I'd Rather Be Canyoneering
Geek out about the awesome sport of canyoneering! Whether your relationship with canyoneering is exciting and new or tried and true, we've got you covered. We'll be exploring a new topic each month. So come drop in with us!
I'd Rather Be Canyoneering
Canyoneering in Costa Rica
Katie shares how she fell in love with the canyons of Costa Rica and why you’ll want to add this incredible country to your canyoneering bucket list too!
Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Katie
Carma:and I'm Carma and you're listening to, I'd rather be canyoneering.
Katie:We're best friends who totally geek out about canyon rigging and beautifully slot canyons. Basically we'd always rather be canyoneering. But when we can't, we spend every spare minute, we have talking about it.
Carma:This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please seek professional instruction and practice technical skills in a controlled environment before entering slot canyons. Your safety is entirely your own responsibility.
Katie:Welcome to our canyon crew!
Carma:Hey everyone. Thanks for dropping in with us again today. We're gonna switch things up. We're gonna hit kind of a lighter side that's not so technical. Katie recently went on this awesome trip and we thought it would be super fun to tell you all about a place you might wanna go canyoning someday. So Katie, where did you go?
Katie:I just got back from Costa Rica because. In love with that country,
Carma:I mean like what makes it so amazing?
Katie:Some of the things that just blow my mind when I'm down there. There's this one canyon that I wanna tell you about, and it was Ga Madea, and it's not super long and it's, a wonder. It's like a gem. I remember my first time in that canyon. Getting to the first big repel, and I'm standing at the top of this waterfall looking over and this teal water is just falling down. And I'm looking over at all the jungle vines like straight out of Tarzan and ferns that are just as big as me. And then these giant blue morpho butterflies come flapping around the top of the waterfall, a pair of'em, and just standing there with my husband, and this is like our 10 year anniversary. It just blew my mind. And then we did the rappel and that waterfall, actually, there's a second waterfall that comes in from another direction once you get down there and the teal waterfall meets with a lavender waterfall and the lighting was. On a dark day, you might not see it quite as well, but on this day, the lighting was perfect and the water just shown like gems. Probably one of the most amazing moments that I've ever, ever stood in the canyon. and I just fell in love with Costa Rica right then.
Carma:Yeah, that sounds like avatar, honestly. Like, it sounds like otherworldly, how does that happen? Yeah, it's magical
Katie:Absolutely. And then this trip, one of the days that it rained, we kinda had to go quick on our canyon, to beat the storm. We came out and we were having lunch as a big storm came through, and that actually, brought the two cans out. They're black and so they don't like to get hot, and so one of the naturalists I was talking to said you're more likely to see a two can on a rainy day. Out and in the sunshine where you can see it rather than hiding in the shade of the leaves. So that was, that was kind of a magical moment. Cause I'd really been hoping to see one of these, yellow chested toucans, and I did. So it, it's cool.
Carma:they were on your list. You got one for a animal. Bingo.
Katie:Got home from my animal. Bingo. I had seen one on my first trip, but it was kind of in the city on a telephone wire. And it wasn't like, like where? It's not super magical, but this one it was magic
Carma:Yeah, something, uh, you guys probably don't know yet about Katie, but she really loves animals. So it's one of the things that, if she comes back from a trip, she's gonna tell you exactly what animal she saw,
Katie:It's true. I mean, I've got exotic animals, I've got sugar gliders, and uh, I've got a list of animals that I wanna see in the wild someday. It's kind of my unicorn list.
Carma:Hmm.
Katie:going down to Costa Rica, I've been able to, uh, knock a couple off the list
Carma:So for those of us who are like geographically challenged, where is Costa Rica? Exactly, because I know I got it wrong when you first told me you were going there.
Katie:Fair enough, fair enough. Costa Rica is in Central America so most people can kind of maybe picture where the Panama Canal is and it's, right down there. It's a bordering country down there. And, right by the equator, which means it's got a lot of tropical climate, similar to kinda your Caribbean climate. Lots of rain, lots of humidity, lots of heat, uh, but it's not a desert heat. It's, it's a really cool, humid heat. I love it. My husband sometimes are on the coast. He's like, I can't breathe over here. Um, but He definitely doesn't complain when we're in the mountainous areas, which is where a lot of the canyons are. They're more in the mountainous areas and less on the coast.
Carma:So what is the country like in Costa Rica? How easy is it to get around? Are people friendly there?
Katie:Sure. I really enjoyed it. I've had the good fortune over the years to have gone to a lot of countries. And I'm not trying to like country drop here, but just as a comparison. I've been to England and Scotland. I've been to the South Pacific, so like New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, I've been down to Peru and Mexico and some other countries too. But as a comparison, I would say that Costa Rica was probably one of the easiest countries that I've gone to. Very, very tourist oriented, but not tourist. So,
Carma:That's nice.
Katie:Ecotourism is huge. In Costa Rica. The country has made great efforts to preserve the natural resources. So they have national parks, they have animal and wildlife conservation areas. They have lots of places that are being protected in order to protect the wildlife and the environment. In fact, they've been recently. Buying back some of the banana plantations in order to protect the reefs. They have found that not only have flash floods kind of harmed the reefs, but also the chemicals that are sprayed on the banana plantations can also hurt the algae and the reef life. So they've been making an effort to buy that land from farmers or, uh, to encourage farmers and, and give them funds to switch the crops to something that's less harmful. It's really cool seeing what they're doing to protect the.
Carma:Yeah. That's awesome. So how's the food there?
Katie:Oh my gosh. Okay. So not only do I own sugar gliders. Sugar bears, I am also personally a sugar bear. I love all of the fruits. Okay. I mentioned I, I have an animal tick list that I wanna see in the wild. I also have a goal to try passion fruits from about 20 different countries in the world. And so the fruit in the tropical areas blows my mind. It's like flavors you've never tasted before in your life. So I'd have to say that the best tasting juice in Costa Rica, you have to try the Mari and that is their passion fruit. It's not the same as every other passion fruit. Every country kinda has the one that they call theirs. So I don't know how this compares to other passion fruits in terms of similarity, but it's delicious and that I can't tell you
Carma:Was it easy to get around the country? Like, how difficult is that to navigate?
Katie:basically, Renting a car is pretty easy. My first night in a foreign country, I do like to get a hotel kind of near the airport, and a lot of times there's a shuttle service. I do like to do that just when I'm getting in late. And then come morning, I'll go pick up my rental car so that I'm not like blurry eyed and delirious while I'm signing paperwork. It's my own personal preference. um, But, Google Maps. Is okay down there. Waze is preferred and what I've been doing is just getting in-car wifi and that way I've got, like all the country chips, it's harder to put a chip in your phone than it used to be, so I just do that in-car wifi and for that navigation was so much easier than my first time.
Carma:Oh, good good. Yeah, I mean, so I've been to New Zealand in Hawaii and I remember like the roads there are kind of crazy cuz you're on an island and there's a lot of mountains and volcanoes and the roads are like these twisty turn snakey, crazy cliff on the side type of roads. Is that how it is in Costa Rica too?
Katie:Sometimes. So I would not drive out to bajo still Toro in the dark. In fact, we thought about it and I said no, because there are some of those roads that are really just like looking down a big fat cliff. There aren't a lot of them, but one of them does do that, and you don't wanna be driving it in the fog and in the dark. We just, we drove our rental car out to Baja del Toro in the. Pay for the toll roads, they're totally worth it. There's a lot of potholes out there as people are just trying to maintain these roads that are constantly getting hit with rains and rains and rains.
Carma:Okay, perfect. Good to know. What are the canyons like in Costa Rica? Because really that's what you went for,
Katie:that's what I went for. So my first time I wasn't sure what they were gonna be like or who I could find as a guide or anything like that. So I planned, two days of canyons and when I came back, I planned like six days of canyons because they're just that good. Yeah, that's all I wanted to do. They're amazing. They are aquatic and playful and splashy and fun. I thought they would also be warm and that was my mistake.
Carma:that's what I would've guessed is that you're in a tropical place, so won't you be in warm water.
Katie:you're in a tropical place, but you are also at high elevation where a lot of the canyons are, and that's the difference. Most of the canyons are in mountainous areas, and we're talking about elevation similar to Utah's Wasatch range you're talking about that five to 8,000 feet and so you're, you're high enough up that even though it is tropical, you want a four mill wetsuit or higher. I was in my 5, and five. So I had a farmer jane, kinda the overall style and then a jacket that went over that. it puts five millimeters of farmer Jane, and then five millimeters of jacket on my chest for 10 mil and I was quite comfortable. And then some days I would take my jacket off.
Carma:So when you were in the canyons, can you just filter the water in the canyons? do you have to bring all your water with you?
Katie:So it depends on the canyon. a lot of the ones we were doing were around volcanoes, the tops of the volcanoes, there's more of a sulfuric acid content in the air and in the water. And so don't wanna be drinking acid water if it's coming from one of those. So we generally just carried water with us. and you stay so cool that I didn't feel like I was even drinking very much, but I'd usually just bring an algae and a gator.
Carma:Well, and so do you have to worry about the acidic water coming in contact with your gear? Does it
Katie:So I did rinse mine off every night, but it wasn't such a high content that you feel it. The first time I went, I felt it on my fingers by the second or third day. But I was also wearing some gloves that they have that padding in'em, like kind of a gel foam padding in there. And I felt like those gloves, they were holding a lot of the water on my hand. And so I felt like my fingers got more beat up the first time. And I just felt it kinda like if you skin your finger is what it felt like by the end of a couple days of canyons. The second time I went, I just took like garden gloves and then I didn't feel it at all. They didn't hold the water on my. We kind of like split it up a little bit more. Our second time down there, weather was more agreeable and so we got to choose between kind of acidic ones and not, and more freshwater ones. But it does matter the bolts that they use down there. It's very specific, which type that they need so that it doesn't rust within a year just because of the interactions of the chemicals.
Carma:Another question I had for you about the canyons. Did you get to do a lot of slides?
Katie:Oh my gosh. There are so many natural waterfall slides. Yes. Very splashy,
Carma:See, that sounds even more fun to me than a jump. I think a slide would be really fun.
Katie:The water park side of it was definitely there. Some of them were short little ones, and some of'em were like 20 feet steep ones that landed in a huge splash pool. There was two like that, that was just like, whoa, that's big. Oh, here we go.
Carma:Yeah.
Katie:That was one of my favorite parts too, cuz it, just makes you feel like a kid again. Just like you're on a playground exploring things for the first time. Also more jumps than I've done. That's probably what stands out the most about Costa Rican canyons, is I love to fly. And so doing these, some of them just have like little, like eight foot jumps and some of'em have 25, 30 foot jumps. And what's really cool is the water is so clear that you can see where you're going. You can see where you need to jump. We had a guide with us who knew the canyon like the back of his hand, and could just really tell us where any hazards were. And so that was probably the thing that I love the most is that when I wanted to jump, I could,
Carma:Did everybody do the big jumps or there were options, right? If you didn't wanna jump, or did you have to jump.
Katie:you never had to jump. Um,
Carma:because I'm a weenie. Like I would ws out after it's like 10 feet high. I would w out
Katie:thought I would, because I've done a few jumps in Seattle and I look at like the videos of me doing my jumps in Seattle last year, and I was like, oh, look how nervous I was. And then I look at these in Costa Rica and I was like, look how confident I was. And I mean, part of that was that I, you know, I got comfortable with my shoes and how sticky they were and what I could and couldn't do in'em. So that was part of it was just my confidence as a jumper has really gone up a lot more in the last two years. And a lot of times there was anchors on the dry line and anchors a splashy line on the flow line. And then if you didn't want to, our guides were really familiar with it and they could set up a meat belay so they became an anchor knowing full well that they were perfectly happy to jump as the last person.
Carma:Yeah. Lots of
Katie:Yeah. So there was never a time when I had to, but I actually met up with some friends, in their sixties plus down there, and these women were doing the jumps. I mean, they're total bad asses. Um, but I just had to say any time that I was like, oh, do I want to? Then I was like, oh, dang, look at her. Go. Uh, yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Got this.
Carma:So how crazy is that, that you actually ran into people that you
Katie:It was so fun. It was so fun.
Carma:How, kind of wild were the hydraulics on the waterfall repels? Like were you in anything that was intense or was it pretty tame?
Katie:It's gonna be weather dependent because these canyons can completely change if it rained all night the night. they're very versatile. But when I went the first time, they were probably a little stronger my second time. It was more gentle and splashy and just super playful. And there were dry lines that we could have taken. But compared to my trip to the Pacific Northwest, these were much more gentle and fun and playful. and they don't carry as much like debris. So like some of our US canyons carry, like pine trees can get, you know, thrown down in there and stuff, and really strong items. Whereas the foliage is just, tends to be a little softer in Costa Rica. So like, if a vine gets dropped into the water, you know, it's, not the same as like a giant oak tree or something. There wasn't nearly as much debris in the canyons to get tangled in. The water was just smooth and more clear and clean. Every once in a while I wanted to check, uh, the bottom of a waterfall, and every once in a while there'd be too many bubbles where I'd be like, I can't see through the white bubbles, even though I had my goggles with me.
Carma:right. We should post this video, but there's this fun video of you going kind of down this chute as you're repelling a waterfall. And the reason why it's really cool is because the water changes with you. It looks like it plays with you as you go down. It's really
Katie:Oh yeah, that spot. It was really cool. It was like the water was dancing.
Carma:Yeah cuz it really just like changed the shape. The flow of the water as he went down it and it, it just looked really fun.
Katie:I really liked that spot. Love those canyons. Love how they pool up. Love how they look. Some of those spots just, it's not like a dirty old pothole. It's like a pristine pool that looks like an infinity pool. That would be at a high end. Hotel, you know, it's just like, wow, nature made this. That is so cool.
Carma:Yeah. It's not like some stanky beef stew
Katie:Right. Don't stink after I get out of it. Also, the, um, anchors are really improving down there. There's a lot of people working really hard to bolt those anchors and get things set up so that it it's maintained and places where it used to be, you know, off the roots of something is now nice and clean for the, the amount of traffic that they're getting. I don't know everyone who's down there. I was down there with Johann and, and we had a good time with. some of the anchors have been really well thought out that. Used to be bolts and are now V threads. So up near the top of some of these volcanoes. The acid really destroys the bolts fast and there's nobody, you know, wants to carry up a saw to cut those off later. They've now moved to V threads that are going through the rock. And so you can put a giant piece of cord, like a 30 foot piece of cord through a couple of spots of holes in the rocks. And it's really strong rock cuz it's what's left after lava came by. And these V threads are working a lot better than your traditional bolts and just a lot of thought and carers going into people trying to get these, these canyons ready for, you know, traffic and for people who are coming to visit it and to. Pristine and looking nice.
Carma:That's awesome.
Katie:Yeah. Nobody wants to see nine chopped bolts like got rusted out, so people just taking the care to place them in the right places and use V threads when needed.
Carma:I mean, it sounds like they're trying to innovate to keep the canyons really nice and safe at the same time.
Katie:Yeah. and it's just people who have other jobs and other things that they're doing, and they're traveling five, six hours from their hometowns to come to these places with canyons and spend their week up there working on, these projects. So it's very cool.
Carma:Sounds like they have a good community that's growing there.
Katie:Yeah,
Carma:Okay, so when you were planning your itinerary, what were some of the factors that you, thought about when you were planning out your days?
Katie:Posta Rica doesn't have a summer, winter type of weather pattern. They actually have a wet season and dry season. And dry season only lasts for about two months, and dry season is when it only rains half of the days. So in trying to plan my canyon I realized that, hey, you know what, this is a rainforest and it might still rain 50% of the days, even while I'm down there. So in order to not be sad on days when it was gonna rain or There was potential for flash flooding. I took my location and I also found places that were within one to two hour drive that if I needed to just call the day and say, today is not a canyon day, that I could go and do that. So I found, like a biological reserve that I could go check out. Uh, sloth sanctuary, some night hikes. Frogs are noc. So seeing like the poison dart frogs and the red eye tree, frogs and things, and the nightlife, the Kinko J are nocturnal too. So kind of having that as an option in the back of mind, there's a lot of hot springs that you can go see. And then I also looked at. Canyons that I, thought the waterfalls were spectacular. I checked out which ones had hiking paths that could also go see those waterfalls, even if it wasn't the right day for the canyon. And that way I had backups and I could also pace out my day if there's a day when I'm like, I am just too tired. To be a rigger today to do rigging and to do the canyon. Not that that ends coming up, but I had that kind of a backup if one of the canyons kicked my trash and the next day I wanted just an easy hiking day, waterfalls and hummingbirds type of day. Oh my gosh. The hummingbirds, there's as biggest pigeons out there. They are huge. So amazing. One of the reserves I went to actually has wild hummingbirds coming up to it, and they're purples and blues and amazing, and they have some feeders out there for them, and for me. They took away the little foot stools on the feeders, and one of them landed on my finger and drank from the feeder. It was so amazing. There's a lot of treasures and gems out in Costa Rica, even if it's not a good Canyon Day.
Carma:It's always better to have a backup plan, right, that you like actually wanna go do. Cuz then it makes it so much easier for you if you have to call a canyon that you have something else that you're excited about to go do. I was gonna ask about beaches, but I'm imagining the beaches aren't as close to the mountains, like for a day off of canyoning. Like do you have to go farther away to get to a
Katie:So for the canyoning in this region, you do kind of have to drive to get to a beach, but we went to Bajo del Toro, and then there's a, a beach about two hours away in HaCo. So we weren't opposed to driving that far. Another thing that we just kept our minds open to was that this is our shot in a foreign country. And if we had two bad days of weather, it wouldn't hurt us to. Another hotel just on top of it. Like if we had driven all the way to HaCo and said there was two days of bad weather, we might've just picked up an Airbnb in HaCo and stayed there for a night and then come back to Canyoning, you know, almost two days later. But we could spend two days at the beach and then come back to Canyoning if we wanted to. And it really wouldn't be that much more expensive, uh to add that extra layer of flex.
Carma:Right and what are the beaches like
Katie:Very cool. Very cool. So some of the best surfing in the world is in Costa Rica. Also, they've got some reefs I have struck out twice on it, because I thought I could just like go to the beach and that was known for snorkeling. The beach on the eastern side that I wanted to go to, actually, they were still having a lot of rains and so the water was still really muddy. So the first time I went, I thought I could go to any beach in snorkel. That's not the case. A lot of them are like long, drawn out sandy beaches. So not a lot to see there. and some of the others are like seasonal, so you gotta kinda be aware of rainstorms. And on that side, they're coral reefs. They wanna protect them. So you need a, guide. They're not expensive. You just get on a tour and they'll take you on a boat out to the reef where you wanna be. This is what I did the second time I schedule the boat for my last two days. That would take me out to the reef right where I wanted to be. And. I'd see the right animals. But then there were too many rains, even in dry season to really have good visibility. And so it, it needed to be closer to March than to February for that particular area.
Carma:Yeah, I was, gonna ask you like what are the months that are considered like the dry
Katie:Yeah. So it's like the end of January is, is catching it. And then February and March are, are the main months. but there's a lot to see. So they've got cloud forests as well, that it doesn't matter what time of year you're down there, you can see the cloud forests. The animals don't care about the rain. They're used to it. So a lot of the, the nature reserves are gonna be really cool year round. Some of the scuba diving, sea kayaking through mangroves, they've got dolphins that come into some of these little coves and inlets and things. So really just a lot to do. One of the things that surprised me about the beaches was that I thought that I would be able to drive to the eastern beaches pretty easily cause I could see the coastline. But there's also a good of marshland, and so just because a beaches nearby doesn't mean that there's a road that goes to it. Sometimes you need to like drive and park and get on a riverboat cruise to go down the river and out to the ocean, cuz a giant river might be blocking your way and or may not be a bridge on that river cuz it floods. So it might not make sense to have a bridge and people use boats.
Carma:Gotcha. just cuz you can see the beach doesn't mean you
Katie:Right.
Carma:get to it.
Katie:Just cuz you can see it on a map doesn't mean you can drive there.
Carma:Yeah.
Katie:That surprised me.
Carma:Right? Cuz it might have to be a ways around that body of water to
Katie:Yeah. So if you're like me and you're totally nuts about the canyons and that's all you wanna do, you might just plan to stay like in Bajo still Toro or Tori Alba, or some of those areas that are known for canyons. You might plan your whole trip there, or if you'd like. Arrest day or to kinda get to know the country more, then you might plan your last two days, like my first trip to go see, uh, a national park like Manuel Antonio or, or some of the others, and see some of the volcanoes and see some of those other items as you move around. Both are great options. I've done both. I
Carma:Yeah. So I know you guys hit, uh, the Canyons pretty hard. right from the start, So, on your last couple of days, what did you guys do to relax before you had to fly home?
Katie:So we spent a day up in the La Fortuna area, and that's right by Arnell Volcano. And there's some really cool places around there.We went to MySeco hanging. Bridges and it's really cool. You're up in like the canopies of the jungle. And so we saw hauler monkeys up there. We saw some of their reptiles. I really wanted to see an eyelash pit viper, I don't know, judge me if you will, but they're really pretty and they're really shy. Like the animals out there don't really want much to do with you. There's a few, but by being on the hanging bridges, you're up above that and you guides with you to show you. And so we were able to look through telescopes to see some of those animals like the vipers that were far away and got to see, some Mott mo birds they're bright blue with these little TikTok tales. They swish back and forth like a grandfather clock. and saw some more karates in there, really cool spot to stop at and to support ecotourism. And then we ended the evening at one of the hot springs. So some of the hotels also have hot spring resorts attached. And so we just paid the day fee to go do that. And just relaxed looking out over the jungle canopies and seeing arnell volcano in the distance. Really cool. to end the week and just have some drinks with friends and then head back to the city life before you fly out.
Carma:Costa Rica Hounds just. Beautiful and amazing. So when are you going again?
Katie:Oh my gosh, I have to go back. There's at least five more canyons I wanna do, and I've mostly been in the bajo still Toro area. I'd like to go down to Tova. I'd like to go see a few more of the national parks as well. And I need to snorkel or I need to get out my scuba diving stuff. Either way, I'd be happy either way, but yeah, I have to go back. This is an open-ended conversation for sure. I could go there every year and, not see.
Carma:You have to go back and I need to go for the first time
Katie:I would love to take you down there. You would absolutely love it.
Carma:It sounds like it's a really cool country to visit, whether you're canyoning or not, but awesome that there's so many amazing
Katie:If you're thinking that you'd like to go visit Costa Rica, one of our next podcasts that we're gonna try to put out is going to be the details of how to plan a trip down there, because I've done it twice now and I've got a lot of tips and tricks that can help you get down there and get you started.
Carma:So if Costa Rica's on your world traveling wishlist, stay tuned. We'll get back to you with some more of that stuff. If you're totally hooked on canyoneering like us, remember to subscribe, so you don't miss any episodes and you can also reach out to us on Facebook. with questions, comments, topics you wanna talk about, or just to say, Hey, cuz We would love to hear from you. Thanks for dropping in with us and we'll catch you on the wrap side.
