Canyoning, what a blast!

                                                      CANYONING IN COSTA RICA

Today we manoeuvred our way down waterfalls, over creeks through Costa Rican showers and dropped 200ft straight down over the last waterfall.  It was a rush to say the least.  We were picked up at about 10am (had to let the princesses sleep in) by a air condition van with comfy seats and were taken to the bottom of the mountain.  We then boarded at Costa Rican, mountain limo (reminded me of the red truck cabs in Chaing Mai Thailand.  We travelled up the dirt/rock road for about 20min to the base camp.  Once there we were equipped with our harness, helmets and safety instructions.  Alex had to keep reminded them she was left handed as she was set up opposite to the rest of us.  They had three rules. 






1.  Stay Safe
2.  Have Fun
3.  Get wet




And we definitely did all three.  Good thing Costa Rican rivers are not glacier fed or we would have frozen.  In fact they are ground fed from under ground springs and run off from rain water.  Quite warm by Canadian standards.  We started off slow and worked our way to 200ft.  We had great fun learning how to use the break with your strong hand, lean back and bounce off the rocks.  Bill took this a little literally and really bounce off the rock.  He was busy talking to the guide not watching where he was going and dropped from one rock to another within the creek.  Reminded me of skiing at Big White when he flew off the rock cliff and did a garage sale.  Thankfully it was only a skinned shin and overstretched calf muscle.  His first thought when we stated was he hoped no one got hurt, guess he forgot.  It should be all on the go-pro if we can get it figured out.  Our guides were fantastic with Defacio Adventures.  We had five of them taking care of our group of 14 throughout the adventure.  Half way down the first repel the guide filled his helmet up with water and threw it down on top on you as you attempted to get your barrings and figure out what you were suppose to be doing.  The jungle was amazingly beautiful and full of strange foliage.  We were able to see a small green and blue lizard that was climbing on the rocks.


No wild life but that was to be expected given the number of people that go through the canyon on a daily basis.  About half way through our guides told us we were going to have a Costa Rican shower.  This entailed one guide lying his body across the creek blocking the water flow, about 15 feet below the next guide did the same thing.  We hiked below them and positioned ourselves in the creek like we were going to ride it like a waterside.  Once we were all in position the first guide let his water go and then the next....... all we heard was a roar of water cumming from above and then it hit..... it was like sitting in the middle of a class 5 white water in B.C.  only the water was warm.  It just flew over our helmets and into the creek below.  their only instruction was to press your hands against the rocks so you weren't swept away.  We have it on DVD but i don't  have the ability to upload it until I get home.  Stay tuned and I will update pictures.


  The final drop was over a platform that you couldn't see the bottom.  You just trusted the guide hung on for dear life and free felled 200fr. down.  I thought Bill would scream louder than i did but he said his heart was still at the platform when he left and couldn't even manage to let out a peep.  What a trooper, for someone that is afraid of an 8ft roof.  Serena and Alex were super sports, they followed the instructions and were pros by the end.  I think they were quite impressed with their first adrenaline junky extreme sport tourism.  After we were finished we had to climb what felt like 500 stairs out of the canyon back to base camp.  We then showered and changed into our dry clothes and were fed a delish Costa Rican meal.  No cold cerveasa though.  Thailand has one up on them.  I guess I should have put that on my review sheet.  As we boarded out Costa Rican Jungle Limo for our trek out it started to down pour, but it was all good we were under a canopy and it was warm.  We met some great people and the girls heard some amazing travel stories from Irland, to the Galapagos, to the Great Barrier Reef and an African Safari.  Fried bananas were a hit today and now they figure we should learn how to make them ourselves when we get to the beach.