The van came for us at eight to go to the river. The total crew was eight, mostly inexperienced, rafters plus three experienced river guides, two safety kyakers, one photographer, and support crews to wrangle the gear.
The Rio Toro runs north from Lake Arenal towards Nicaragua. They spill the water from the lake in four hour bursts to power the dam. The section used by Delafrio (our guide group) is called the "Corridas de Toro" or "Running of the Bulls". It is eleven miles long of nearly constant rapids, all class III and IV.
We had three boats, ours with five plus Jorge (our guide). Katie and Rhett are from Atlanta, Lindsey is from Chicago but is working at a hotel in Costa Rica and us.
The gear is simple, a tight life vest with extra front floatation and a head rest, a crash helmet and a paddle.
The commands are simple: front, back, stop, lean in, get down, jump the boat.
The rescue procedures are simple: grab the boat, or stay on your back with your feet pointed down "stream". Swim to the kayak or boat but don't really swim. Get pulled into the boat.
We practiced for about 10 minutes and took off. The water was about 65 degrees, which is, as we were told "not cold". Turns out it was perfect.
It was cloudy and overcast most of the day but it only rained a few times and we were too busy to notice.
Scott went over on the first rapids... And again on the second. That was making me nervous but they rearranged their boat and settled in.
It was wonderful. We worked HARD, and got WET the whole time. It was by far the best tour so far. I can' t explain the rush or the turn by turn decisions but I give high praise to Jorge. It takes a lot of skill to get a team to work together so quickly and so well. He had to judge how hard each side of the boat would row on every stroke, how hard the river would pull and where it would spin us around.
Our team did great, not losing a single member over the side except of when we all spilled out in a tangle in the Macho Room. It is the most challenging of the rapids and we leaned away from the canyon wall just as the raft went up the wall and the result wasn't good. Lindsey and Sid remembered to grab the boat on their way out. Sid came up under the boat but pulled free quickly. Katie and I both swear we came under each other and had to fight free. We got our feet pointed down stream and banged off a few rocks. I couldn't figure out how to swim to the kayak so I pointed Katie that way and pointed myself at another raft. Along the way I collected two paddles which made everything else a challenge. I couldn't use my hands and when the blades would catch the water my feet would spin to the side.
I gabbed a paddle from the guide and was hauled in close. Some one grabbed the paddles, the guide grabbed my life jacket by the sholders and hauled me most of the way in. While I scrambled the rest of the way in he hauled Rhett in and dropped him on my back, called the rest of his team to get down (we were still in a fairly tricky part of the rapids) and then called us all back up to paddle. The whole event took maybe two minutes but was the highlight of the run. No one was hurt. "Pura vida!"
We pulled over to reassemble our team and continued on. A few rapids later we stopped for a fruit fiesta (fresh cut pineapple and watermelon). While we stopped one of the guides showed us a tiny orange frog with blue legs. There were more the 20 vultures eating something caught in the rocks not too far away. And an impressive quantity of large animal scat on the bar where we stopped. As we started back down a trio of wild horses came through the grasses to the water's edge. Giant grasses, like sugar cane trees.
After we pulled out they took us back to their "house" for an excellent lunch eaten on the porch while it rained around us. Then they brought us back home. Of course we bought the CD of pictures including the spill.
We napped for awhile then went to the hotel Hot Spring and the cleaned up for a night out. We took a cab to the Benedictus Restaurant (best steak in La Fortuna). We arrived just as Zach and Melissa were leaving but they invited us to their hotel for drinks so we went to Hotel Las Lagos after dinner. This place is amazing. But we missed them so we headed back home.
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