Costa Rica - Day 10 - Uvita

Today we had a canyoning tour booked with Costa Canyoning. This was one of our most anticipated adventures while in Costa Rica, and definitely one of my highlights.  The tour included a river hike, rappelling down 6 water falls, a swimming hole, and natural water slide.  

We arrived there around 8:30am and were met by Scotty, Barney and Raven.  They were all classic surfer dudes, super friendly and very personable.  Rob and David from the day before were part of our group, as well as an older guy and his uncomfortably young Chinese girlfriend.

We got fitted for our harnesses and helmets at their camp, and then were loaded onto the back of a pick up truck to drive to the canyoning starting point. I love Costa Rica for moments like that…it was no big deal that a bunch of human cargo were driving down the roads, climbing up steep hills into the forest, through shallow rivers, and just hanging on for dear life.

Once at the starting point, we had a quick tutorial on what to expect during our tour, and a bit of safety instructions. We were told that the most likely injury would be a rolled ankle from hiking through the water. I believe it...the stones were mossy and slippery, and sometimes you couldn't see the bottom where you were stepping.  Many times I'd take a step to find there was no ground left and dropped straight into the water! 

It was a lot of fun hiking through the river.  Even before we saw any of the rappels, this was the best hike ever.  It required a bit of clambering along...sometimes stepping carefully, other times we'd have to use all fours, and occasionally it was just easiest to get on your butt and scoot down the smooth rocks like a slide.    The water was a bit cold because we were deep enough in the canyon that we weren't getting direct sunlight.  The scenery was stunning: trees tall above us, rock faces and waterfalls everywhere.  It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to take our cameras, but luckily Scotty kept his waterproof camera handy and set us up with a ton of photos afterward.  Really though, he and his team would have been the only people with the stability to take a good picture…the rest of us were too busy trying to keep our balance in the running water.

Our first waterfall was about 20' and was meant to be our easiest.  Barney and Raven just dove off the cliff into the pool below to set up for us.  It looked pretty cool but a bit nerve-wracking for all us foreigners who aren’t used to diving into rushing water. 

Scotty demonstrated how to rappel and what NOT to do. Their motto was Feet Flat, Lean Back.  If you're on your toes you'll slip forward and crash into the rocks, and if you're on your heels you'll flip upside down and hit the back of your head on the rocks.  You have to be 90° to the rock face to be the most secure. All that was much easier said than done.  It was really hard to just trust your harness and rope and allow yourself to lean far enough back to be perpendicular to the wall.  If Scotty hadn’t have been so encouraging and confident I’m not sure where I would have found the confidence to give it a try. 

It took a long time for each individual in our group to brave our first rappel.  The first two guys went very quickly because they felt like they knew it all already.  But they slipped and were shamed for their bravado.  The Chinese girlfriend (hereonin rightfully referred to by her name: Tina) didn’t heed the ‘feet flat, lean back’ motto and flipped upside down, but successfully sorted herself out.  Her older manfriend had super skinny legs and he slipped a lot, too.   

When he felt you had the knack, Scotty kicked some water on your face from above. When Christine was going, he instructed me to kick water at her.  I hesitantly did it, but kinda wimpily because I didn't want her upset at me, then Scotty kicked extra water at her because my attempt didn't meet his standards.  She didn't look impressed with me, but hopefully she's since forgotten.

The girls and I did pretty good!  We were slow, but for the most part didn't make mistakes.  It was very scary going over the edge, trusting that the rope was strong enough to hold you up, and the harness cuts into your lower back so it’s not the most comfortable sport in the world.  The worst part of that first waterfall was one spot near the bottom where you had to stand on the rock face using only your toes, hang your heels over the ledge, and just lower yourself on the rope until your whole feet made contact.   At the bottom, we had to let go of the rope and kick ourselves off the wall into the water below. This was a bit of a challenge for me because of my intense feelings for cold water, but clearly it was worse for Tina, who panicked and her manfriend leaped out to rescue her. She just ended up pushing him underwater and Raven jumped in to rescue them both.

The second rappel was 40' in height and gave us the option of zigzagging into the waterfall or descending adjacent to it.  I mostly went next to it but tried to get in a bit, too.  My distaste for cold water prevents me from full awesomeness.  

The third waterfall was even larger but a dry rappel this time so we went down it two by two.  I partnered with Sandra.  On my side, there was one steep ledge where I had to step down from my perpendicular positioning onto the horizontal ledge.  That might sound easy enough, but believe it’s scary and physically difficult to balance on leg and step blindly down whilst changing your centre of gravity. It worked out thought.  Sandra beat me to the ground.

The fourth waterfall was another fairly small one, the fifth a medium one, and the final one was about 80'.  You had two choices for this one: the “Rad” way, or the “Radical” way.  Both were steep and slippery -the most challenging yet- but the “Radical” one also provided the pleasure of having to cut in through the waterfall for a few feet.  Being 90° to the wall face also meant the full weight of the water is crashing down directly on your stomach/chest/face.  Sandra, Caroline and I did the Rad route and everyone else manned up and took water in their faces.

I got to go first and for the most part it was like all the other ones except longer.  The top was tough to get over but thereon down it was alright, just very high.

Sandra and Caroline made it down well, and we watched nervously as the rest of the group came down the “Radical” route.  The two Americans nearly ran down the falls, more reeling and bouncing than climbing.  The old guy had some trouble but recovered and by the time he reached the bottom his short was stretched out to a sexy off-the-shoulder number. Tina also lost her footing but persevered and made it down.  We were really impressed with her. The rest of our girls got down pretty gracefully except for a couple of forgivable slips.

They told us after that Barney at the top of the ledge and was laying down in the river to redirect some of the water to help us out.  Except for the Americans… for them he laid down to collect a pool of water, then quickly got up to send a heavy dump down on them.  And that’s why you should never be rude to your guides.

Since us ‘rad’ chickens went first, I was very cold by the time the rest of the group joined us at the bottom.  We had to get back into the water again to get to our final location, and to take this sweet  group photo with the last waterfall in the background.  

We plotted through the last stretch of river to a sunny swimming hole where the water was much warmer.  We jumped off the rocks into the deep pool and then swam towards a quick current that scooped us up and sent us along a mini rapid.  After a few seconds you needed to kick off back towards the rocks to avoid getting sent further downriver. My first time through that route I didn't kick off soon enough and was almost swept away.  Not sure where I would have ended up but I’m happy I didn't have to find out.

Once the truck arrived we all clambered aboard and headed off to the shop. On the way Sabina was chatting with us and Sandra yelled her name. She turned around in time to get a branch in the face.  Barney laughed, then paused to say it wasn't funny, then couldn't help but laugh at her again. Luckily she was all right.

Back at the headquarters we reminisced about our best and worst moments of the day, and ordered sandwiches from a sandwich shop Sandra had really online about, which lived up to their reputation. Scotty told us about how he's brought his two year old on the canyoning tour in one of those child carrier pouches, including on the radical route!  When we tried to tip him, he passed all the money along to his team, which was really nice.  He even called a few different shuttles for us too, to help us figure out how to get to the airport the next day.

We hailed a cab to take us to the beach to watch the sunset. Sandra, Heidi and I had a long romantical walk on the beach, discussed how fortunate we all are, while the other girls stayed put on a log to enjoy the scenery.

Once back at the hostel we split our times between packing, napping, and internet before regrouping for wine, guacamole and chips, and Cards Against Humanity.  We hit the hay at 10pm, and Care, Heidi and I made plans to get up at 5:45am the next morning so we could walk to the Whale's Tail for some last minute snorkling before our 10am airport pick up.