Pacuare River

“Especially atmospheric after rain”

The Pacuare River descends from the Talamanca highlands through a gorge so deep and so densely forested that no road has ever been built into it, and the river is the only practical way through. The standard rafting run covers roughly 28 kilometres between the put-in above Turrialba and the take-out at the Caribbean lowlands, passing through named rapid sequences — Huacas, Upper Huacas, Lower Huacas — and sections of flat water where the canyon walls rise forty metres on either side and the jungle canopy closes overhead. The river is rated Class III-IV depending on the section and the season, with the highest water and strongest current in the October-November rains. Operators run the route as one-day and two-day trips; the overnight option requires camping on gravel bars in the gorge and adds sections of river that the day trip skips. The wildlife on the canyon walls includes river otters, kingfishers, and the occasional great green macaw in the emergent fig trees above the waterline. The gorge has been proposed for a hydroelectric dam several times and has resisted each attempt.