About Us

What Makes Us Unique

Rafting Costa Rica is a boutique whitewater rafting company in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. We offer small-group whitewater and scenic nature tours on the Balsa, Sarapiquí, and Peñas Blancas Rivers in the Arenal Region of Costa Rica. Each of our trips is thoughtfully crafted and focused on your comfort and safety, creating an epic river experience for our clients, both in terms of whitewater rapids and immersion in the natural environment. We have highly experienced bilingual river guides who are naturalists and operate with the highest quality rafting equipment in Costa Rica! We can confidently say we have the best rafting guides in Costa Rica.

Rafting Costa Rica is committed to bringing a positive change to the whitewater rafting industry in Costa Rica, from importing the highest quality rafting and safety equipment to investing in the families that own the river accesses that we use to start and end our trips. We heavily invest in our staff by almost doubling the guide wages and investing in their training and certifications in the US. During the low season in Costa Rica, nearly all of Rafting Costa Rica’s guide staff work in the US and Canada, keeping their skills sharp. Rafting Costa Rica is a profoundly passionate project of its owners, Christian Romero and Arnie Chandola.

Christian grew up rafting the rivers of Costa Rica and has decades of guiding experience throughout Costa Rica and the US. During the off-season in Costa Rica, Christian guides on the American River in California, where he is a senior guide at American Whitewater Expeditions.

Arnie started rafting as a young teenager in the Himalayas of India and Nepal. He has almost 30 years of international guiding experience in the US, Europe, New Zealand, and South America. Arnie owns and operates American Whitewater Expeditions, one of California’s largest rafting companies.

At Rafting Costa Rica, we are passionate about sharing our river rafting experience and knowledge about the natural river environment, its trees, birds, and wildlife. We look forward to guiding you down some of the best whitewater rivers in Costa Rica, with your safety and comfort as the focus of all we do.

Our Guides

Our small team of professional river guides, hailing from various corners of Costa Rica, forms the heart of our identity. With a passion for rafting and the natural environment of Costa Rica, they bring not only entertainment but also unmatched safety and medical qualifications, making them the most experienced river guide staff in Costa Rica.

Our guides work year-round, traveling between Costa Rica and the northern hemisphere. They are all well-versed naturalists and know a lot about the rampant wildlife found along the banks of the rivers. Check out our staff profiles below to get to know our staff a bit more.

Montse

Montse has been in the tourism industry for over a decade and runs our office, coordinating between our hotel clients and operations and ensuring our rafting clients have the best day on the water. She is the glue that holds all the moving parts of our operations together.

Marcos

Marcos has been a guide for almost 15 years and has an ingrained sense of adventure and is passionate about guiding people down rivers and on nature trails. He’s a skilled river guide and a naturalist with a deep knowledge of the flora and fauna of Costa Rica. When he’s not guiding, he can be found acting as Charlie Bravo in Costa Rica’s first action-adventure film.

Horacio

Horacio has been a river guide for almost two decades and lives near the Balsa river with his family and beautiful daughter. He is one of our rock star guides and has a massive following on Instagram for his endless good looks and charm. He’s a passionate naturalist and has picked up photography as a serious hobby.

Dionis

Dionis is another one of our rockstar guides, safety kayaker, and Trip Leader. He’s been a professional river guide for well over a decade and absolutely loves guiding people down rivers. Dionis is passionate about music and has a beautiful singing voice; his impromptu singing is fairly common on trips. Don’t let his boyish charm and good looks fool you, he’s a beast of a guide!

Esteban

Another one of our devilishly handsome river guides, Esteban, has been guiding and kayaking the rivers of Costa Rica for almost two decades. It’s safe to say he’s guided and kayaked on each and every one of the rivers in Costa Rica. You will always be in safe hands on his raft, or in case you fall out behind his safety kayak.

Carol

Carol grew up in Costa Rica and has been a river guide for almost 30 years! She moved to California over a decade ago and is one of our regular Trip Leaders in California. She is passionate about rafting and returns home to guide on the beautiful rivers of Costa Rica during the winters. Her guiding skills are legendary and we are lucky to have a guide of her caliber.

Katie

Katie is a California native, and Costa Rica is like her second home. She is an absolute ray of sunshine and laughter wherever she goes. She has helped from the very start of Rafting Costa Rica, working on everything from marketing material and website content to ferrying equipment from the US to answering phones.