1 - 1/8/2011 - Rio Guabo (Costa Rica)

Rio Guabo Put-in

Normally, my first run of the year would be the New Year's float on the Cedar River, but for various reasons (mostly due to miscommunication and cold weather), I didn't make that trip. In any case, it's more interesting to start the year with a warm river in the jungle in a warm part of the world.

I went to Costa Rica with a group of friends, and one of the things we decided to do was to run the Guabo River. The Guabo is not far from the town of Dominical, which is a surfing town in the southern part of the country. Coincidentally, some old friends of mine own land on this river, not far below where we put in.

A few of us drove up to the put-in the day before to make sure that the road was passable and that there was enough water. There was a very narrow suspension bridge over the Rio Cana Blanca, but it was fine. There was just barely enough water. Luckily, we got a lot of rain that night and the river came up - not much, but enough to make it a bit better.

At the put-in, there was just enough water to kayak down, but after 100 yards, the Rio Angel (which may also be known as the Rio Tierras Morenas) comes in. The first few miles to rapids are class II+ gravel bars. At one point, we floated by a big lizard on a rock. We had to pull over for some boat adjustments, so one of the guys pulled out his camera to grab some shots of the lizard. After a while, someone pointed out that the lizard was a basilisk, also known as a Jesus Christ Lizard. He splashed it with water and it ran across the surface of the river!

We continued down to the confluence with the Rio Cana Blanca. We saw some local kids floating on inner tubes down a rapid near their house. Not far below this, we came to Guabo Falls, which is a steep class V- rapid. One of the guys ran it, and made it look easy, but the rest of us portaged it. With more water, I think we all would have run it.

Below the falls, the rapids changed to steep boulder gardens. These were hard to run - the leader would pick a route, which would run out, and the next person would pick a new route. We often ended up in a completely different order than we started with.

Typical Boulder Garden Rapid

After a bit, we came to an area where there were lots of diagonal ledge rocks. I got stuck in one ledge wave, extracted myself, and then went over a 4 foot ledge that decided it was time for me to flip. I dropped my paddle trying to reflip my boat, and someone else had to get it for me.

After a few more miles of rapids, we went onto the Rio Baru. A 2-mile paddle on the Baru brought us to our hotel.