Swimming with crocodiles!

I went white river rafting. And to warn you up front: I did not take any pictures because I couldn’t take my camera with me because it’s not water proof.
There are certain tours I can take for free because I’m a new employee at the hotel and those tour operators want to show me how much fun those activities are and then they want me to recommend it to my guests.
So, today I went on the rafting trip with Panama Rafters. I have never done rafting before and didn’t really know what to expect. The operator told me to bring dry clothing with me, so I knew that I might get a bit wet. However, it was much more adventurous than that.
By pick up we went to the border area of Costa Rica and Panama and since from there we were 6 people (5 tourists (including me) and the driver) and 2 rafting guides, I and the two guides had to ride the last 10 km in the loading area of the pick up. I haven’t done that in ages, but it’s always fun although it messes up my hair.
After a 30 minute speech of the driver/operator about the dangers of the river, how fast you can get injured, and what to do when you fall of the boat, we finally went into the water. After 5 minutes I knew why I was told to bring some dry clothing because I was completely soaked! Our rafting guides were a lot of fun; they were making jokes, splashed us with water, and tried to pull us out of the boat. Some of the rapids were really strong and I nearly fell out three times. At one really strong rapid, our boat filled up with water and we lost one of our team. But the tour guide in the kajak rescued him. On our way, we saw monkeys, an iguana, two boas and lots of big birds which eat the fish of the water. One part of the river was slow and deep enough for swimming, so one of the guides, another guy and I jumped in. Five seconds later we were told that there are also crocodiles and piranhas in that river…thanks for the warning (which was too late)!
It was a fun and exhausting trip and I’m looking forward to my next rafting adventure with another company.