August 22, 2005- My Birthday(!) on Pacuare River

Es mi cumpleano!

We went with Costa Rica Expeditions on their white water rafting trip on the Pacuare River. During the decision making process of picking which of the multitude of rivers to go on in Costa Rica, I finally settled on the Pacuare because it was reputed to e one of the top 10 most beautiful rivers for rafting it the world. Was considering the more intense class 4-5 Rivers but gave those up for the class 3-4 Pacuare. We left in a van from our hotel Tryp Corobici for a 3-4 hour trip to the river. We stop in an inn on the way near Cartago for breakfast, where they serve pinto (rice &beans) and eggs.

There was only one raft with Costa Rica expeditions that day and on our raft we had our guide Jorge, a very friendly anesthesiologist from Cal pacific named Michael (who incidentally lives very close to me) & 2 guys from Spain. I have to admit the river was quite beautiful. There were many gorgeous waterfalls tumbling from the top of the canyon into the river. The canyon walls were mostly lined with rainforest, though in some areas, there were steep bare canyon walls. The rapids were fun but nothing super memorable compared to the California rivers. Sledging in the Pacuare would have been quite terrifying though as there were many rock obstacles. While rafting, I kept imagining what it would be like to sledge this river. We stopped at a small beach across from a small waterfall for lunch. The guides Jorge & Alex flipped the raft over on the beach and used it as the buffet table. We had cerviche, cheese, and hearts of palm, tuna, chip & salsa and an assortment of deli meats. Not quite as yummy as the AO spread with the cream cheese salsa and sweet hot mustard sandwiches, but I wasn’t hungry anyway. Our take out point was near Siquirres. A few local boys jump off a cliff into the river and climbed onto the raft. Jorge says that there are there every day.

It was a 3 hour trip back to San Jose. We drove through Braullio Carillo NP.

That evening we went to the Grano de Oro Hotel restaurant. Mike says that the filet mignon stuffed with gorgonzola was the best steak he’s ever had. I say that yes it was very good but wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was the best ever. For appys, we had scallops and asparagus which were good, seafood crepes which was excellent. The macadamia crusted corvina was not as good. The best thing there I had was actually the fresh squeezed guarina(?) juice. Tasted a little like custard apple. It was delicious