Kissing Frogs - A Tropical Fairytale

Jungle Pool + Loose Ring = Bargain with a "Frog"

"Aw, come on, Mr. A." Steven shoves his hands in his pockets. "I've been before. It's safe."

"Not the point, Steven," Mr. A says sternly. "That's not why we're here today."

"Today." Travis nudges Steven with his elbow.

Mr. A pays our fares and we walk down a short trail to the waterfall. Wooden slats bridge small streams and then a bigger brook. Huge boulders and fallen, moss-covered trees crisscross the creek. The water trickles and bubbles its way down over the rocks. Birds sing and the peaceful sounds of the forest soothe me. The water gets louder as we approach the falls. It flows over a rock face wall, breaking off into different paths, creating little streams through the forest floor.

"This is an example of the golden frogs' ideal habitat." Mr. A looks out at the waterfall. "You used to find them here by the hundreds." He keeps walking, mournful eyes combing the wet rocks as if to conjure one out of thin air.

"I bet it just gushes in the rainy season," Harp says, coming up beside me to take a picture. We stand on a rickety bridge facing the falls.

"So it's the dry season now?"

"You can't really tell up here, it's so green, but if you look around outside our compound you can see how dry it is."

"Didn't you smell the smoke on our way up?" Travis saunters up to us.

"Not really," I say.

"There was a small fire down the road."

"Like a forest fire?" Harp asks.

"Nah, just a little brush fire. Hector says they get tons of them every season."

"That's a little disturbing," I say.

"Hey, can I take a picture of you guys?" Harp holds up her camera.

"Sure," Travis says.

Ugh.

We face her, our backs toward the waterfall. Travis puts his arm around me like we're old friends. It's warm and wraps firmly around my sticky shoulders.

Harp takes the photo and looks at it. "How about a smile, Jess?"

I envision tossing Travis over the bridge.

"That's better." She snaps a few more. "Thanks, guys."

I'm not sure if it's my imagination or if Travis lets his arm linger for a second before taking it away. Weird.

"You guys ready for a dip?" Mr. A hollers from the other side of the bridge.

I definitely need to clear my head.

"How are we supposed to get to the waterfall?" Chrissy asks.

"We're not going swimming in the actual falls," Mr. A says. "I'm taking you somewhere Lo — my, uh, friend showed me last time I was here."

We walk back the way we came, out the entrance and onto the main dirt road. Mr. A turns into the forest and we follow him down another trail, over one more wobbly bridge and down several stone steps. We walk out to a rectangular-shaped natural pool surrounded by stones. It looks like it's been carved from the rocks. The water is a clear green color.

"It's a freshwater pool fed by the waterfall," Mr. A says.

"How deep is it?" Harp asks, an edge to her voice.

"Only one way to find out," Travis says. He tears off his shirt, revealing surprisingly sculpted pecs for a lab geek, and cannonballs in. Steven and Juan follow him.

"It feels awesome," Travis says, coming up. Chrissy and Kiki peel off their clothes and join the boys in the water. Chrissy's modest yellow-and-orange tankini and Kiki's blue one-piece also show off decent bods for supposed science nerds. Mr. A gets in the water next, his freckles prominent against his skin. There's something jarring about seeing your teacher half-naked. He's pretty white. I hope he's wearing a high SPF.

"Come on, Princess," Travis calls.

"I'm coming," I snap. My bikini was bought with Miami in mind and is a tad revealing compared to what the other girls are wearing. I hear my mother's voice. She was with me when I bought the suit. Or rather, she'd convinced me to get it, then paid for it, saying, "Jess, honey, if you got it, flaunt it, because it doesn't last forever."

I consider going in my clothes, but don't particularly feel like doing the forty minute drive home sopping wet. I take a breath, quickly shed my jean shorts and yank my tank over my head. Walking down the slippery stone steps leading into the pool, I ignore the snickers coming from Chrissy and Kiki's direction. The silver sequined bikini feels see-through as I wade into the icy water. My feet carefully pick their way over the rocky bottom, and I slide in quickly up to my chest, feeling the salt and sweat rinse away from my body.

It feels incredible.

Forgetting about my stripper swimsuit, I doggy-paddle until my feet no longer touch the stone bottom, then dive under. The water is dark, cool, invigorating. I swim to the other end of the pool, reach the stone ledge and grab on to it. To my right, water flows out of the pool and continues down around a waterwheel, dropping into the river below.

We splash around for a while until Mr. A tells us it's time to get going. Harp has stayed fully clothed in the shallow end, talking to Juan, and they get out, followed by Chrissy and Kiki, who towel off and put their clothes back on. Travis does one last backflip off the ledge. I'm reluctant to leave the fresh water.

One of the men from the zip-lining place comes down, gesturing in excited Spanish.

"What's he saying?" Steven asks, clambering out of the pool.

"He's asking if we want to come see something," Juan says, "but I'm not sure what."

Juan says something in Spanish. We catch the word 'sloth.' The man nods and points animatedly up the trail.

"Oh my God, I love sloths," Harp says, clapping her hands together.

"It's pretty rare to spot one." Mr. A grabs his camera. Everyone starts jabbering at once and scrambles up the trail after the pointing man, leaving Travis and me in the pool by ourselves.

"What just happened?" Travis laughs. He hops up on the ledge of the pool and sits there, hands in his lap, looking after everyone. Water drips from his hair onto his shoulders.

"I guess you conservationist types get excited by monkeys."

He grins. "A sloth isn't a monkey. They're in the same family as armadillos."

He'd always made me feel stupid. "How do you know that?"

Travis taps his brain. "Remember, I know everything."

"Do you know why you're such a jerk?" I dive under and swim back to the deep end of the pool. When I come up for air Travis is in the water, only a few feet from me.

"Don't you think that's a little harsh?" he says, treading water.

I grab on to the ledge with one hand. "Do you even remember tormenting me?"

"I just thought you were cute when you blushed." His arms move hypnotically back and forth under the water.

"Well, you certainly knew how to get that reaction," I say. Being around Travis reminds me of everything I used to be. A giant nerd. Someone who didn't fit in. Messy Jessie.

"I never meant to hurt your feelings," he says, his gaze intense.

"Yeah right." I look down at my hands. They're shriveling up like prunes.

Wait a second.

My ring is gone.