That's It. He's Gonna Die.

One of the most exciting parts of my trip to Costa Rica was the Crocodile Tour. It was towards the end of our trip and when our Director said we were taking another boat tour I know I wasn't the only one groaning. I figured we'd only see a crocodile from a distance and it'd splash into the water and be gone before we got a proper look at it. After being on our tour bus (nicknamed the "Black Stallion") for a while I was tired and thought this boat ride would be a chance for a nice long conscious nap. You know. The kind of nap where you're not actually asleep but you're so zoned out and not paying attention you might as well be. So I was not exactly jumping out of my seat to get off the bus and down to the boat.

At first, the trip started off something like this. "Look to your right. Do you remember what that bird is called?" And everyone would mumble back "Great white egret" or "It's an Anhinga." I was thrilled. Really.

Can't you tell? So thrilled. And then our guide says "Oh, wonderful! Here's one of the big boys. Up here to the left. The locals call him Osama." So of course everyone is peering eagerly off to the left as we keep getting closer... and closer... and closer. This is Osama the Crocodile.

Yeah. That's a 16 foot crocodile. Maybe... twenty feet from where our captain takes the boat. This croc is over sixty years old. And chubby. But what happened next is where the story gets interesting. Our captain José Gets.Out.Of.The.Boat. WHY WOULD YOU GET OUT OF THE BOAT!? There's a sixteen foot male crocodile nicknamed 'Osama' and a 9 foot female crocodile sitting right there! WHY?? Well, to feed the crocodile, of course! How silly of me.

Ok, yeah that's a different crocodile. Because he got out of the boat TWICE. He's insane. And then two more female swam up while he was feeding the female next to Osama and he was trapped. So he had to step over Osama and weave through the other three females to get back to the boat. I was pretty convinced the next picture I'd be taking was gonna go a little something like this:

Fortunately, José did in fact not get his arm bitten off. I still think he's insane. And I was pretty certain he was gonna die. I mean, I was hoping someone else knew how to drive a boat because I was convinced we were not gonna have a captain. I mean, really. What sort of person GETS.OUT.OF.THE.BOAT?? GET BACK IN THE BOAT! PLEASE! So in conclusion... Crocodiles are scary. In fact they are so scary, I think I might need entire tub of therapy frosting to get over this one. Yup. The entire tub.

-Spencer