Repelling Redux

Blogger fans will recall that we had an exciting time canyoning near the Arenal volcano shortly after Christmas while the boys were still here. Nancy and I were having dinner with friends a few weeks ago, and Nancy mentioned that canyoning was on her “top 5” list of favorite things to do in Costa Rica, so the next morning, on the spur of the moment, we headed down to Uvita, just south of Dominical where we met up with “Costa Canyoning”. Yes, you read that correctly, the Broge’s did something on the “spur of the moment”.


This trek proved to be quite a bit different from the first adventure. On that occasion we received about 3 seconds of instruction, but had 3 ropes of protection as about 30 of us were led by six or so guides as we repelled from platforms with fixed belay points, and started with the biggest cliff.

With the Costa Canyoning team, there were just the two of us with two guides and one rope. We trained on our way down the creek, starting with the easiest cliff and preparing for the final drop. There were no trails or walkways – we waded our way down the stream. Nancy was quite proficient at hitting every deep spot in the stream. Rather than “hopping” down the waterfalls, we walked our way down the cliff face while belaying ourselves – with one of the guides acting as a back-up belay on the same rope. After the 6th repel, we had a short walk to a small swimming hole, before we walked back to the waiting pick-up. We made it to the pick-up just as the sky opened up and it began to pour.

A wonderful afternoon in the wilderness. And yes, Nancy was sore the next day.