La Fortuna - Canyoning

Sunday's excursion was probably my all time favorite thing we did over the break. Through a hotel recommendation, we signed up for canyoning (some call it canyoneering) through a world-renown company, Desafio. What an adventure it was! Canyoning is an extreme sport that mixes rappelling, hiking, down-climbing, and river tracing in to one action packed trip. The picture above is the river we worked through. It's called the Lost River because it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the rainforest next to the volcano.

The company picked us up at our hotel Sunday morning around 7:30 after another delicious hotel breakfast. They drove us by van along with the 10 other people about 10 minutes, just outside of town. From there we were transported via 4x4’s (which are pick-up trucks with the back end built to hold passengers). We went on the world’s bumpiest road for about 30 or so minutes more, during which we got to know our fellow canyoners. There were two other American girls and two Costa Rican guys on our 4x4. The other 4x4 had a family of 4 and a young married couple (who actually happened to be on our volcano hike the day before). We also got to know a couple of the guides who were on our truck.

We arrived at base camp to get into our gear and get a preliminary safety course. They suited us all up with leg/waist harnesses, helmets, and gloves and we learned about what our trip would look like. On this trip we would be rappelling down 4 different waterfalls which ranged in heights from 20 feet to over 250 feet!! It was an amazing feeling to get to the bottom of the 250 foot waterfall and realize what we had just accomplished!

During the way, there were a few different surprises: the first one was jumping into a deeper part of the river where we couldn’t reach. 100% completely submerged which also means 100% completely soaked! (I had one of the guides, Eliano, hold my glasses for me…They were a little inconvenient during this tour, but I was thankful to have them to be able to see the beauty in the rainforest!) The second surprise was a human dam that Eliano created while the rest of us climbed down what would have been a big waterfall. Instead of making it all the way to the bottom, however, six of us sat where the water would have been for a “photo op.” The photo op began with them telling us to brace ourselves as Eliano stood up and all that water came rushing down! (This time Hernan held my glasses for me) Here's some photos:

After rappelling the final waterfall, we hiked a little out of the way to see another one. According to one of the guides, it is the most beautiful waterfall they know of in Costa Rica and they were right. We stood underneath it to see the gorgeous rainbow all the way around us and then began our climb out of the rainforest. This might have been the most difficult part: 10-15 minutes of solid uphill stairs. Talk about exercise! After we reached base camp, we were all so excited! We did it! We changed clothes and dried off before making our way upstairs for lunch. It was a very typical Costa Rican lunch with rice, beans, chicken and potato stew, yucca, coffee, and juice. It was delicious and was an awesome way to finish up our time there.

We sat and chatted with some of the guides (at least 6 guides for the 12 of us…talk about a great ratio!) while we ate. We also purchased a CD of photos of me and Kristen throughout the morning. It was $25 but well worth it! After lunch, they drove us back to our hotel via the 4x4s and the van again. We got home exhausted but exhilarated after completing such a task!