No Lifeguard on Duty: Swim at Your Own Risk

 On our way down the Pacific side of the country we stopped for lunch and a walk in a little town on the Rio Tarcoles. Unlike many bridges we crossed, this particular one was a popular viewing spot for a sizeable number of American crocodiles. Kathryn counted several dozen in the area, basking in the sun and generally drawing a crowd - the area is very popular for crocodile boat tours as well.

 Our guide told us that several years ago a fellow had gotten drunk in the bar near where we had lunch and decided to swim across the river in the middle of the night. Needless to say that plan did not work out well for him at all and he never saw the other side. I recommend the bridge, because these things are terrifying even at a distance.

 The majority of them looked quite fat and healthy, but there were a few interesting outliers with unfortunate defects. One was missing the front half of his top jaw, but didn't appear to be suffering for its absence, while this individual did NOT appear to be in a good way. His whole spine was very desiccated and you can see how shrunken all the tissues around his head have gotten, to the point that you could probably drink out of the divots in his skull.

Hikes in the Rain and Slides into a Hot Tub

 Arenal is one of the famous volcanos in Costa Rica, but also located in the heart of their cloud forest and frequently obscured from view. After a rather long and damp hike, the picture below shows all we were able to see of that famous (and unseen) peak.

 Fortunately, although we were rained out of our second hike for the day, the lodge we were staying at was able to leverage one of the benefits of nearby geothermal activity - namely a giant hot tub. Not only were there several smaller and personal pools that you'd expect with most hot tubs, but the sheer volume of hot water available meant that the entire pools were very toasty and several were accessible by water slides. (the picture below is early in the morning when the water has been drained for cleaning)

 After a few water slides and some frolicking, it was nice to be able to enjoy a few drinks at the swim up bar. Wrist bands let us charge drinks to our rooms rather than fuss with money, and a cool fruity beverage was a perfect match for toasty warm waters.

White Water Rafting on the Sarapiqui

Not every minute of our trip was spent traveling from hike to hike in our van. On the contrary, we had a few days where we left most of the fancy camera gear behind and got a little more extreme, like our afternoon of rafting on the Sarapiqui river. The tour was nicely divided into 2 sections with the rougher patch being first, followed by a nacho lunch and then a more leisurely finish.

 Our group was the perfect size to fill a raft without anyone being too squeezed or left behind, and the danger of the waters was low enough that we all had fun and had turns directing the raft. The waters were very cool and refreshing, and there was enough shade from the trees and breeze in the air to keep us pleasantly cool the whole time. There were some nice animals to see in the area, including a stunning bird called a sunbittern, but given the fairly high moisture involved in the excursion, we wisely decided to leave all the gear except for the GoPro behind. Luckily there was a local photographer there to take the pictures in this posting at a few key points.

 Never to be one left behind, Mario went through the rapids in a kayak which alternately led and followed our raft through the rapids. As a bonus, in the second half of the outing, each pair of people in our expedition got a turn in the kayak, which gives you a little more freedom and mobility but requires a little more effort as well.