December
28, 2015
Day
3, Rappelling and Rafting
My
Dad was sick in the week leading up to the trip but felt good enough to
go on the trip. However, after yesterday's ziplining activity in the rain, he got a
chill and regained his cold symptoms. So he decided to forgo any tours today in an effort to get better so he could do the remaining activities on the trip. So today, I go solo.
I
was picked up at 7:30 am by Pure Trek Canyoning and driven about 20 minutes outside of town. There were about 30 other people there and we
all walked down to an outdoor pavilion and got rappelling gear - gloves, helmet
and leg harness. I was then put in a group of about 12 at the front, because all of
us would be doing the rafting trip afterward and they did not want us to get
behind.
The
entire group walked down some muddy steps about 10 minutes and arrived at a
platform that straddled a waterfall. The head guide went over the techniques to be safe and have fun today. The course would include 4 rappels
and a surprise activity in the middle. The first one was an 80m drop,
and once you reach the bottom, a guide moved me into the waterfall to get me wet and
shook me around a bit for effect. We were given
instructions on how to control our descent, but the rope is wet so it’s very
difficult to manually control anything.
The guide above had a safety wire which he controls and essentially does
90% of the control for everyone.
I
then climbed up about a 30 feet rope ladder which clung to a rock wall. We
then walked down a bit and came to a long ledge beyond where the platform is and I’m told to “just hold on”
and not try to control the descent. I
say “okay I guess?”, and I am then jerked out about 30 feet from the ledge,
just suspended about 50-60 feet in the air above the ground. Two guides below yell something inaudible,
and I instantly drop 40 feet in one second.
I am relieved to look down and find my feet dangling about 10 feet from
the ground. This is apparently called a
“Monkey Drop” which I am later told they added this year to the tour, and was
not in the tour description – a surprise to everyone.
The
rafting-destined group waited at the bottom of this one for a guide to come thru and
set up the next rappel. We then
proceeded to rappel 3 more waterfalls in the canyon. This included one where we had to jump off the ledge to
avoid a 15-foot gap. Not everyone jumped far enough, and some swung back into the gap to bump up against the rocks below
and to the side. No real damage done though.
The
twelve of us hike back up about a quarter mile’s worth of mud steps to a hut
where we take off our gear. We then
board a couple flatbed 4WD trucks which have been retro-fitted with bleacher seating on the truck bed. They gave us a snack of mixed nuts, water and
peanut bar on the way back to La Fortuna.
About 10:30am, they drop us off at a different company’s downtown office,
Wave Expeditions, to go rafting.
Here I
boarded a bus of about 20 people, with some from the rappelling group and some
from elsewhere. We then proceeded about
45 minutes outside of town. We arrived along with several other buses at a river embankment. Everyone
gets their own life vests, helmets and paddles and then heads down to the
river. As we walk down to the water, we see boat after boat arrive from upriver, solely with the guide in them, pull up right in front of us. There are about 6 people per boat
plus the guide, and in total there were 15 boats going down one after the
other. I was with a family of 5, with 3
kids between ages 4 and 11 from eastern Pennsylvania. We talked for all of 30 seconds before jumping
in the raft, so we became quick friends.
This
river is normally very calm, but every other afternoon, the controllers of a
dam upstream release some of the water.
This release gives the river a very strong current and rapids of grade 2
to 4, but we only rafted up to grade 3 rapids.
The rapids weren’t particularly scary but we saw several
people fall out along the way; no one seriously injured. I have rafted other places but what made this
different is that the first 3 km had CONSTANT rapids of the full course which is
around 6 km. Most rivers I was on before gave us some
breaks between rapids sections, but not this one.
Our
guide navigated very well and only got us in trouble twice where people were
jolted in the air but no one fell out. We
saw a few animals along the river, such as egrets, vultures, a sloth and there
were allegedly piranha native to the river but didn’t see any. We then loaded up our gear, dried off, grabbed a beverage (beer for me) and
headed to our next activity.
By
now it is about 2:30-3pm and we are driven by bus 15 minutes away to a local coffee and
moonshine farm/restaurant. They had
buffet style meals awaiting us of rice, beans, chicken and beef. They grow sugar cane here, and use an indigenous method to brew coffee which was interesting to observe. They then gathered everyone around to see how
they make the moonshine after which they allowed us all to take some shots,
which certainly cleared the sinuses.
Then
we headed back to La Fortuna and we were dropped off at our hotels. I met up with my Dad back in the room to
take a breather for a few hours. We
decided to eat at the highly rated Don Rufino
restaurant, less than a block from our hotel.
It was a little different from the norm – my meal came wrapped in
banana leaves which is also how it is cooked.
Then we went to bed early for a much deserved rest!
