Damn the Rapids, Full Speed Ahead

Our home away from home for these eleven weeks is called the River House. Ergo, we have this nice cool river to explore.

Early on in our stay, our landlady informed us that there were fairly still pools up the river we could swim in. Getting there involved navigating quite a few rapids, though; this is not a tame river. When one day the three of us decided to see how far we could go, George and I spent quite a while working our way through the water, trying desperately (and ultimately successfully) to bring along our sneakers and the camera along with us without getting them wet. Nick, the immortal, lithely and effortlessly walked across the stepping stones in his vibram shoes, a veritable mountain goat of the river.

It was slow going to be sure, but not entirely due to the river. A large amount of time was taken swimming in the rapids, testing our mettle against the natural elements. It was an ugly, raw battle but none of us drowned so we consider that a victory.

Got my game face on

Nick clambers up a rapid

A couple hours later we finally did make it up to a rather large pool in the river, so we had ourselves a swimming race. Nick, George and I lined up at one end of the pool and swam as fast as we could to the other side, going against the strong current. It was close, but George beat me fair and square by a foot or two.

George's visceral victory stance

But where was Nick? Turns out bodies of water are Nick's kryptonite, so he was way, way, way behind George and I. He has been getting better in our pool back at the house, and improving quite a bit, but at this point in our stay he still had a long ways to go. With any luck he'll be swimming like a guppie by the time we head back to the states.

Hang in there!

More recently George, his father and I went up the river again, so we could get a look at and take some pictures of a small waterfall Nick and George had discovered earlier. We arrived and George wasted no time in clambering his way up only to slip right down the lowest part of the waterfall back into the river, his father watching aghast from above. Luckily George didn't injure himself, aside from a bruise to the heel.

George after his "water" fall

We eventually all made it up to the impressive waterfall above and took turns going under the pounding torrent. The water came down like a hammer on our heads and shoulders.

Refreshing!

We're about halfway through our stay here now, and I imagine we'll be going back up and down this river quite a bit more. We hadn't really taken into account the river when we signed up for this place, having the beach more on our minds, so this has been a pleasant surprise.

Viva el rio!