With so much time on my hands, I took the lead on organising our trip to Rio Claro, and I managed fairly well, with some help from Sandra. I emailed the Refuge and arranged for a room, providing all the required documentation. It was better than I had imagined. The room only had three walls, the missing wall looking over the river below. The water was cool enough to take the edge off the tropical heat without being so cold that you couldn’t stay in. The Refuge put on a number of activities and we had a go at both the white water rafting and the caving. The river at this time was very tame, which Sandra was very happy with, not being a confident swimmer, and guide resorted to spinning the boat as we traversed the rapids to give the rest of us a kick. The cave turned out have it’s own stream so that we were knee-deep most of the time, and on two occasions had to jump down into a pool below, no mean feat when your only light is a headlamp. Sandra kindly gave me the opportunity to be her protector on these occasions, and I’d go again just to have her jump into my arms again.