It is always a surprise to a first-time Costa Rica paddler when breakfast is served. Setting corn flakes and wheaties aside, a typical costa rican breakfast is fondly referred to as ´gallo pinto´by the locals. Gallo pinto is a serving of black beans and rice cooked up with some great spices, and then accompanied by plantaines and the ubiquitious eggs. And of course, a huge plate of fresh fruit. Delicious!!
But I will confess we do not order up gallo pinto every day. Some days a big ol´plate of pancakes is a nice breakfast before paddling–especially when you are paddling six days in a row!
Speaking of serving up…the river is dishing out its finest right now. There is no one definition of ´perfect´here in Costa Rica. A high water day is about as perfect as a low water day (and usually when you have one, you are wishing for the other!!). But right now is just about perfect. The end of the rainy season has been unusually dry in the central valley of Costa Rica–which is the location of the headwaters for a number of the rivers we use over in this area. But since we arrived, sporadic rains have brought the rivers up. Today´s trip down the Upper upper Pacuare was primo. Level just right, weather about perfect (a bit cloudy, so we did not worry about reapplication of suncreen), only downside was that we saw only one toucan all day. Not a bad day!