Our last day before we start our marathon of flights back to our home base. This is possibly the coolest experience of snorkeling ever. We were suited with wetsuits and because our guide does not speak English, we conversed in gestures and whatever Spanish words we know that we already use in Filipino (Yep, not even Portugese).
We just lie face down and we don't even swim, the current of the river at Rio Sucuri, Bonito, in Brazil, carried us downstream. The water is so clear, you could see right through the bottom. The video and the pictures don't do it justice. We were trying to gauge who wants to lead because it's scaring the shit out of us. Seriously, the river looks like a habitat for Cayman alligators. We ate one previous night and the revenge of the Cayman is a stomach-wrenching diarrhea attacking us in the middle of the night right up to early morning. Who knows it will come back and bite us in this river.
While there are no corals (this is a river), I enjoyed trying to behave like an alligator using Nikki's video cam. With my eyes darted on the surface of the river, I go down underwater like an alligator. So cool! We zipped through the river for 3Kms, nary a stop, and with no panting like a dog like what we did during our Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. This one's peanuts.
You know what's our highlight? Here goes. We were advised never to pee in the crystalline waters so when we got off the river, our tour guide went to dock the boat somewhere and we were there standing at the other dock badly needing to pee. I'm embarassed with this conversation but I'd like to post it for posterity as I remember it:
Me: Pee na tayo! I really, really need to pee! Let's pee now!! I'll pee anywhere!
Nikki: Ako rin! But sige, sa gilid?
Me: Okay! [jumping at the left side of the dock under the trees, I squatted. Nikki did the same on the other side, facing each other.]
Me: Shit, bakit ganun, it's stuck in our wetsuit! [Laughing, could not hold it back, still peeing! So this neoprene is porous, crap!]
Nikki: Oh my gosh, di sya nahuhulog! [Laughing, peeing, looking at my pee] Ayan, kita ko na yung pee mo!
Me: [Laughing] I can't see yours!
Nikki: Oh my god! [Laughing]
Me: Ayan na sa yo, Niks! [Jumping while squatting] Do this, it goes down if you do this! [Laughing while speaking]
Nikki! [Laughing] Oh my god...
Me: I'm done na! Quick, Manong is coming na! [Me standing up, trying to compose myself]
Nikki: [Still laughing and squatting]
Me: Nikki, please stand up na, mahuhuli tayo! [Laughing while begging at Nikki!]
Nikki: [Still laughing and still squatting!]
Me: Nikki, what are you doing, stand up na!
Nikki: I'm not yet done, hahaha! It does not seem to end!
Manong came over, Nikki still squatting and we're both laughing. Given the language barrier, he laughed too but there are things better left unsaid. Maybe these are the things that should be filed under, What Happens in Brazil, stays in Brazil.
But I realize in my deathbed, what would I really want to remember? The clear waters of Rio Sucuri or glorious (not gory) details like this? The experience is just simply worth telling.
