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Sarapiquí nails the rafting section

Jacqueline Windh / 18.03.2007

Late last night I moved far ahead on the course (though still not far enough – I have not seen lead teams Bones USA and Aditec CR since two hours into the race). News from the front is that both of these teams are on the water, on the final long kayak section, with Bones leading and hoping to make it to the finish around 4am.

I ended up at TA3, the end of the second bike section, in the little village of Linda Vista. From here, teams walk about 7 km down a road to the Pacuare River, to the Nido del Tigre (“Tiger’s Nest�) rafting camp operated by race organizers Coast to Coast Adventures. From here, they raft down to a lower camp (rafting dark zone ends 6am) and then kayak 100 km downriver and along coastal canals to the finish.

Sarapiquí (CR) arrived just minutes after I got there, so I gulped down some food to walk down the valley with them and spend the night at the camp and see them off on the river.

We left at 11pm – a nice time to walk, with the air at a really comfortable temperature. We stopped at the Bajo del Tigre school on the way down, to deliver the obligatory 1 kg of school supplies to the local elementary school (total about a dozen pupils) – team Sarapiquí donated a book. The net elevation drop to the camp was 200 m, but the amount of ups and downs to accomplish that was astonishing! Walking at a very easy pace, we took just under three hours to get to the river.

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