Tubing Down the Rio Clara

Today we carried three old-school truck inner tubes down the road from our house to just below the bridge over the Rio Claro. Once at the river, we hiked down a short path that leads to a good launching point and in we went. The first hundred feet were relatively fast, a few feet deep and right up against shore. It was easy floating except for a few vines and branches hanging from shore that required us to play some defense to avoid getting snagged. Then the river flattened out into a section that is maybe six inches deep and one of us was too much weight on his tube to keep from getting grounded! Being an adopted Canadian, I was more than willing to portage the non-navigable section and catch up with the girls a bit farther down. Another hundred feet and the river had one last shallow part that even the girls grounded out on. From there, a few steps took us to the top of a section where a good portion of the flat water converges into a fast-running shoot worthy of a small water park ride. Off we went, getting spit out into the wide, 2-3 foot deep pool at the end of the river where the locals like to relax in the water like a giant swimming pool. Finally, one last section connects the big pool to the ocean via a fifteen foot wide cut through which every last gallon of the Rio Claro passes at a serious clip before colliding with the incoming ocean waves.

It goes without saying that we repeated this entire voyage several times! Two hours later, we were happy, waterlogged and hungry so we picked up our tubes and headed back home for a quick change and then off to Cafe Suerte which is little place in town that makes great smoothies.

From there, with a fourth smoothie in a to go cup, we walked over to surprise Laura coming down the hill from yoga for her dinner break.

It was an enormous day!

Adios!