Costa Rica - Running Rapids & Mr. Lava Lava

Rafting the Rio Pacuare

We arrived in the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, late at night and got a taxi straight to our hotel. The next morning we woke to a beautiful view of rolling hills and lush green countryside. It was a bit of a shock to the senses after nearly two months of the sandy dustiness of Roatan.

We stayed in San Jose for a few nights although mainly avoided the city which was a large sprawling mass of too narrow streets and bustling crowds. We arranged a trip to go white water rafting on the Rio Pacuare, a river which winds its way through dense jungle and deep canyons and is renowned for the ferocity of its rapids.

After an hour or so journey through tropical countryside we arrived at the river ‘put-in’ where we met our raft, donned our life jackets and helmets and were briefed by the crew on what to expect. We set off down the river practising out techniques on some smaller ‘training rapids’. They certainly didn’t feel like training rapids as we were bounced from our seats and swept along by furious currents, this was really nothing compared to what was to come however.

A little farther down the river and we hot our first class 3 rapids, from a distance they looked like white swirling whirlpools, the kind that if you fell in you’d never come out again. The currents swept us through at ridiculous speeds and we frantically paddled to avoid hitting the rocks. The adrenaline rush was fantastic and we all came out the other side grinning like maniacs…..then we hit the class 4’s. One minute we were dropping like stones and the next we were being carried high on a swell. Our guide shouted instructions to us to “paddle left”, “paddle right”, “get down”. After each rapid we were shouting for more.

In the calmer parts of the river we had a chance to appreciate the scenery that surrounded us. After an hour or so we found ourselves in the middle of dense jungle where the nearest civilisation was miles away. We passed through deep canyons and by gushing waterfalls that stretched for tens of metres above us. At times we all jumped into the river and just drifted along with the current. We were all disappointed when we turned a corner and found the end of our trip in sight, the day had gone far too quickly.

Lava Spotting at La Fortuna, Arenal

We had spoken to a few people on our travels who had been to a town called La Fortuna where you can see one of Costa Rica’s most active volcanoes. We heard stories of people seeing glowing hot laving rolling down the sides of their Volcano from their hotel room, so decided to go and have a look.

We arrived in La Fortuna to find a bustling tourist town overshadowed by the Volcano to the north. It was a pretty grim day and the Volcano was mostly covered by cloud. We hoped the bad weather would pass and that we’d get a chance to see the lava at night…no such luck. We booked a trip out to see the Volcano which included a trek through the national park to watch the lava erupting. Unfortunately the weather was so foggy and miserable all day that we couldn’t really even see the top of the volcano. After an hour or so of hanging around at the viewpoint we gave up and headed to the local hot springs to make up for our disappointment. As we were leaving we passed a tour group we had read about in Lonely Planet, led by a guy called ‘Mr Lava Lava’. He personally guarantees that you see lava on his trips or you get your money back. The downside being that he looked fairly determined that his guests were going to see lava…no matter how long they had to stand in the rain and wait. The gloomy looking group looked on as we climbed into our nice warm van and drove off. It didn’t look like Mr Lava Lava was going to be letting them go home any time soon.

The hot springs in La Fortuna more than made up for failing to see the volcano erupting. Tabacon Hot Springs is a huge complex of hot spring pools and waterfalls feeding into each other all naturally heated by the volcanic activity of Volcan Arenal. The owners have built a posh spa hotel around it with hidden trails leading from pool to pool so you can find your self in a secluded spot surrounded by lush vegetation, listening to the night insects and watching the stars. Closer to the hotel, there is also a large hot pool bar and water slide. After a tough few hours soaking up the warm waters we enjoyed a huge buffet dinner with wine overlooking the pools….a perfect end to an otherwise average day.