If you ever go to Costa Rica, the country of unlimited adventure activities, don’t miss rappelling down the waterfalls in the rain forest.
Though rappelling is offered in few other parts of Costa Rica, the La Fortuna/Arenal one is the most famous due to the access to multiple waterfalls within half a day of walk.
In the Arenal area, we rode a jeep up through gravel road to reach a place to get the safety briefing and gear. From this point on, we started hiking through the rain-forest trails to reach the first and smaller waterfall.
In some places like Monte Verde I heard one rides the horse to get to the starting point.
This first waterfall of may be 30-50 meters height gives an opportunity to get the feel for the gear, foot positioning, and how to slow down and enjoy rappelling down the waterfall.
I certainly felt a bit of an adrenaline rush once I finished that first easy rappel and then we hiked about 20 mins to reach the next waterfall.
And this continued till we reached the highest waterfall in the area of 150 meters.
Eventually through the first two waterfalls, I realized that I really need to slow down and instead of rushing to get to the bottom.
This half-a-day adventure in Costa Rica is a must do in my opinion. For some of us, it is an activity that will challenge some of the fears such as height, not being able to trust the gear etc., I was certainly not the first one to climb down the waterfall on that day. I watched others go by before I could trust the gear. 🙂
Some practical tips:
-Wear any clothes you want, because you will fully get drenched. Rain gear is no use here.
– Wear a pair of shoes to cover the toes. It’s a must. Without covering the toes, don’t attempt to climb down. You have to use your foot to push off from the cliff/wall
– Waterproof video/still camera or the gopro types if you can afford it.
Below is a video from my trip: