Kayaking the Rio San Juan

I was looking a Kayaking the Rio San Juan from San Carlos to the Caribbean at/near the end of Semana Santa (end of next week) and was wondering if anyone else wanted to join. I'm a solo traveller so I don't want to do this sort of trip alone. The more the merrier I'm thinking.

From what I understand Kayaks can be hired from a guy in town for $15 per day. It takes 5 days to get down the river and you have to stop off at various army barracks along the way to check in. You need to take all your own food and water with you. Boats coming back up river are erratic at best so it may take a few days to get a lift back up to San Carlos. It MAY be possible to catch a boat somewhere else from the Caribbean end..

Actually If anyone can provide more specific details this would be helpful also. Otherwise I'll get in touch with some people on Monday who recently did the trip and get some from them.

I didn't kayak the river but I did go down it. Amazing experience that I highly reccommend to everyone. What I don't reccommend is getting a boat in SJDN to take you to Bluefields. I don't know if this is something you were thinking of doing but I wanted to send you a warning. Some guys and I did the trip and are lucky to be among the living.
The river is gorgeous and you will love it.
Good luck

You will not be able to cross back over from the CR side to the Nica side to go to the Bluefields, not to mention the timing is extremely important on tides, as people are killed in the waves where they meet the Atlantic, even small boats (pangas) are capsized.

You also are dealing with a huge security issue to drugs coming up the RSJ, as well the drug cartels refuleing boats on the caribe coast in desolate areas....so be careful all over that river, and keep your nose out of people business.

Where do you plan to sleep, if you think you can just string up a hammock on the banks, your not getting good info, this is one place where nature wins. Expect rains in the afternoons, and the closer to atlantic you get, the more rain, as there are micro climates. Also, the heat is really really terrible there in the lowlands...

Check the FAQ around #40, I think there is a post on the ins/outs of the RSJ.

Tim

I'm not sure what the previous poster means. I did the river in a hired boat and there was no Costa Rica at the end of the river, it was all Nicaragua. This is a fantastic trip. I do agree with the sleeping thing. There are a few accomodations going down the river, some in CR and some in Nica, but I'm not sure you'd be able to hit one every nite. We stopped and had a drink and a sncak on the CR side of the river and then went back to the Nica side. We had to check in with the military stop on the CR side as it was right there, but that was it, no other hastle. This trip is not to be missed. I kayaked a bit of it when I got to Rio Indio lodge at the end and it was great. Beware of the LARGE gater, crock, caymen population. Some are HUGE!! My bost driver,who was from there and ran the river during the war, said you have to be crazy to get in a kayak on that river, he would never do it!! I guess he would know!. That said, be careful and enjoy. I believe there is a panga from San Juan del Norte that runs weekly. Check out the return panga schedule in San Carlos before you head out and make arrangements accordingly.

I forgot. San Juan del Norte is reached through inland waterways as are all of the settlements. There is no need to go out of the river and into the sea. Just pull up on the sandbar and enjoy the view from therre as the surf is bad and so are the sharks. Keep in mind the sharks in the river, yes there are sharks in the whole river, are bull heads are are agressive.

Ok so here's all the practical information. It's not very exciting but this is really for anyone else who maybe thinking of doing the trip rather than for those who want the interesting parts of the story.

First go to San Carlos. Buy all the food etc you want here. We lived on Granola, rolled oats, powdered milk, canned tuna and bread while on the river. At night we always found somewhere to cook and had basic potatoes, rice, pasta etc dishes.

In El Castello:

There are (at least) two places in El Castello where you can hire kayaks. You can play them off against each other to lower their prices a bit.

These are the two we had dealings with:
Miguelle - on the far side of town (down river)
Jonathon - in the green building out over the river directly left of the dock.

From Jonathon we got two, two person canoes and two single kayaks for 5 days for 1460 cordobas including transport back up river. Approx $73.

Miguelle offered (after we confirmed with Jonathon) $10 per person, per day in 6 kayaks but we had to pay the transport back up river. (We were quoted $50 per Kayak)

We took the canoes because they were kind of like small narrow boats and could store much more equipment. The kayaks on offer from Miguelle looked better and had much more professional equipment (dry bags etc) but wouldn't have been easy for carrying hammocks, mosquito nets, clothes, 5 days food, rum and a machete.

Unknowns there are what kind of paddles Miguelle had cause the ones that came with Jonathons canoes (and kayaks) were a bit crappy. Also the canoes were SLOW. It may have been more enjoyable to go in the faster canoes at an easier and more enjoyable pace..

Regardless of who you go with you will have to buy a ¨ticket¨ which allows your transport along the river and lets you make stops in Costa Rica for 1 hour at a time. This was 80 cordobas for the 6 of us.

Once on the river there are 4 army barracks you have to stop at along the way and show your passports and tickets. You can stay the night at the army barracks and refill you water supplies there. You can also stay with the locals along the way and all of the ones we stayed with let us use their kitchens as well. In fact the families were very hospitable and would not accept any form of payment for their kindness.

Day 1:

We left about 9:30am and the 1st barracks was about and hour and a half along the way. We were taking it pretty casual. We got told there that the 2nd barracks was 4 hours away. Little did we know that the locals are completely hopeless at predicting rowing times along the river. Repeat: THE LOCALS ARE WILDLY INACCURATE AT PREDICTING TIMES FOR KAYAKING ON THE RIVER. So after a day of fairly causal rowing and then some frantic paddling for about 2 hours as we tried to reach the next barracks for the night we gave up around 5pm and asked one of the locals if we could put our hammocks up on his deck. We could.

Day 2

Figuring we were waaay behind schedule we got up at first light packed up, breakfasted and got on the river just before 7. We paddled hard for 3 hours to Bocas something a rather where there was a town (Costa Rican) and the 2nd barracks. After a two hour delay where we restocked and ate at the restaurant (the only on on the way) we continued on our way. The army guy this time said it'd be 6 and a half hours to the next barracks. We didn't believe him and figured on about 10 hours and set off at quite a pace again to try and make up some time. At 4:30 we stopped at some guys house completely fatigued and setup hammocks again.

Day 3

We got told by the lovely gentleman at the house that it was 40 mins by motorboat to the next barracks and he figured it'd be around 2 - 3 hours to paddle there. Got going just before 7 again and it was 3 hours of fairly solid paddling. After restocking our water supplies, checking passports etc we headed off again after being told 5 and a half hours to the last barracks at delta. We did it it 3 and a half.. Arriving at 1:30pm and realised that we were waaaaaaaaay ahead of schedule. It was only 1 day from there to San Juan Del Norte. So we chilled there for the afternoon.

Day 4

First note that the main flow of the river after the delta barracks goes right. Do no go this way. Hug the left bank and take the smaller flow. The army guys should let you know this though. Apart from this just follow the main flow of this river and it leads all the way to San Juan. The river was really low and we had to get out and push the kayaks at some points. (it was very easy cause the floated without our weight in them.) Starting about 8ish we casually rowed down stream till about 12 at times letting the current float us along. After a casual lunch we set about moving along and after another hour of casual rowing realised that we'd been suckered into bad time predictions yet again and we actually had to row pretty hard for about 3 hours to get to San Juan.

Day 5

It pissed with torrential rain all day and we were all glad that we'd arrived a day early and could chill in the hostel. (100 Cordobas)Discovered that Greytown got better as you got drunker.

Returned on the ferry at 5am the next day (Thursday) for 285 cordobas.

Apart from that we only saw one croc the whole way down although he was pretty big. May have seen a few more but they were the sort of unconfirmed were those crocs eyes that just ducked under the water there? No shark fins or smugglers though.. Probably for the best.

Oh yeah, Some mild rapids on day 1. One of the canoes capsised and we lost our machete a few items of clothes and a bottle of rum... :(
(I really liked that machete.. )

Nice trip report.

Glad all went well, it is a real adventure thats for sure.

Thanks for sharing,

Tim

Thank you very much for this good report !
Luc

Good report! I agree on the drunker/better idea. Everyone we met was pretty friendly. Even helped us find our way back home as we were experiencing the BEST/drunkest SNDN possible. Are the half boat and tail of an airplane still decorating the grass?