, I do not feel that I was provided with the trip that I paid for. My overnight trip cost $239 and was supposed to cover 22 miles of river. A single day trip with this company costs $99 and covers 18 miles.
I’m quite certain my two day trip only covered 18 miles — the same as the one day trip. My trip also was supposed to include a guided hike EACH DAY during the river descent. Neither of these hikes happened. We got one guided hike in the afternoon after eating lunch on the first day, which was also included in the itinerary. Both trips include breakfast on arrival, and lunch on the river. Both trips include transfers from San Jose and back. In addition, the two-day trip gets lunch, dinner, and breakfast at the lodge, so three additional meals. Plus, the two day trip gets one night of lodging. My trip was supposed to include photos, but we didn’t have a photo boater on the first day. The second day we had a photo boater, but the trip was in February and I did not receive the photos until mid-May, after MONTHS of emailing the company asking for them. I finally threatened bad reviews on Facebook, Google, and Instagram if they did not send the photos. I had them by the end of that day. Based on the experience I had, I just simply do not feel as though I got $140 more value on my two-day trip. Had all of the hikes and the additional river miles added up to what was advertised, and had we had photos provided in a timely manner from both days on the river, I think I would have felt better about it.
I do hope to return to the Pacuare River someday, but I’ll go with a different company or maybe even a private guide. If you have done this trip, I’d love to hear about how it went and who you used. Drop a comment or use the contact form to tell me about it!
Adventure Like A Girl 