To get to the river, were picked up at 7AM and traveled approximately 70 miles. A good part of the driving (3-4 hours) was spent descending into the western lowlands along a precarious winding road that travels through the Cloud Forest. The road is currently being widened but for the most part is still two lanes. It appears to be one of the major commercial trucking routes bringing goods in from the coast. Due to slow-moving trucks, passenger cars constantly attempt to pass via the oncoming traffic lane. I saw many close calls during our trip and I have to believe there must be many fatal accidents. In many locations, the drop-off from the side of the road appeared to be several hundred and in some cases over a thousand feet!
After passing through the town Santa Domingo, we took a short drive down a dirt road to a river (I can't remember the name). After inflating the rafts and a short crash course in river rafting, we started drifting down the river which contains mostly class 3 and some class 4 rapids. During the 3 hour journey down river, we enjoyed the scenery which consisted of lush tropical rain forest. On one harrowing occasion, our raft became stuck in a back wave for over a minute as we struggled to paddle free. At one point, I thought the whole raft would capsize. In fact the second raft ran into ours and two people were thrown out but were quickly retrieved. What fun!
We had a tasty lunch at our pick-up point but were unaware of the mosquitoes! They were enjoying a tastey lunch on us!
On the trip back to Quito, the vans clutch was having trouble. Our driver managed to somehow nurse the van along. After arriving in Quito, I told the driver that he is the only one to every drive over the Andes without a working clutch!
As we were quite exhausted, we ordered pizza (Papa John's!) and stayed in at the hotel. To our pleasant surprise, we were notified that our flight had been changed and that we would have a chance to sleep in until our pick-up at 10AM.
The info on the website was laid out very well. I did some comparisons with other tours and found Adventure Life met a lot of what I wanted in an Antarctica trip at the cheapest price. Requested a quote on Claudia contacted me right away. She answered a lot of questions the I had via email even though she offered to discuss via phone call. I’m more of an email person so appreciated how she accommodated that and answered all my questions. And when I was ready to book, she quickly got the ball rolling with getting our spots reserved on the trip my friend and I wanted. Thanks again, Claudia!
Hazel Araza
10 hours ago
(1) great information on the website and throughout all the "materials." (2) Jane Packer is great: knowledgeable, responsive, takes a personal interest and tone, seems to care about the customer as a person not a sale.
Larry Bethune
18 hours ago
great people doing a wonderful job to make our voyages happen.
trudy
1 day ago
For our first trip to Costa Rica, Adventure Life designed a tour that meets the interests, ecological and adventure, of our party; but also takes into account our physical limitations sine we are all septuagenarian. We are looking forward to the trip.
John Zent
2 days ago
Adventure Life is my favorite travel company due to their genuine care for their customers. They make every effort to ensure a wonderful travel experience for you. Their personal touch really gives the customer a lot of confidence with their travel plans and the trip leaders are always outstanding. They are truly consistent and accountable with the great service they provide. I can't thank Adventure Life enough for the incredible trips I have enjoyed thanks to them and their attention to detail.