If you’re a white water kayaker, but find yourself housebound due to winter, treat yourself to a paddling trip to Costa Rica with Bryson City, NC-based Endless Rivers Adventures.
Ken and Juliet Kastorff, owners of Endless River Adventures, have been guiding Class II – Class IV+ trips on Costa Rica’s wet and wild white water for more then twenty years. This familiarity with the country’s rivers, and the loyal partnerships they have established with local hotels, restaurants, and drivers, creates a memorable international paddling trip for you.
They take care of all the logistics and itineraries so that all you have to do is show up and spend a week paddling beautiful rivers in temperatures that range from 70 to 80 degrees. Leave your drysuit and other cold-water paddling gear at home.
Aside from its vast ecosystems, advanced conservation programs, stable political climate, and friendly people, kayakers will find uniquely diverse opportunities. Rivers like the Sarapique, Balsa, Pejibaye, Pacuare, or Naranjo will tease you with a visual feast of flora and fauna at almost every turn: Rain forest, sloths, toucans, parrots, herons, hawks, oro pendulas and otters. Not to mention clean water that flows under canopies.
Getting to the rivers is an immersion of the best of Costa Rica. You’ll travel through quaint towns where ox carts still haul sugar cane and bananas from fields. You’ll see a volcano or two. You might even see a tree full of giant iguanas or a river full of crocodiles. At the end of the day, you’ll relax in comfortable hotels and dine in restaurants that serve up great local delicacies like fish burritos, fried plantains, and turtle eggs.
Each Endless River Adventures trip in Costa Rica begins in San Jose where an ERA representative will meet you at the airport and take you to the base hotel, the starting and ending point of your trip. At the hotel, you’ll meet Ken and Juliet, your drivers, your guides (safety boaters) and the group you’ll be paddling with the next seven days.
On Sunday, the first official day of the trip, you’ll travel to Jaco, a surf town on the Pacific coast. Here you’ll spend the afternoon kayak surfing on the beach and watching a spectacular sunset in the evening.
For the next six days, you’ll zig zag throughout the country paddling a different river each day. After the final run, the group heads back to San Jose for a final evening together. Stories will be shared, Juliet will award prizes, and Ken will pass the celebratory bottle of Tequila.
Boats and outfitting are all provided by Endless River Adventures. They keep an inventory of high-quality boats from Wavesport and Fluid. All you need to bring is your paddle, spray skirt, helmet, PFD, paddle bag and other gear that you normally use on the river.
What I love so much about these paddling trips to Costa Rica with ERA, and what keeps me coming back year after year, is the family-like atmosphere that thrives. When you paddle with Ken and Juliet, you’re not a customer to them, you’re a part of their family.
Custom trips are also available.
Visit Endless Rivers Adventures online for more information on paddling trips to Costa Rica--and Ecuador!
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