August 1st 2009
Leo turns 6 months old on August 1st 2009 in the Jungle! Here are two entertaining stories from our trip. Pictures to come in a few weeks when we get home also more stories to come of our adventure!
Adventures in the jungle Sunday: July 26th 2009
Lets go Kayaking! My mom and I wanted to kayak down the river, which you have to do a high tide and that does not always work around the kids nap schedules. On Sunday it did and we went out around 8am to go Kayaking. The plan was to all walk down to the hotel that had the kayaks (short walk from our hotel). Leo and I would wait while my mom, dad, Sean and Rorie kayaked then Sean and I would trade places. So we were able to get one double kayak and one single and off they went while Leo and I played in the shade.
About 30 minutes later Sean and Rorie return in my parents double kayak to get me and Leo. Sean says the river is calm and will be no problem for him to paddle while I hold Leo. I am nervous to take Leo who is only 6 months old on the river but I trust Sean and we join him (both kids are wearing lifevests).
We head out to swim with my parents about 10 minutes down river as the tide is slowly going out. After about 20 minutes of swimming we decide to head back since the tide is going out and we will not have much water left for boating on soon. So if you start to solve this kayaking word problem you would realize that we have one two person kayak and one single kayak and 4 adults that need to go back down the river. Sean decides that he will swim back, even though we had seen caymen in the river. So My mom holds Leo and my dad pattles the two man kayak. I hold Rorie in the single kayak with Sean behind us. We set out just fine though I am a bit worried when my parents hit a small rapid, since my mom is holding Leo! They get through it just fine, then it is my turn. I have rafted many times and even guided a little through rapids so I was not worried for us. Sean decides to “help us out” by holding the back of the boat and slowing us down before we go over the small rapid. I yell for him to just let us go and next thing I know I am trying to paddle and keep us up right but over we go! Rorie was in my lap so we both went under together and I quickly popped her up and could kind of stand in the rapids. Sean comes and grabs Rorie, she starts to cry (luckly she didn’t swallow any water) we do a quick once over on Rorie and she is not hurt just scared. We then start to grab the boat and all of our shoes (we did recover them all). At this point I pull my sore foot out of the water and check that I have all my toenails still, I am bleeding but not profusely. Rorie and Sean swim down stream a bit and jump out of the river by a bridge (she is still crying and refuses to get back in the kayak). My parents and I kayak in and I limp out of my boat at the dock.
We then head back to the hotel, me hobbling with down the muddy road with my hurt feet.
How are my feet you ask? The lodge gave us the small amount of first aid things they have so I got them cleaned and gauzed. I cut up the top of my left foot and the only way to wear shoes/flip flops is if I have gauze on it and it is also swollen. On my right foot I have a not to deep but super annoying 1 inch slice through my heal pad and I stubbed my tow. So I walk really funny.
So everyday a few times a day Rorie says "mom what happened to your feet?" and we discuss the kayak event. She says she went under water and "daddy saved me" and that is was mommys fault that the boat tipped over. Reality is that Momy saved her and it was Sean's fault the boat dipped over (he does take the blame).
Tuesday: July 28th 2009
Sean turns 35 today! For his birthday the family went on a boat to Isla de Cano for diving and snorkeling. To board the boat, the boat staff has to hold the boat (for dear life) in the waves, while the passangers run out (hopefully not during a large wave) and jump on. All the gear is also loaded this way. While we are watching the gear being loaded from the safety of the beach. Rorie starts to cry. I am a bit jealous of the kids because they have lifevests on. The boat almost tips over during this process and I am picturing it tipping over while I am on board holding Leo and having second thoughts about this adventure (I imagine my mom is as well). Well we all board safely and head out to sea holding onto the kids as we bounce over the waves. We saw dolphins on the way to the island who stopped jumped around the boat for us. They dropped my mom, I and the kids off on the island, we disembarked in the same fashion as we boarded. Sean went scuba diving and my dad went snorkeling. We were the only ones on the island besides the park rangers and thousands of hermit crabs. This is when Rorie and I got attacked by sand flies. I didn’t even realize until I looked down and saw red spots all over her and my legs. Over the course of the day and evening my spots swelled and became very itchy, luckly Rories went a way. I counted 20 bites on each leg the next evening while I was busey itching them. We enjoyed chasing hermit crabs and even found one who’s shell was a pen top (there is a shortage of hermit crab shells on the island). So after about an hour of enjoying the island to our selves boats started dropping people off people wearing silly looking lifevests around their wastes. Our boat came in also and we had a great lunch then I left my dad and mom with the kids while I went out diving with the sharks. Isla de Cano is known for seeing sharks and rays. Which to me would be a reason to avoid getting intot he water but to Sean it is one of his favorite places to dive. This was my first incounter with large sharks that were not nurse sharks. They were afraid of us but it still made me nervous. After I sucked up all my air (this is common when you have not dived recently) and made the group return to the boat. We picked up the kids and my parents and returned to Drakes bay. That evening the restaurant at our lodge sang happy birthday and made Sean a cake!
.JPE)
.JPE)
