mcbigelow

We are booked for a 3 day river trip with Aventuras Naturales over new years. They have several side trips available while in the jungle. One is a hike to visit the Cabecar. I am unclear as to how long and hard the hike is and if it is worthwhile trip. Has anyone done this? What was it like? Seems like it might be an unusual chance to see indigenous people or then again it might be an intrusion or a National Geographic type dog and pony show. There also is a horseback ride that visits a school in Bajo del Tigre. The tour company gives books to this school, it sounds nice. Anyway, let me know if anyone has any thoughts.
We leave on the 20th for 2 weeks with our 2 teenage boys. Can't wait!!

travelallover

We just returned from the 2 day river trip. It was wonderful! We did the canopy tour on the afternoon of the first day. Adventures Naturales is very ecologically minded. The guides we had were very aware of the impact on the river and jungle and did everything to minimize the impact.

travelallover

We are an extended family of 13 on the trip, my mom is 75 and the youngest grandchild is 14.

kazsi

Travelallover, we were the other family of 4 who rafted in with you last week. It was amazing for us to sit in our tent and to watch your mom rappell and to canopy on the zip lines! Mcbigelow, we stayed for 3 days too. We're glad we actually extended our stay for two rather than 3 days. I had my 13 and 15 year olds with me and they had a blast. We opted for the canopy/rappelling tour (Gerrardo and Shammo were great guides for this) and we then opted to horseback ride on Thanksgiving day to see the children in the village. We brought our own books. The teacher was extremely pleased that we brought the books all in Spanish print (Dr. Seuss, Curious George, the complete series of Harry Potter and the Series of Unfortunate Events). This is a one room school house with children ranging in age from about 5 to about 13 or 14. We put all the books and some school supplies in a backpack and rode up with them. It was a nice trip. We didn't have the time to meet with the medicine man because of the canopying/rappelling and horseback riding trip, but nothing about this tour was a rip off or questionable. You'll have a wonderful time. Be sure to secure your sunglasses for the raft ride out. It was pretty wild. We did lose my son on a Class V rapid. Our guide, Devon, grabbed him after he popped out from under the raft, so have no fears and have a blast. I can tell you that we're definitely planning on a return visit next year - probably for 5 days rather than 3!

kazsi

Oh gosh, I'm beat. We only arrived back from Costa Rica yesterday and I'm still not back in sync with life! I meant to say that I'm pleased that we extended our stay at the ecolodge for 3 days rather than the typical 2 day stay. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and even though we participated in a number of activities while there, it was also lovely just to relax in the privacy of our tents (and watch as travelallover's family canopyed overhead our tent!) or to swing in the hammocks and/or play board games in the area above the dining room while listening to the river flow by. You'll have a terrific time and so will your teenagers. Have fun!

mcbigelow

Thanks for the replys. It sounds great and I am pleased that this seems to be an ecologically friendly tour co. Let me know if you have any more thoughts. Esspecially from anyone who has done the indigenous trip. This will be our our last stop on a two week trip so some hammock time sounds good as well!

kazsi

mcbigelow, i'm guessing that you're working with Grettel to coordinate this trip. Ask her what you can and cannot fit in on the days you are there. I will tell you that if you have so many activities planned while you're staying at the Pacuare Lodge, something you might want to consider giving up if you need to might be the canopying and rappelling. It was great so don't get me wrong, it's just that if you happen to be headed over to Monteverde/St. Elena, the Sky Trek zip lines there are AWESOME. We did both and are pleased we were able to find the time, but if my feelings were that I wanted to horseback ride to the schoolhouse as well as ride and meet with the medicine man (which is what I'm assuming you mean when you refer to the idigineous people in the area), you may want to consider this as your trade off. Just a thought...

travelallover

We worked with Ana at Adventures. She was awesome answering all my questions.
Kazsi-Did you get the picture of "your" spider? It's posted on my son's web site(www.oversimplified.com) in my photo album. All of the rafting pictures are there too.

Jessie_

Loved the pictures! They brought back so many memories of our great trips on the river. Looks like you had some awesome waves! Water looked high too, makes for an exciting ride.

We have been several times with 3 different companies but never with Aventuras. Will have to check them out next time. We haven't been the last couple of trips because my husband had a slow recovery from shoulder surgery but he is better now so I am hoping we will get to go again soon.

kazsi

travelallover, thanks for the heads up on the photos. #74 and #75 are definitely of my spider! your son's camera is amazing. jim and i were sitting out on the deck in the pitch dark when he took that photo. i don't even know if our tiki torch was lit or not. amazing! thanks for sharing this with me. my children also wanted to say hello to nick. they really enjoyed his company. they only wish they lived closer so that they could spend some time on the slopes with him! thanks again! kimberly

travelallover

It was my husband taking the spider pictures. We held the flashlight and used the flash on it. I'll tell Nick hi from your girls.