Rafting the Pacuare: is it worth it?

The Pacuare turns up on every list of the world's best rafting rivers. I went, and it was a float.

That is the honest version and I am aware it is not the popular one. We were picked up before dawn, driven out to the
river, put on the water, and spent the day going gently downstream through a genuinely beautiful gorge. The forest
comes right down to both banks, the water is a good green, birds go over. As scenery it is excellent. As rafting it
was a simple ride with small rapids, and at no point did I feel anything I would describe as adrenaline.

It was the second time on that trip I came off an expensive, heavily-sold activity feeling I had been had. The first
was a dive off a famous island in Panama that produced almost no marine life. Both were sold as world-class. Both were
ordinary. That is a pattern rather than bad luck, and it is the single most useful thing I can tell you about paying
for experiences in this part of the world.

The honest caveats cut both ways. Rivers change with the season and the rain, and a river running low is not the river
the reputation was built on. I have no doubt the Pacuare can be everything it is described as. I am telling you what
one day on it was actually like, which is more than most write-ups will.

So: if you want a beautiful day on a river in rainforest, take it and enjoy it for what it is. If you are buying it
for the whitewater, ask what the water has been doing recently before you pay, and be ready for the possibility that
you have booked a very scenic drift.