Extreme Canyoning Adventure in Turrialba


Went a 'little' out of our comfort zone with an extreme canyoning adventure near Turrialba. This involves walking through one of the 25 separate canyons in the area and repelling down the waterfalls. We had done a little repelling a few years back in New Hampshire as part of a zip line tour but this was a bit more intense.  The tour began by driving with the two guides about 15 minutes up a steep, winding road as is usually the case anywhere you go in Costa Rica away from the coastline.  We then got our gear and hiked about a mile even further up the mountain to where the canyon began. The last quarter of a mile we were hiking up the side of the canyon and had to be tethered to the canyon wall in case of a slip.


The second of the three waterfalls we repelled down was a hoot as, all the way down to the pool at the bottom, we were showered over by the waterfall.  Awesome!


It was fun trying to let your butt down first before following that down with your feet. My style here is a bit lacking as you are supposed to keep your feet a bit more spread apart.


In the video above you can hear the guide yelling 'Laurie, Laurie'.  This, at first, was distressing because we thought we were doing something that needed correction when in fact, he just wanted to get a good video with her looking at the camera and smiling.

A brief rest after waterfall number two as the guides relocated some of the equipment for our last falls.


At one point my body acted like a pendulum and swung over to the canyon wall.  Not even a scrape but it was tough to get myself righted and back to the center.


The middle waterfall not only had the most water but the pool at the bottom was rather deep. Here you can see Laurie in that pool and not touching bottom. She pulled herself 'ashore' by using the guide rope.


The final repel of the day involved some water pouring over our heads but mostly we were down the side of the waterfall.  We did not feel tired at the time due to the adrenaline coursing through our body but we certainly would feel it the next day as we used some muscles that we generally do not use.

A fist bump for success.  That is a widely used gesture here in Costa Rica much like a high five in the States.  This was a hard earned fist bump at that.  So much fun!

Our two guides were Eric in the back with us and Enrique being Enrique in the front taking the selfie.  Being a character like that is a good way to take a selfie as otherwise the person taking the selfie always looks a bit contrived.

Above is the headquarters of Pure Canyoning, the outfit that ran our tour.  Small but thorough operation!


A view down the small side street that led to the house that they base the tours out of.


This is Rosie's house.  A kind elder lady that allowed the two guys to run tours out of her house.  Not only that but she cooked us a fabulous lunch after our tour was over.  Awesome.








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