I'm stuck. Is the water low enough on the Pacuare in March so that it's mostly Class III rapids or easy IVs? I think I'll be too scared with real strong Class IVs (I've been a few a long time ago). Rios Tropicales says the water will be medium and I don't know what that really means as far as the second half of the trip and they didn't answer my more specific questions.

If I go in March, I'd like to hear from those who have done the one and two-day trips to see which I should take. I like the idea of staying overnight but I'm worried there might be too much downtime. Suzie says not. Others say do a one-day.

Thanks.

It depends on how much rain they get, but different sections of the river can have different class levels. Tell them you want class iii only and see what they say. March is still dry season, so it should be ok. If your nervous about rafting, you might just do a one-day thing this time. By the way, I used to recommend Pozo Azul, but my friends at Swiss Travel told me that they had some trouble w/ them taking people out during the rainy season when the water was too high and too dangerous and I guess there were some problems or accidents. Now they will not work with them and prefer to use Rios Tropicales. They say they are very reliable and safe. Swiss deals with many, many tourists, so I value their input.

Sandy

We did a one day rafting trip with Rios Tropicales. It was fabulous. Everything went perfectly. The guides were great, the scenery stunning, and the food was delicious.

Our trip was in Feb, which is obviously not March, but it was my first true rafting experience and I too wandered about this class 3-4. Nothing at all too scary and I am a real scardy cat!. I would suspect the conditions would be similiar, if not a little calmer in March. But then again who can predict rain?!

Go for it! It was a total blast!

We are in Monteverde right now. A few days ago we rafted the Pacuare river with Rios Tropicales. Everything was first class and very professional. Nothing too scary. Sit in the middle of the raft. The water level was medium. A highly reccomended experience. We did the one day trip. Rios Tropicales has a very nice set up for the two day raft trip as well. The one day trip is a full day. They pick you up at your hotel at 7 am and you are back around 6 p.m. They supply a great breakfast and lunch at their base'camp. The two day trip is the same river length, but more leisure time to explore and hike around. Enjoy.

I am also very interested in this river trip. The Rios Tropicales website says this is one of the 5 best in the world; I'm not sure where they get this from, but do you think it a substantially more enjoyable than the Sarapiqui trip? That is, should I pay the extra $20? I'll have a car, and another website is only charging $50 instead of $70 for a Sarapiqui trip if I provide my own transportation to the launch site.