Costa Rica boating advice needed

Going down, only for a week, at the end of May. Will be staying near Panama on the pacific side. I've been searching around to see if I could swing a trip down one of the gnarly looking jungle rivers.

I can't seem to find a good source of information about rivers/ guides/ equipment rentals.

I found a few full week long tours, but I can't do that, will have to stay with the family mostly. Can't change the itinerary, free digs in Coco Beach, but could possibly leave for a day/ night and come back.

Anyways, I'm a solid class 3 boater, done a few 4's but would rather stay away from them on this trip. (I'm still scared of them and will only do them with my capable rescue buddies). Can easily bring my gear except paddle and skirt I guess.

Thanks for any info!

You might want to look into the Upper Pacuare, at normal flows it is mostly class III, and a few easy IV's. It's on the pacific side but I'm not sure how close it is to where you'll be. We used Exploradores Outdoors for logistics. They are mainly rafting, but also have kayaks you can borrow. It's usually done in two days and they have digs set up in the middle of the jungle to overnight in.

Contact Phil Coleman atRainforest World Eco Tours. I don't know him very well, only met him a couple times, but we have a lot of mutual good friends and his trips are highly recommended. They've been in business almost 20 years; outfit all kinds of trips for all different ability levels, have all the beta, equipment, and can set you up with guides, shuttle, etc.

probably your best bet would be to paddle the Sevegre or Naranjo out of Quepos - there are quite a few outfitters in town, ask around to find the best deal and a rental you like, both sections are class II-III and bump to III+ if there's a lot of rain

the biggest factor would probably be getting over towards the Caribbean and back in the time frame you're talking about, for the Pacuare, and the upper has a couple class V drops and lots of class IV, the lower is class III-IV, and the top is class II-III

up towards Coco Beach in Guanacaste is super dry so no boating to speak of... you could maybe shoot over to the Arenal Volcano region near the town of La Fortuna and do some paddling on the Rio Toro, but don't get sucked into biting off more traveling than you want, it's harder to get around that little country than it looks on the map

I spent about 4 years down there paddling, feel free to pm me if you have any questions or want specific outfitter recommendations, safe travels and pura vida

btw - after re-reading your post I'm unsure of exactly where you're talking about... there's not a playa del coco that I know of near Panama - there is however near Nicaragua in the province of Guanacaste

This is where you want to be: http://www.costacetacea.com/rioagujascaletaskayak.html