Late Oct 2007 was definitely rainy season throughout much of Costa Rica. I had heard that the Rio Parrita was a canoeable whitewater river, but it’s not in any guide books, and online information is very scarce. I made several inquiries and was able to locate a river guide who was familiar with the Parrita. One Tico friend told me it would be too dangerous to run the Parrita at high flows, and sure enough….it rained all afternoon and all night prior to our run. I was skeptical that we could run it, but an early morning phone call from our guide assured me that it was runnable and fun. We estimated the flow to be over 2000 cfs with a gradient of more than 50 ft per mile. There were a number of long Class 3 runs with some big holes, but nothing too technical due to the high water.
Thanks to my new Tico friends Firlander and Jose for getting us on the water!
Larry Laba
SOAR to Costa Rica
