On Friday October 31, 2025, conservationists looking to permanently protect Costa Rica’s Pacuare River — including the Rivers and Forest Alliance (RAFA), founded by the late Rafael Gallo, founder of the former Rios Tropicales river lodge on the Pacuare—helped organize the Costa Rican community to come together with lawmakers to initiate the drafting of a new law (Salva Guarda) to protect the Pacuare River basin forever. The event also included rafting companies and guides from all over the country, as well as hotels and outside businesses granting their economic support. Over the next few months, this law will be negotiated by the Costa Rican Legislature and signed into legislation, forever protecting this amazing waterway, billed as one of the best jungle river trips in the world.
“Having over 250 people show up to the Linda Vista rafting put in for a ceremony to gather over 150 official signatures alongside the Cabecar indigenous community showed overwhelming local support,” says Rafael’s son Roberto, who, with Justin Rae, Arturo Oropeza and Sam Drevo, recently purchased the lodge from Rafael’s estate and have refurbished it into the new Rios Lodge. “Fifteen law makers were able to attend the ceremony and voice their support for the law which is now well on its way to passing and cementing Rafael Gallo’s legacy on the Pacuare River Basin forever.”
After a ceremony and speeches at the put-in, the area’s entire rafting community brought the dignitaries down the river, stopping for a lunch at the Rios Lodge. “In all, more than 250 Costa Rican nationals came to the put-in, accompanied by 15 legislators, guides, paddlers, and members of the Indigenous Cabécar community,” adds Drevo. “We’re all working toward initiating a formal law to protect the Pacuare River from future hydro development.”
“After the speeches and dancing, we formed a large flotilla and paddled down through the inner gorge to the Dos Montañas canyon, where Rafa’s original dam protest took place in 1991,” says Drevo. “The high water punctuated the day, and we were able to capture another historic image to commemorate the river’s ongoing story.”
The freshly revamped Rios Lodge has since become a popular overnight stay for outfitters, as well as for new retreats now being offered by the company. In early November 2025, it hosted Blue Ridge Adventure Medicine retreat for the third year and offered wilderness medical education at the lodge, and free CPR/First Aid training for Tico guides. “Our plan is to continue to invest in guide training and education unveiling several ACA/IRF guide training programs to support the local economy,” says Gallo. “This effort will also continue to support the biodiversity conservation mission in the watershed.”
“The history of the Pacuare has been very conservation focused since there was a plan to put a dam on the Pacuare River in the ’80’s and my dad stepped up with the community to protect the river,” he adds. “My dad started Rios Tropicales as a conservation tool to connect conservation efforts along the river to the greater watershed basin and extending it into the largest Cabecar indigenous preserve in the country. Through this legacy at Rios Lodge we are now pushing all these conservation projects. It’s been an honor to be in this new journey with his friends and international river stewards who are now heavily invested in protecting the Pacuare River.”
For more information check out www.riversandforestalliance.org and www.rioslodge.com
Read more here: https://paddlinglife.com/whitewater-rafting/6-days-6-rivers-a-costa-rican-kayaking-odyssey-with-amazing-vacations/
And Herę: https://paddlinglife.com/whitewater-rafting/the-best-jungle-river-and-lodge-on-the-planet-experiencing-rios-lodge-on-costa-ricas-pacuare-river/https://paddlinglife.com/whitewater-rafting/the-best-jungle-river-and-lodge-on-the-planet-experiencing-rios-lodge-on-costa-ricas-pacuare-river/
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