Hitting Rails —

It has been a time-honoured tradition for North American university grad to leave his sheltered nest and seek unknown in a distant land.

Unfortunately, tradition also lends way to cliché.

The early twenties, book smart grad is filled with an ambition to add some life experience to his new set of professional letters. He sits in a dockside café eating hometown food with French provincial names as he writes into a leather-bound booklet some deep insights that he assumes are original. He dreams of having a torrid love affair with some local peasant girl but settles instead for swapping email addresses with some Canadians doing exact same thing. As entertaining as this prospect seems, it was not my wish. I wanted to carve out my own adventure, and in Europe there is no better way than by train.

The European rail system has been for years second-to-none for accessibility, comfort, and, with Rail Europe, affordability. There are a variety of Rail Europe passes for different prices that can get you anywhere you wish in little time and from city center to city center. North Americans must purchase Rail Europe tickets before departing Europe (you can't get them in Europe) and well in advance of their trip, and in certain countries passes are valid on ferries and riverboats. The passes are easy to use and, if taken advantage of fully, are cheaper than most other forms of transportation. Best of all is that trains can get you to remote areas that you would otherwise miss. For budget-minded night excursions or hotel trains save you hotel rooms so that you awake next day in a new country!

Copenhagen —

I landed in Copenhagen and got immediately roped into standard tourist sites — Tivoli Gardens , Royal Palace, etc.

Three day-old beard, expedition sunglasses, fleece jacket, Jorge fits every part adventure guide. He looks like he has just shrugged off his pack and crampons from an assault on south face of Everest. But intimidating at first, Jorge is disarmingly friendly, like every other Tico I've met up to this point. He has easy manner of someone whose hobby is also his job.

As we travel from high on Cordillera Central down into Caribbean lowlands en route to picking three other rafters, Jorge shares his knowledge of Costa Rica's history, geography, culture, and economy with us - how Cartago was Costa Rica's first capital before it was destroyed by still-active volcano Irazu; how banana workers' biggest danger during harvesting is not tarantulas, but snakes hiding in bunches; and how Jorge's favorite brand of coffee is Café Rey (I now have four pounds of it in my freezer).

Jorge's education only slightly distracts me from display our driver, Mongo, is putting on at wheel, a performance that would make NASCAR proud. Our small Toyota minivan whines with strain of Mongo's enthusiasm (read: tardiness) as we charge up dirt hills with reckless abandon, then shutter and rattle down gravel roads at break-neck speeds. I pay close attention to Jorge's lessons in an attempt to take my mind off thought that every white-knuckle hairpin turn might be my last.

With a screeching halt, we arrive at our launch point at Pacuare River. The series of cordilleras that split Costa Rica from northwest to southeast create a watershed, catching abundant rainfall from east coast and channeling it into Caribbean lowlands. As a result, there are several major rivers that drain into Caribbean Sea, and at roughly 83 miles long, Pacuare is among longer of these rivers. While other rivers (Telire, Chirripo, for example) offer rafting as well, they require multi-day carry-ins or helicopter transportation to reach river. Only Pacuare offers combination of incredible scenic beauty, adventure and convenient drop-in locations.

Our fate on river will be left in hands of guides from Costa Rica Expeditions, an adventure company based in San Jose, Costa Rica. Founded in 1978, CRE was first whitewater rafting company in Costa Rica and continues to set standard today. While some adventure companies send out as many as 20 rafts at a time, CRE outings are limited to 7 boats per trip in order to assure quality service and safety. It offers one- and two-day excursions through rapids of various degrees of difficulty (from I to IV+ depending on time of year), and a new gourmet trip, where in addition to a white water adventure, rafters are treated to top-notch dining, complete with fine linen and crystal, with quail or lobster served fresh. The guides are all native bilingual Costa Ricans ("Ticos") and average more years of rafting than any other company.