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We spent four weeks in Costa Rica and I have to say that it was really cool and we were all happy that we got to go there.

We did not have good luck in terms of water levels for the first 10 days but we still had a chance to paddle some classic rivers on the Pacific side, like Narancha Labirint and some solid runs around Turialba, which is the center of white water paddling in Costa Rica.

After 10 days it really started raining and we thought that local rivers can never fill up them during dry season. So when we passed Toro Amarilo it looked just a perfect level.

Someone we met who had a car said that it actually be a bit too high, so we drove on further and put in and started paddling typical Class 4+.

Probably after one minutes paddling we realized that the water really was too high and it was 500 meters before we could break out into the first eddy but in that time all of us already got a good beating in some nasty holes.

The water was three times more than is suggested even at its recommended highest level. We finished our run to the first bridge and got off the water with serious respect for this river and memories of some definitely scary boating.

The next week we were cruising around and trying to find rivers which had not too much water but instead we paddled scenic grade 2 rivers which were transformed into big 4+ white water. We were lucky to paddle one particular local creek, the Pozo Azul, which needs super high water and the Rio Macho was really nice too.

When water levels started dropping which took almost a week, we tried the Toro Amarilo again which was great, with huge boulders in it which we could not see last time.

At this point we had just ten days left and we needed to get prepared for running some of the local pearls like the Patria, the Chiripo Pacifico and the Chiripo Atlantico. We had just 10 days to try and do all of them so time was short but we were ready to go.

We got in touch with local hero Ferdinand and he showed us how to get to the Rio Patria, this river was definitely one of the highlights of our trip and it was a really interesting trek to get there and we probably would have never found the river without Ferdinand.

After three hours sliding though dense rainforest, we finally got to a small creek which was a tributary of Patria. We paddled this creek for 20 minutes and the volume was probably 1cm 3+ and I have to say that it was sometimes super scary; you’d run blind over dry drops and then in front of us were seven more hours of steep creeking.

We started walking at 6am but forgot to pack stuff for a full day, so with only 2 chocolate bars each, we were paddling quite fast as no-one wanted to stay there for the night. There were some gorges with small drops and this kept going for at least 15 kms.

There were some crucial rapids which we needed to scout very closely but all were actually run pretty smoothly and we were super happy that we had the chance to paddle one of the best runs in Costa Rica.  After that all our focus was on Chiripo that runs off the biggest mountain in Costa Rica.

From the west side is the Rio Pacifico and from east side the Rio Atlantico. Both rivers are super cool; the Pacifico is steep and small volume like Corsican rivers and the Atlantico is the deepest canyon in Central America and definitely a big river.

First we went for the Pacifico and we were not lucky enough to get good water, so we paddled just one section. Then we decided to get one days rest on the beach and be ready for the Atlantico.

No-one knew what was down there and during this season no-one had paddled the Chiripo Atlantico, so the local kayakers directed us to a village where we needed to start walking from but after that no-one knew how things would go. We packed food for a few days, including camping gear and started walking.

The trek took us almost half a day and we passed tribal people who probably had never left this valley; it seemed incredible to see people like them living without any touches of civilization and only 50km’s away are tourist towns with all the modern stuff.

Anyway, we put in during the afternoon and paddled just few k’s when Paulo found out that his boat had a crack in it; this was not really a good start especially before running the deepest gorge in the country. We camped on a nice beach and in the early morning we paddled the canyon. This day was incredible, pushing water, a deep gorge and funny times during hard rapids.

We did it well and without any swims which would be hideous there.  So there we had it, after that we did some more rivers around Turialba but the 2 rivers I’ve just described above were definitely the best we could have paddled in Costa Rica and we did them both!

Take care guys ….. Honza