Canyoning in Costa Rica

Having scrambled down a lush, slippery ravine, I’m about to step off a 60-metre wooden platform and descend ass-forward through an ice-cold waterfall.  Wearing my hard hat, I look like a swollen tick sliding down a strand of dental floss. No matter how often I do things like this and no matter how many times I safety-check the ropes, there is always something unnatural about forcing my body to do something my brain would rather it didn’t. As a survival instinct, my mind flashes images of cracking carabiners, shredded rope and rocks as sharp as daggers. They call this the Lost Canyon, but I’m not sure if that’s because it’s only recently been discovered, or because it’s reserved only for those who have lost their mind.

I’m in Costa Rica, which is surging ahead in its quest to become the world’s premiere eco-tourism destination and is gaining ground in adventure travel, too. Sustainable, environmentally friendly projects are the norm in a country where more than 25 percent of its land is passionately protected from development. The country’s biodiversity offers terrific jungle, river, ocean and mountain adventure. It’s no accident that eco-activities like canopy zip-lining were invented here, and canyoning is poised to be the next big thing.

The idea is to head somewhere remote and make your way up or down a particular gorge, relying on a range of wilderness skills to aid your escape. Until I arrived at La Fortuna, located in the Alajuela province of northern Costa Rica, I had never heard of canyoning, but it’s a popular activity the world over. South Africans call canyon exploring ‘kloofing,’ the Japanese call it ‘river tracing’ and our neighbours south of the border add a few vowels to call it ‘canyoneering.’ Having really taken off in the last decade, canyoning combines aspects of climbing, hiking and, where appropriate, swimming. One could add dangling, balancing, leaping and waterfalling, too. The dangers are many: flash floods, inaccessible rescues, heat, cold, falling, getting stuck and, in Costa Rica, encountering poisonous snakes like the one I almost stepped on just a few minutes into the adventure.

It took years for husband and wife team Suresh Krishnan and Christine Larson to prepare the Lost Canyon for the average, adventurous visitor. Christine, a former adventure guide, and Suresh, a member of the Costa Rican Search and Rescue Team, operate Desafio Adventures in La Fortuna, the sole operator conducting tours to the canyon. It was the Desafio staff who delicately cleared debris from the newly discovered canyon, navigating the terrain and a myriad of strict national eco-tourism bylaws to open it up to the public in early 2008. I was among the first groups in, accompanied by a suitably impressed certifier from the American Canyoneering Association.

Ropes, gloves, harnesses—the provided gear is not unlike that of mountain climbing, except that it’s going to be getting very wet, and ropes and water mix like rats and royalty. Suresh has driven us deep into the jungle (which, in Costa Rica, is only a few kilometres outside of town) and we have clambered to the top of a narrow ravine. The first waterfall is just a few metres high, something to literally wet your feet. It provides a refreshing shower as the rich green foliage provides shade from the sun above. As I make my way down the rocky ravine, I wade waist-high through clear pools and scale over rocks like a cross between Tarzan and Spiderman.

The entire excursion to the Lost Canyon is an exhilarating mix of hiking, bouldering and wading through rock pools, until we arrive at the highlight of the three-hour adventure: the 60-metre drop. I take a deep breath, lean back and begin to abseil directly through the waterfall down to the rocks below. Midway down, I pause as Suresh swings me in and out of the cascade, the icy force of the water and the pure thrill of it all eliciting a scream. Harnessed and somewhat helpless, I’m surrounded by pristine nature, experiencing a natural baptism within the bosom of Costa Rica.

If you go:

Desafio Adventures runs three trips to the Lost Canyon daily, providing transportation, equipment, qualified guides and lunch. It costs $90 US a person, and lasts for approximately four hours. Make sure to bring secure shoes or performance sandals, swimming gear and a change of clothes. For more information, visit desafiocostarica.com

Robin Esrock is the co-host of the OLN adventure series Word Travels.

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