From down here, you cannot tell that it was raining quite heavily.

We weren't really swimming. It was more of a float. We were encouraged to not kick, not splash, not stand, just using our hands for some minor propulsion. The entire trip consisted of a walk through the forest, then 10 or 15 minutes in a natural pool to get accustomed to the activity. Not so much the snorkelling, but resisting the urge to put your feet down and stand.

From the pool, the float downstream took about an hour. I believe it was almost a kilometre.

Mainly fish, and dominated by three or four types. We were always excited to see the odd stand-out differing species, and would try and catch each other's gaze. In hand gestures we try to enquire of each other while pointing, "did you see that little red one?"

We saw a water snake, too, which was really cool. About 60 or 70 cm long, near the bottom, entirely unbothered by us floating by. It seemed to be searching through the river grasses, perhaps looking for a frog for lunch.