Running the River in Costa Rica!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We had an absolutely fantastic time running the river today!! We felt like we were 10 years old as we laughed and splashed through the rapids!! It was so much fun!! I am on the left boat in the front. Everyone has been so wonderful on this trip!!

I am grateful that some of the river guides took photos of everyone as we were paddling and trying not to fall out of our boat!!

This is my favorite photo of our great team!!

Part way through the trip, we stopped at a gorgeous waterfall!! the water was a fantastic temperature!!

We ate fantastic Costa Rican watermelon and pineapple on our break. I am grateful that our guide, Danny, took this photo!!

We went on a hike through the jungle on our way to the river. We are all still dry in this photo. But not for long!!

As we were walking, one of the boat guides saw this owl sitting in a tree near the trail. Fortunately, our guide Danny brought his telescope with the cellular phone attachment to capture this fantastic photo!!

The Costa Rican scenery is so beautiful!!

This small bugs, that almost look like ants are actually termites!! Our guide told us about them and then he picked one up and put it in his mouth. He said it tasted like carrots!! After that, people waited their turn to grab a termite and eat it. So now I can say that I have eaten termites!! Our guide was correct. They actually do taste sort of like carrots!!

The learned about different types of ferns in Costa Rica!! Our guide pick one that was green on the top and silver on the bottom. He showed us that if we put the leaf on our clothes and then taped the leaf that we would have an impression of the fern. I thought it showed up great on my grey pants!!

It rained on us while we were on the river. As we were driving back to the lodge, we could see one place where the original river was on the right, and muddy water was flowing down the mountain and into the river. It was interesting to see such a drastic color change!!

I understand why people that like birds love visiting Costa Rica!! There are all kinds of birds everywhere!!

This guy was sitting in a tree as we drove back into our lodge!!

As we were eating, this amazing iguana started climbing up the stone staircase. He lifted his head and looked around at everything! It is simply amazing to see so many unique things in Costa Rica!!