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Yes, the vision of horror movie piranhas did cross my mind as I slipped into the opaque green water, but I managed to swim unmolested by flesh eating fish. White clay colors the water that murky, milky grey-green so it was hard to see more than a couple inches below the surface, making it just a bit scarier than if I could have seen what was lurking beneath - well, on second thought, maybe not! Some things are best left to the imagination.
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We were in Jamaica floating down the river on a bamboo raft with a band of other adventurous refugees from a cruise ship. The guides stuck their long poles into the bottom holding the rafts in place and asked if anyone wanted to go for a swim. Ours said it with that kind of smirking grin that says, "No one ever does it." Someone timidly asked if there were piranhas. He said, "No," so I jumped in. I guess he knew what he was smirking about - no one joined me. Even after it was clear I wasn't going to be eaten, no one else got in.
I enjoyed it. The water was cool on a stiflingly hot day and it was cleaner than the water at some Jungle Ride amusement parks I've been on. I particularly liked the vines hanging down drifting in the current - it gave it all a true Jungle Adventure look. I was refreshed and I got to cross a highly-unlikely item off my list.
I didn't escape the feeling of being eaten alive, however. When we got back to town, our entire tour group was dumped at a backstreet "shopping" mall and left to the human piranhas looking to strip not our bones but our pockets. That was more dangerous than the river swim!
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