I’ve been hanging around the beautiful Sarapiqui River. It’s a great spot with a few fun tributaries, too. The river is carving itself back out after an earthquake a couple years back, and the town of La Virgen is rumbling to get its rafting up and running again after the earthquake took out the main road to the town and caused the sides of the river to cave into themselves. Especially the Sarapiqui Outdoor Center, with tico kayaking legend David “Sombrilla” Duarte letting me tag along on trips down the Chirripo and Sarapiqui. I’ve been really lucky to meet and paddle with Sombrillo and his partners Paul and Travis… also met another dirtbag travling kayaker that goes by Townsend.
I got to run my biggest waterfall! Posa Azul, or “blue pool.” Ok, so it doesn’t sound super intimidating… but the thing is tall! I’m guessing 33 ft. We ran it in playboats, with some great photo and video op’s.
There is a beautiful creek in the runout of the pool that leads back into the Sarapiqui River and carries us right back down to the Sarapiqui Outdoor outpost. SWEET.
There’s a play wave right out from the outpost as well. It’s pretty fun and changes a lot with the level. I’ve seen it completely flushed out when I ran the lower Sarapiqui section at higher water. The player’s left side of the hole is right up against a rock wall, though. It’s easy to get pushed over that way, resulting in some hang-out time before you can book it back to the eddy on river left… I had to hike back up the a couple times after flushing too far down!
Today, I spent a little time riverside with the people that live near the Sarapiqui. People were extreme intertubing, practicing their roll in a rainbow sherbet-colored Necky Gliss, playboating, and swimming around. It somehow didn’t rain last night, which is rare for the rainy season, so the water was clear blue and low. This is a beautiful place, and I’m staying with Sombrilla’s parents Dona Meche and Don Carlos, who treat me like a confused gringo daughter – wonderful people with lots of patience with my cultural and language learning curve.
