We three are put in a raft with two Germans. Our raft is captained by one of the guides in the van who spoke English fairly well; we after all, need to be able to understand his instructions as he barked orders aimed at saving us from injury. This man is big – he could wrestle bears. Studying engineering in college. Early twenties. He has done this trip a 100 times and yet the joy he still feels is obvious to see and hear, for despite his formidable size, this young man would squeal like a child with every dousing the river gave us. I really got a kick from this incongruity.

I was also interested in observing Frog Legs. He too was in our van. We picked him up along the way, and it was once he was in the van that the puerile activities ensued in earnest. He’s smaller by far than the other hulking guides but seemed to be their leader. As we prepared for the rafting, he strips off his pants and proudly, it seems, presents to the world a tiny bathing suit and bulging thighs, the kind a body builder would possess.

Given that his upper body is of normal dimensions, these legs stand out. I watch them bounce him around from raft to raft, person to person as he directs the pre-launch activities. In my life, I’ve know two others with disproportionate legs such as these, and I suddenly realized that they also bounced around. It’s as if the muscles in such legs need to be used, and like anxious thoroughbreds biting at the bit, one does not walk but bounce. (Perhaps with four legs you “prance”).

The river is mostly gentle, but here and there it would gather itself and speed us away and drop us from watery ledges and twist us about. A competition brewed as each raft tried to power ahead to be the first to navigate the forthcoming set of rapids. When we would reach a stretch of calm, those in the other rafts would spontaneously burst out in song. I thought that the only song a group of Americans might all know is jingle bells.

All too soon, it is over. There are a couple of close calls where someone in our raft was thrown into the river -- and in fact, one of the other rafts flipped over -- but no one was hurt and everyone had a grand time. After drying off and changing into warm clothes, we three jump in that same van which, with driver of course, Mike hired to take us the five hour journey to the fabled city of Dubrovnik.