Piper Wall, Dave Hillman, Kurt Pelzer, Chris Pelzer from Iowa

Endless River Adventures outfitter (rivers, lodging, meals, transport, Juliet, Joe, Daniel, Miguel, Fabian)

Mazy, Phil, Kevin, Scott from various other states (TX, TN, NC, FL)  

Day 1, Saturday, November 19

Leave Dave Hillman's house at o-dark-hundred to check in at the Cedar Rapids airport for our 6:55am flight. Feel bad for the 4 people not going to Aruba by way of Chicago and for the Continental person working solo with a pretty decent line of people and an electronic check in kiosk that wasn't checking in (at least not passports).

Wait, wait, wait --> get checked in and take stuff to baggage scanning --> answer "paddles" in the bag question --> gate/smooth flight to Houston for connection --> move crisply along to connection gate --> arrive at start of boarding  

Packing strategy --> put essential paddling gear (helmet, pfd, spray skirt, air bags, booties, rash guard, river shorts, and splash jacket) in carry-on, put helmet cams and related electronics in "computer" bag carry-on

Houston boarding (larger plane: three seats wide on both sides of the aisle)--> Hillman gets on first with his paddling gear, mine gets gate checke

Fly to San Jose, Costa Rica --> land in rain --> exit plane and try to find out where to wait for gate-checked baggage: The two airport folks in the moveable walkway into which we debark from the plane have no idea what I'm asking (I don't know Spanish for any of the needed words). End up going farther up the walkway and ask the two security folks near the into airport end. They also have no idea what I am asking, but they indicate that I must continue up the walkway and into the airport; so I do. Once in the airport, I am fortunate enough to ask a gate attendant who does know what I'm asking and tells me that gate-checked baggage goes with the rest of the baggage for picking up rather than back to the person right at the plane as has been my experience with smaller aircraft doing in the USA flights.

Hillman and I and Mazy, a fellow paddler in our group who turned out to be sitting near Hillman on the plane, head for baggage and customs. All of our stuff has traveled with us (WooHoo!), and we are quickly spotted by Miguel, one of our week's drivers.

Mazy has been in Costa Rica with the Endless River Adventures folks before, and on our van ride to the hotel we find out that so has Phil but not Kevin (both picked up at the airport with us).

(Chris and Kurt flew from Chicago to Mexico City with a change to AeroMexico and a very late night arrival in Costa Rica; so they had to get a taxi to the hotel when they arrived.)

Meet with Juliet and Danniel at the hotel about 2:00pm; get ch ecked in; then Hillman, Phil, Kevin, Mazy, and I spend the afternoon walking.

We opt to walk to the square --> herds of people, see a few parrots, watch an interesting pigeon (walk one direction with the people for a short distance, fly back to its starting point, repeat). On the way back, Phil introduces us to Trits, yum!

When we return to the hotel, we note that just a couple blocks from the hotel in direction we are going is "the end of the world." Daylight is a bit faded, there is fog/mist, and the road goes from slightly downhill to simply gone. We touch base with Juliet, Danniel, and Joe; then Phil and I decide to check out "the end of the world" before we all head over to supper. At the end of the visible from the hotel, we discover a steepened downhill to a spiffy tall building (maybe apartments?) to our right with a traffic turn around circle straight ahead of us, fencing, a nice fountain piece, and a path along the fencing to our left. We take the path to the end of the world - a cut-off hillside with a road far below and, within hearing but not visible, a river far below and beyond the road. The far side from us is a mystery, totally enshrouded in foggy mist.

Day 2, Sunday, November 20

Chris and Kurt arrived with all of their stuff (Yipee!). Our entire group eats breakfast together, and then we all head to Miguel's place and outfit our kayaks. On the way to Miguel's, we spend some time on a major multiple lane highway on which are also a very large flock of motorcycles of the just-bigger-than-motorscooter variety, apparently out on a group ride. I'm quite sure I wouldn't want to be in San Jose traffic on a motorcycle of any sort even with a whole boodle of other motorcylists. (In fact, I wouldn't want to drive anything in Costa Rica. Traffic "flows" with minimal clearances, and there are no street signs or street addresses. Stop signs and stop lights have the flavor of suggestions. The roads have no shoulders and are shared by cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, motorscooters, bicycles, hand carts, pedestrians, and dogs.)

From Miguel's we take our 2 vehicles for the week and go to the beach (Jaco, on the west coast). We spend the afternoon surfing the beach break, the 1st time ocean surfing in kayaks for many of us. The waves are 6 to 8 feet from trough to crest.

Ocean surfing, paddling out

Getting out through the surf zone is exciting and some work. Waves coming in but still green can be paddled over. Sometimes you even get a bit of an air launch going up over big but still green ones. Once a wave is breaking, things get a bit different. If you have misguessed about whether you'll make it over a wave while it is still green and it breaks on you while you are paddling up it, you are in for some trundling. All of us experience this at least once. The key to rolling up after the end for end is to figure out which way the water is going (while you are upside down underwater)- you can only roll up on the side away from the beach (water going up, not water breaking down on you and your paddle). Once you figure out the side on which to set up and do so, the water rolls you up bracing (different from rolling up in rapids, similar to rolling up in a hole).

If you read the incoming wave correctly and know it is going to break before you could paddle up and over, it is best to have it break sufficiently that you are going through whitewater that is

like the downstream side of a hole except that it is elevated relative to you and moving rapidly towards you (instead of being below you with you moving toward it). You have several choices as the breaking wave approaches. One, you can start back paddling and get a back surf. Two, you can turn 180, paddle hard, and get a front surf. These are probably the least likely choices when you are paddling out because you will then have to regain the most surf zone distance. Three, you can punch through going straight into the oncoming whitewater, much as you would punch a hole. Four, you can turn sideways and lean/brace into the oncoming wave. I found this required a certain amount of faith but worked quite well, even better in many cases for least distance lost than did punching through straight forward. (With all of these options, if the wave is too freshly breaking, you are going to get trundled.) I also found that the quickest and therefore least overall work getting through the surf zone involved really paddling hard between sets of waves and working at losing as little progress as possible in the breaking bits. The more intense paddling out bits led to less paddling work overall to get through the surf zone because of the decreased time and therefore decreased number of waves needing to be dealt with in some fashion.

Once through the surf zone and past where the waves were breaking, it was pretty neat to ride up and down the swells. It also didn't take the sort of work involved in getting out there.

Surfing in

To surf in, you had to figure out your acceleration timing to be moving pretty rapidly beachward on the rising swell ahead of its crest. If you timed it correctly and had enough speed, WooHoo - you were surfing in. Key bits were not to pearl (an issue for the playboat I was in but not so much for some of the other kayaks) and to lean/brace into the wave face propelling you toward the beach.

Besides the fun of paddling out, going up and down on the swells, and surfing in, it was also a lot of fun watching everyone else's rides and carnage (going out and riding in). Chris and Daniel had some nice spins; everyone had good rides; and everyone participated in some carnage (most trundling happened going out, but some pretty good trundling also occurred with mis-timed or inadequately leaned into the wave face rides in).

From our rooms in Jaco, we can look out on the ubiquitous "tin" roofs. We also spend some time in hammocks and eat what will be our standard paddling lunch of cheese, sliced meat, bread or tortillas, peanutbutter, mango, pineapple, avocado, and a desert (most commonly Yipees!). Suppers are in restaurants. Breakfasts are in whatever lodging (rice and beans, pineapple, watermelon, mango, fried or scrambled eggs, ham or bacon, and toast or tortillas).

Day 3, Monday, November 21, Rio Savegre

Quite the drive to our put in. Miguel's vehicle is "the little van that could" - very steep grades up and down and some significant mud bits of driving as well. Fabian also does an amazing job of driving with the trailer; maneuvering it with no hesitation.

The river is a bit cool, and the day is very overcast and raining. I go with a shorty drytop over a long sleeve fleece; this turns out to be a good choice for me as we get no sun the entire paddle (a theme for this trip, as things turn out).

The Rio Savegre has many very excellent wave trains to ride. Some are straight forward roller coaster style, and others have some diagonal and sideways wave confusion to add fun. We are also introduced to "wall shots."  

Wall shots

Costa Rican rivers are very young in a geologic sense. With this youth, the rivers often have current running pretty straight into a wall for a 90 degree channel turn. The current hitting wall results in a pillow along the wall as forms when current runs into a midstream rock. This rising up water folds back over onto the oncoming current along the wall, creating a feature much longer than the pillow on a midstream rock. The running strategy we are using is to go with the water towards the wall and make the sharp turn with the downstream flowing water with a boat edging involving the wall edge being down and even some body lean towards the wall. The seam between the reflecting back water and the running toward the wall water is a bit interesting, and the rides zooming along the wall are great fun.

Pretty early into our run of the Rio Savegre we have a shore based scout of a rapid. The water is running hard towards the river left wall as the channel makes a hard right turn (wall shot with extra interest). The move is to start river left and paddle toward river right at the correct time with the correct speed to account for the rate of water flow carrying you downstream while you paddle toward river right. The plan is to ride the folding over "pillow" along the edge of rock and over the drop, then ride the swirly funk water on through into an eddy out. If you get too far right too upstream, you'll be dropping sideways into a bit of a diagonal hole type feature waiting to swirl and probably flip you. If you don't get far enough right soon enough, you have the potential to ride on over the pillow and off the rock edge beyond for a probably unpleasant and rambunctious rolling episode. I spend the most time shore scouting, including moving farther downstream to get closer looks at the folding over "pillow" and trying to really commit watermarks for when to be river left and when to be moving from river left to river right. While I'm still considering, several paddlers paddle on down, and all do fine (some line variances, but all within the bounds that work). Chris and Kurt are still at their boats when I get to mine. I can feel that my heart rate is significantly elevated, and I have the full on butterflies in my stomach feeling. I know the consequence of a missed line is rolling - no big deal. But the type of feature feels very new and intimidating, and I don't feel dialed in and confident. I consider walking and dismiss it because the consequence for being off is simply rolling (albeit in rapids and squirrely water, not something I haven't done before).

Chris and Kurt kindly sweep after me. I mosey on down river left to my watermarks and start going river right. I can clearly see where I want to be and hold up a little because it seems to me that I am making progress towards river right a bit more rapidly than I want. Of course, I then discover that as soon as I am out the end of the slower water (tail end of an ill defined eddy), I am moving downstream more rapidly than anticipated and am going to not be as far right as desired. I brace/ride the pillow, slide down the drop, "ride" the swirlies, and am happy to have run it (and am annoyed not to have hit my line better)

Kurt follows me, and Chris follows Kurt. Chris has the most interesting move at contact with the folding over "pillow" but braces well (weight supported by boat), keeps it upright, slides the drop, and rides the swirly water.

We have many wall shots through the day and one more with some degree of what the land scouted drop had (but much more line slack in where you make the left to right move and do the drop). Kevin tries out the roll in this exciting drop, then calmly signals for a T-rescue, then does the swim. Paddler and gear retrieval and reunion is fast and low stress and onward ho to lunch we go.

More boily water and small whirl pools, confused waves, strong current, wall shots, and great fun take us the rest of the way downstream to our take out. At some point on the run, a tributary carrying a high load of reddish brown sediment enters the Savegre, and the water we are paddling goes from a relatively clear greenish blue to a not clear reddish brown - interesting look as the two defined waters mix. After we take off the reddish brown water and change to dry clothes (in a light rain), we head back to Jaco for the night.

Day 4, Tuesday, November 22, Rio Balsa

When we go to breakfast, Miguel sees 2 Macaws high in the same tree with 5 or so vultures. He tells us there are Macaws, and those of us already sitting at the breakfast table immediately follow him to where we can see them. They are far enough away that their bright colors aren't that distinct. I zip back to my room and nab my binoculars, nice difference. The macaws are doing personal and shared grooming activities, and their colorful plumage shows nicely with the binoculars.

We drive from Jaco to the Rio San Lorenzo and the Rio Balsa. On the drive we go up, down, around, and around as we wind our way along the coast and through different elevations and weathers. The mountains are beautifully shrouded in fog and mists in the valleys and at various elevations. Some of our drive is dry with some blue sky; some is in misty drizzle; some is in rain; all has cool scenery.

We stop at the put-in for the Rio San Lorenzo; Joe says it is looking rather low for a good run; so we go to the put-in for the Rio Balsa. I, for one, am feeling much more tuned. Lots a small catch-on-the-fly waves for short surfs as we go. We spend some time at a very nice stern squirt spot with several of us working on our squirts. We have lunch at a spot across the river from a very fun stern squirt spot with a wall pocket eddy. I spend a bunch of time working my stern squirts while lunch prep is happening. Kurt also spends some time playing with the pocket eddy.

Pocket eddy

The current was flowing speedily along the river right wall after a wall shot hard left turn. The wall after the zoom down the wall shot ride had a milder right turn. Just around the right turn, a pocket big enough for a couple kayaks to share and still position for moves was present in the wall. The current cruising past the front edge of the pocket had a defined line for squirting. At the back edge of the pocket, the current hit some of the pocket edge creating a fun pillow effect. Many of the squirts resulted in a little seam fun with the pillow and flowing by current when paddling back into the pocket for the next stern squirt - most entertaining!

Along with lunch, Juliet shared some rolling strategy bits with us. Then we headed onward to enjoy more whitewater play (waves, surfing, boils, whirlpools, and wall shots - generally smaller than on the Savegre)

and more rainforest scenery including some fantastic river wall

and a really neat flock of white birds (some type of egret?) that was swooping in formation low over the river coming towards us then circling back and repeating.  

From the take out, we went to El Tucano Lodge - very spiffy: volcanic springs warmed pool with falling water and hot tub, lots of very pretty flowering plants, excellent rooms with nice gear drying patios (the rain theme continued, so our gear never actually reached a state one could legitimately refer to as "dry"), and a scenic creek.

Day 5, Wednesday, November 23, Rio Sarapiqui

I do some morning walking around El Tucano Lodge before breakfast. It is misty and wet. I see a hummingbird and 4 Montezuma Oropendula. We leave in rain heading for the Rio Sarapiqui.

We see more beautiful countryside and arrive at the put-in in rain. A commercial raft group (3 rafts, 3 or so kayaks) is also putting on, but we don't see them again after they paddle away before us.  

We enjoy lots of nice rocks with some spots of fun maneuvering. We get in some good play (stern squirts and eddyline cartwheels).

And we try a new citrusy fruit at lunch (Scott refers to this fruit as "monkey brains" - eat the seeds and gelatinous insides, pretty tasty).  

We also see one of a few solo snowy egrets to be spotted on some of the rivers.

From the take-out, we head to Turrialba where we stay at the Wagelia. That evening we discuss doing the Pacuare on Thursday, a 16 mile run with some class IV rapids (all of which can be walked around). We each have the option of staying in our kayaks or of rafting and are to make our various decisions by breakfast. Meanwhile, the rain continues.

Day 6, Thursday, November 24, Rio Pejibaye

Turrialba is pretty large, and Chris and I take a morning walk uphill from our lodging for an elevated view.

We also walk about in amongst the businesses as well and visit a nice one block park with concrete benches and concrete Costa Rican wildlife (jaguar, frog, tucan, macaw, monkeys, snake, capybara, armadillo, coatimundi, and turtle).

At breakfast we sample a new citrusy fruit (spiny outside, gelatinous insides with one large pit, pretty tasty).  

We also find out that our paddling plan has gone from Plan A (Pacuare) to Plan B (Pejibaye) because of the all night and continuing rain.

Much of the road to the Rio Pejibaye has batches of significant potholes, and much of it is along fields of sugar cane. As usual, Miguel and Fabian do a masterful job of driving.

As with the Sarapiqui, Dave and I were on the Pejibaye in 2003; however, the water was not the sediment heavy brown then that we see today. Looking at the river, we go from Plan B to Plan C and put in at a lower location on the run. We make 2 fast and fun filled runs from this put-in to a take-out bridge. The water drops enough between runs that the second run differs noticeably from the first. We share the river with a couple raft groups who also went to the Pejibaye instead of the Pacuare.

On the second fast run, we stop for some lunch at the take-out bridge option before paddling onward through some additional rapids and then a fairly long flat water lake paddle into a bit of breeze. By paddling farther downstream, we are able to paddle part of the Reventazon, with which the Pejibaye joins before the lake (created by a dam on the Reventazon). The rain swollen tan water of the Pejibaye joins the brown water of the Reventazon very shortly after the Pejibaye take-out bridge. Apparently, the Reventazon carries more run-off all of the time. With the joining, we enjoy bigger wave trains. The wave trains and the lake scenery are well worth the flat water paddle out.

We return to Turrialba for a second night at the Wagelia. For supper, we drive high above Turrialba. The lights of Turrialba are visible before our meal but hidden by mists by the time we head back down to our lodging.

In addition to the mist moving in, whatever got in Mazy's right eye on the river amps it up during supper from an irritated, annoying feeling to pain, tearing, and swollen eyelids.

Day 7, Friday, November 25, Rio Pejibaye

After evening saline irrigation and an eye patch night, Mazy and Juliet (one of our guides, all of whom speak reasonable amounts of Spanish) go to the hospital after breakfast to have Mazy's eye checked out. The rest of us go back to the Pejibaye.

The road is the same, but the Pejibaye has dropped perhaps 2 feet and is now a clearer greenish color (the color Dave and I remember from 2003). We go to the upper put-in and love the section from the upper put-in to our put-in of the day before: lots of fun maneuvering required.

Kevin has a swim in part of the upper section and, unfortunately, loses his paddle. The rest of the day he uses a break-a-part from one of the guide's boats (Kevin is the only one of us without a spare paddle on Fabian's vehicle). We take out at the take-out bridge (which happens to be an old bridge being replaced by a new bridge).

We are all happy to see Mazy and Juliet at the take out with Fabian and Miguel. Mazy has a fine new eye patch, ibuprofen, and eye antibiotics and is having less eye pain.

From the take-out we head back to San Jose. The road takes us well above the valley containing the Reventazon, and we stop for a lunch break where we can look down at the river far below.

We arrive in San Jose well before 5pm rush hour traffic and are very glad (bad enough then).

Day 8, Saturday, fly home

Miguel drives us in 3 different batches from our San Jose hotel to the airport. Chris, Kurt, Dave, and I are the first batch; we leave the hotel at 5am for Chris and Kurt's 7am flight and Dave and my 8am flight. Traffic at 5am is sparse, and the airport bits are also easy (exit tax, various security checks). It is raining as we board our plane and leave San Jose.

Dave and I do the customs thing and plane change in Houston. Our trip weather holds; it is raining in Houston. When Dave and I arrive in Cedar Rapids, it is raining there also. By the time we leave the airport with our stuff the rain has tailed off, and I get a dry evening drive home