Thanksgiving Vacation Part II: Rio Dulce

After spending two nights in Livingston we took yet another boat ride to Rio Dulce (Sweet River). We actually didn’t stay in the town of Rio Dulce, but rather in a place called the Finca Tatin which was basically in the jungle off of the river Tatin (a smaller river that connects to Rio Dulce).

Our hotel

The rope swing on the dock of our hotel

Our rooms...straight up jungle



The day we got there we rented kayaks and paddled to the nearby hot springs. It was an extremely funny / painful experience. This was just a part of the cold river with scalding hot water coming out of the hole which we are all gathered around. The result was us all crouching in the shallow water frantically doggie paddling to try and mix the scalding hot water with the cold water. As my good friend Kelley said: "Most painful experience of my life - made worse by the expectation of something enjoyable."It was good for a good laugh.

The hot springs

The group mid-hike (yes I'm in a dress and flip flops)

Riverside Church

The next day we took a hike through the woods to the Tiger caves. This was awesome! The tour guide didn't exactly prepare us for what we were going to encounter (what else is new) so I did the hike in flip flops. After we got to the entrance to the cave we walked for about two minutes down into the cave where we came to a ledge and the only way to continue on was to jump down into the water below (which we could only see with a flashlight and was probably about 40 feet below (total guestimate by the way - it was dark)). 

Entrance to the cave

Conquering my fears. You can only see the cave because of the flash. The caves were pitch black except for the two flashlights that we had.

From this point we walked/crawled for probably about 15 minutes down deeper into the cave over the stream and wet rocks.We finally ended up in the bat cave with tons of bats flying overhead. Terrible if you have a phobia of either the dark or bats, but really cool otherwise. All in all a VERY unique and memorable experience.