Happy New Year!

Hey everyone, Ben here! Happy New Year, Feliz ano nuevo! So, after some time spent in quepos, which was slightly unenjoyable, we went up to Turrialba. There we found hospitable people and good water to run. Our first day in the Turri was spent on the Upper Orosi, where we found some mank and some good boofs.... I talk about all of this in the video, so hopefully it will work and it'll be sweet! So, check out the video post and enjoy some tropical land pictures! We'll be posting up again after we go to La Virgen. Once again, Happy New Year, and we Miss all you folks back home and in Montana!




P.S. - we have a sweet satalite tracker device that Bradford brought. It locates us whenever we use it down to a 'T' on Google Earth. It sends whoever wants it an email notifying them of the cooridinates with a link to Google Earth. So, if you're interested, send us your email in an comment at the bottom of the post, and we'll get you on the email list so you can see where in the world we've been boating! We hope you enjoy this new feature and feel free to post comments, questions, or anything other nonsense. We want to hear from you guys, whoever you are! SWEET! Adios!

The Greatest Adventure Is What Lies Ahead

After our source to sea Pacuare adventure, Bradford and I decided that Ben and Pat would want to adventure back to Turrialba, so we would move on and return later. We headed to San Isidro de General to check out what that place had going on.

After a sweet excursion in San Jose involving a very bonita tica girl name Veronica, (you may have talked to her if you called Scotiabank for customer service. She is required to say that her name is Amy Sanchez, and she prentends to be from the US.) we found ourselves in a sweet hotel in San Isidro. Veronica´s grandmother hung up on us when we tried to call her, so we had an uneventful night.

The next morning, we were off to rio Chirripo Pacifico. We thought the intense class V and VI section would suit us so we put in. The technical difficulty wasn´t surprising, but the arduous, sugarcane hacking scouts with other multiple hazards made us want to run rapids that were not suitable for running. A while later, we were back on the road pulling wasps out of our hair... All of our hair! We hitched a ride with Rodger to the lower put in and bumped down a couple miles of junky read and run Class IV which brought us to the 1 mile hike back to the main road where we scored another free ride back to San Isidro.

Early the next morning which happened to be christmas, we woke up and got a ride to the town of Savegre Abaho which was high, and near the source of Rio Division. Low water made it a little chunky, but we found several miles of class IV boulder drops of the highest quality. We made it down the Division to the Savegre to within about 6 miles of the ocean that night. It was a good way to spend Christmas.

The next morning, we made the trip to the mighty Pacific Ocean, where we planned to make the 8 hour paddle to Quepos to save some money. After getting thrashed in multiple overhead waves trying to get past the surf, we were a bit discouraged and we only made it a couple hours before I got seasick and needed to call it a night. We were nearly out of water when I remembered being sold pipas at the beach last year. we got out the machete and went in search of some young coconuts!

This morning, we woke up after a very wet rainy night and got on the ocean bright and early. Several hours later, I was very seasick and we finally made it to Manuel Antonio beach where Bradford and I spent the next 3 hours trying to hitch a ride to Quepos because we were sick of the ocean. After an incredible lack of success, we turned down an 8 dollar taxi ride, and paddled two hours on the ocean to Quepos.

Once in Quepos, we found that our meeting point hostel for Ben and Pat had no vacancy. Bradford sat with the boats while I checked prices on hotels. When I returned, I had had a huge double take when I saw a Giant Red Rocket of a boat and Ben sitting with Bradford on the side of the street. After the great reunion, we set out to the hotel, and here we are. We plan to run the Naranjo with our new friend we met on the beach named Kanutto tomorrow. Hasta Lluego for now!!

-Casey

Rio Pacuare

We flew into San Jose 2:35 on the 18th. Once the bus dropped us off in San Jose from the airport we realized our Turriabla bus was 20 blocks away. Since our funds are limited we started walking. A good while after dark us and our 80 plus pound boats finally reached the station, and away to Turrialba we went. Once there it took four tries to find a suitable hostel as our barganing skills are not so hot yet. Next morning we wake up exchange some money buy some bags of beans and off we go to the source of the Pacuare. Still keeping our funds in mind we have decided to link the pacuare into a multiday trip, saving expensive shuttle costs. Also keeping the funds in mind we decided to go with human power to get our boats from the furthest point a truck could make and on to the river. Unfortunatly this means traveling over an extremely steep and muddy mountain pass. We had heard two hours via horse along with someone saying only 45 minutes of steeps. We stared at 1pm, and again it was not until dark did we finally arrive at the river. We quickly ate our rations of food that were not even close to filling set up the hammocks and went to bed. Sleeping in a healthy amount after the not so restful, but lesson filled first night in the jungle we put on late the next morning. The late start was not helped either when my largest dry bag split along the seam. After lots of rearranging and a random local kid happy to have a nice new bag we finally set off on our first tropical river.

Here is a short update brought to you from the heart of the Upper pacuare gorge just after blood hydrolica day two of four:






Our camp sites for the evenings have been everywhere from relaxing and senic to a constant soaking and bug infested. We float by a spot that looks inviting and beach our boats. There is not much time before it gets dark so we set up the tarp and hammocks fast. Even so we still have time for the constant repair of gear, or the eternal search for exotic and delisious tropical fruits. It rains every night, but thankfully we keep mostly dry. For a little bit a least.
This morning we woke up to our last day on the Pacuare. Took off around twelve and spent the next few hours getting to Turriabla for some food, and dry bed. Tomorrow we head out for San Isildo where we will try and run the Charripo Pacifico and possibly Naranjillo section of the Naranjo.

We are almost there

Casey and I leave for Costa Rica in less than a week and will start boating immediately. Ben and Pat meet us there ten days later. For the next 3 weeks we will boat together as much as possible. Running everything from the local stretches to 3 and 4 multi day expeditions. Mid January Pat and I say goodbye to Ben and Casey as we take off on the next leg of the adventure. I actually do not know where we will be going when goodbyes are said but one of these three locations will more than likely be it.

Chiapas/Northern Guatemala
Northern Honduras
Maya Mts. of south central Belize

For the next month and a half we plan on scouring maps and local beta with the intent upon finding remote and unexplored drainages. Lastly we hope to end up in Nicaragua's western coast for a bit of spanish school and surfing. Pat then leaves in time for the annual Cataract trip and Stillwater organizational time. I stay behind and continue learning spanish till April. When we finally are all reunited again it will be just in time for Montana's steep and deep spring runoff!

There it is. So keep The Shuttle Rig as your start up page, because very frequent updates are about to start flowing in!