Mangrove Boat Tour

We took a boat tour through the mangrove forest/swamp and it was pretty neat! We saw a bunch of wildlife: white-faced capuchin monkeys, an anteater, caimen lizards, crabs, birds, black lizards, but sadly no crocodiles. Boo was really disappointed we didn't see those, ha ha :) Right, Boo?

The mangroves grow along the banks of the river, where we went by looking for snakes (didn't see any, I'm kind of glad about that).

Then we went into the mangrove forest, look at those roots! They actually are kind of beautiful in a strange, swampy way :)

Here we are on the boat, Boo's ready to move into the middle of the boat at the first sign of crocodiles!

Me and Chels

Here's the first white-faced capuchin monkey we saw.

Our guide Danny had some food for them and they came right into the boat!

They were a little shy at first, coming into the boat, taking the food, and jumping back into the mangrove.

This monkey took it right out of her hand. That little devil took the whole piece of fruit!

This is what it looked like further into the forest.

This little crab was hanging onto a branch. I was surprised by how many crabs, lizards, and other creatures were way out on the branches of the mangroves. We saw a caiman lizard jump up and grab a crab, but it was too quick to get a picture!

The monkeys got a little braver, climbing around the boat to get the food. This was a little too close for me, yikes! Chels was brave, meanwhile I was in the back of the boat, ha ha :)

The white-faced capuchins have little fangs and they show each time they "smile" at you. Rachel is making friends with this one!

Chels was excited to see the monkeys!

Danny got out of the boat and climbed into the mangroves to try and wake up an anteater that was sleeping on top of the trees. It didn't seem very interested in us, though, and kept right on sleeping.

Here's Dan and Barry trying to get a picture of the anteater, but it just looked like a blob on top of the trees.

A picture of the mangrove as we were leaving. It was a very interesting tour!

River Rafting!

We went river rafting on Friday and it was AWESOME!!! I had never been before and had a blast! Chels and Cindy stayed at the house and got massages while the rest of us went on a half day rafting trip. The river was through the rain forest and was very beautiful. They had a guide who took pictures for us:



This is so awesome, you can't even see us!

We went in class 2 and 3 rapids (out of 5) and no one fell out, amazing!

Here's another underwater shot, just coming up from a rapid

We were going around a corner and hit these rocks, yikes! Our guide was great and got us safely through all the rapids, though he did tease us about the "gringo eater" and said that is the rapid where most people fall out, ha ha :)

Here's our paddle high-fives

We almost went over this time. We sat on the outside of the boat until the guide yelled for us to get in, then we all had to jump in the spaces in the boat. Unfortunately during this hustle and bustle I accidentally punched Dan in the face and stomped on his foot. Sorry, Dan!

This was after the gringo eater where we almost lost it and flipped. I love Andrew's expression!

Boo was completely out of the boat until Dan reached back and pulled her in. I was just laughing the whole time and totally helpless--the only thing that kept me in the boat was taking up the whole space inside our seats that Dan and I were supposed to share. Poor Dan! :)

The boat had sections on the bottom for the water to rush out after we came up from the rapids, but there were times where we were completely underwater. It was so awesome!

I love this shot--just our heads are above water level.

Boo had to yell orders at us from the back of the boat because me, Andrew, and Barry couldn't hear what the guide was saying. Our guide laughed at Steph for being the "drill sargent" of the boat :)

The faster the rapids were, the faster Barry & Andrew would paddle, making the entire boat paddle furiously through each rapid! It was quite a funny sight, I'm sure...

Here we are at a waterfall when we stopped for a snack break

Rachel and Andrew at the waterfall

The rafting trip was so awesome, I can't wait to go again! I loved it!