Tubing

Remember that river you saw once upon a time a few posts back - Río Mindo?  The time has come to make our way down said river in tubes.  We weren't sure that we were going to have time for this activity on Friday since we had experienced several unexpected delays.  However, when we inquired at our hotel after returning from our Canopy Adventure, we were informed that a guide was available.  We would start down the river around 6:00.  This means, of course, that the sun is no longer high in the sky and is no longer able to compensate for the frigid river water that will inevitably find a way to make contact with our persons.  That trepidation aside, we were game to make a few more memories on the river.  Simply riding in the back of the truck to the starting spot upriver was enough to make a few sets of teeth chatter.  When we arrived at our launch point, we discovered that we were right behind a rather large group of teenagers who were also waiting until a bit late in the day to go tubing. This meant that the supply of helmets and life jackets was rather limited.  We all got the necessary equipment, but we weren't guaranteed a perfect fit as upcoming pictures will indicate.  I had initially wondered how in the world a tube was going to get down the parts of the river that I had seen.  There were so many rocks!  When I saw the tubes, I had the rational absolutely ridiculous thought, "They're quite large.  Perhaps we won't get all that wet."  Once outfitted and photographed, we headed to the water with our guide to get situated in our tubes.  And then we were off.  And after approximately four seconds in the water, we had skirted various rocks and were completely (read: COMPLETELY) drenched.  As it turns out, you don't go around all the rocks.  Sometimes you kind of go up over them.  The description of this activity that Karmen had read online before selecting tubing as a good possible diversion for us went something like this: "Tubing down the Río Mindo will make you feel like you are in a giant pinball machine."  I wouldn't call that an inaccurate description.  The trip was full of gasps and shrieks and uproarious laughter.  I think the only injury was a bruised knee that hit a rock.  Our guide was very capable and did his best to ensure that we enjoyed our time on the river.  This was definitely a favorite adventure for at least most of us!

On our way

Brrrr!!!!!!!

Trying out his child-size life jacket

Apart from the goofy smile, he looks like he's ready to enter WWI.

The whole good-looking crew

Cold, but not as cold as we will be very shortly

Savoring our last moments of dry-ness, which, because we are, even now, quite chilly, we cannot fully appreciate

Do I sense a tiny bit of trepidation behind those smiles?  

Our guide gets the tubes ready.

Beginning the situating process

And off we go!  

Due to much movement, most of our on-the-water pictures turned out a bit blurry, but I guess that just adds to the realness of it!  

Mr. Long-Arms (Kyle) became our official tubing photographer, quite a difficult job given the conditions.

You can see our guide, hard at work in the background.  He spent the whole time jumping this way and that, turning the tubes every which direction, navigating through and around and over rocks, fighting the current, etc, etc, etc.  This fellow comes highly recommended by our crew!    

I think there was a total of about three seconds of the trip when Mom was not laughing hysterically.  

Karmen looks pretty calm!  

But perhaps she sees the rather large drop coming up?  Our guide warned me that it was coming, but before I could get it translated to the rest of the group, it happened.  Brrr!!!!!!

Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!