You watch the rain, read about the damage, feel the pain for residents hurt in the floods; but it is coming back to familiar rivers and personally viewing changes that brings home how powerful water is.
Our final trip of the season here in Costa Rica loaded up under gorgeous blue skies this past week and there was nothing that could dampen the excitement of this group of veteran Costa Rica boaters (18 trips between seven boaters)….
After a freak low front brought devastating floods to Costa Rica last week, our final trip of the season started, continued, and finished with gorgeous blue skies
The surf was about perfect for our warm-up day: big (yea, intimidating) but with a really slow break so when you caught the wave, the ride was extended.
Big waves, but with a slow break so that you could get an extended ride
It was when we hit the Rio Balsa that we realized just how powerful the flooding had been the week before. Looking upstream at the put-in we were startled to see that the channel had jumped forty meters from one side of the river to the other. And downstream, boulders, trees and a whole lot of water had pushed everything from one side of the river to the other.
with water over the bridge just days ago, it is no surprise that a new channel was gouged out by trees, rocks and water
It is incredible to think of the power that pushed trees this size down the river
Washing away any available top soil, trees learn how to hang on!
One of the culprits for bringing such vast changes to the river is the make up of the rocks on the river banks: round, loose and ready for rolling downstrem. It is like having a big pile of ball bearings and then sending a whole bunch of water right towards your pile just to see where they will go next!
The piles of rocks that make up the river banks are like ball bearings: just waiting for a flush of water to come coursing down to rearrange things randomly.
A final testimonial to the flooding of just a few days prior to our gorgeous blue sky week was found on the Pacuare. Dislandia Rock is hosting a new tree trunk deposited last week during the high water excitement.
A display of the volume that coursed through the Pacuare, leaving Water was so high on the Pacuare a tree trunk on top of Dislandia Rock on the Pacuare. Good day to not be on the river!
This week we lucked onto one of the best water levels on the Pacuare after a night of light but steady rain in the headwaters: great big but not flooded. The waves were huge and crashing, but the lines were open. It was not the day for a Class III group to kayak down the river. But the option of rafting was welcome by this group.
The Pacuare was non-stop action from start to finish, giving former ERA guide Kari a chance to brush off her guiding skills!
What a fun week we had!! And for more photos of the trip, make sure and check out our photo gallery.
Class III fun all week for our final Costa Rica crew