I am so thrilled to discover this wonderful forum! Planning our first trip to Costa Rica and can't belive how much great information I learned from your posts...
Question about Cano Negro -- there seems to be two options, one is by motor boat, the other one is kayaking. it sounds like the second option would bring us close to nature which is very desirable (unless it is very dangerous). Which option to choose? And, if we go with the kayak, does it mean that I'll be paddling for several hours (I've never been on a kayak before)? Thank you for your help and I look forward to bringing back to you my stories of wonderful Costa Rica...

Hadn't heard of the kayaking option before. We loved our tour with Sunset. There were only 7 of us, and we had a great time. Saw LOTS of wildlife, as much as we would have seen by kayak, pretty sure. The guides are very helpful.

There are a couple of ways to look at this. Most of the local birds and animals are going to be used to the motor boats and probably won't be disturbed by them. We certainly saw plenty while we were in one. Being able to get into areas where there aren't motorboats should, in theory, be a good opportunity to see even more stuff. The migratory birds will be less used to the motors so your gliding into their territory where there is less activity might not scare them as much. On the other hand, someone yelling "over here!" to anyone that might not be right with the group will scare them off as much as a motor. I love to kayak but on some group trips that I have been on people tend to drift apart at least a little and often the ones that are the nearest to the guide will see things but if you have drifted off and have to get back or catch up to the group, you might miss what they were looking at. A lot depends on the people you are out with. Most people on the trip will be interested in finding things and will know to be quiet and stick with the guide.

I think you will be amazed at how easy the kayaks can be to move along. Because you will be looking for animals and birds you will be moving pretty slowly and drifting part of the time. You will also be stopping frequently to see things. The first time I kayaked was in the mangroves in Puerto Jimenez. We then went into the rougher waters of the Gulfo Dulce. I was hooked after that and have been asking Santa for my own kayak to use at a nearby lake for a couple of years now.

As far as any danger....haven't heard of anyone being eaten by a caimen yet!

I've done both. I hadn't kayaked (?sp) much before, and it was several hours, but lots of fun. However, you'd do better with wildlife on the motor boat---you won't have to have to watch where you're going. Have a great trip---you'll love Costa Rica.

Good point batson57!!!! The sounds of kayaks crashing together while people are looking up in trees would be a little loud too. LOL

Thank you guys for all your help!

ive done both, the motorboats can get almost right up to the bank so ur not missing anything and u get the benfit of the guides info.

http://costa.rica.typepad.com/cano_n...ome/index.html

Just came from there and did the motorboat. It is a long way up the river, we went all the way to Nicaragua.
The boats can glide right up to the banks so no problem seeing wildlife. If another boat driver sees something special he radios other drivers to come see. We saw a rare bird that way. The drivers are very enthusiatic and ours even jumped off to land looking for a rare blond spider monkey that we did see.