I am so excited! Today is rafting day! We all got in the van and went to the river. The guide said the river was low but we should still have fun. We arrived at the input for the raft and were given our wet suits. Everyone looks sexy in a wet suit. The girls on one side of the van and the boys on the other, we managed to squeeze in. We then recieved our safety instructions and were off!
In the river we had our raft full of Kate and Tyler in front, Sarah and Ali in the middle, me in the back in a row by myself (figures) and then our guide in the very back. We also had a safety kyack following us incase one of us falls out. Good to know he´s there. We were given all of our instuctions and camands and then were let loose on the river.
Our guide gave us commands, in spanish and we mostly followed them. He then decided to test our ability to follow directions. Apparently, he purpoefuly rammed our raft up against the rock trying to make it flip and yelled a command for all of us to get onto the left side of the boat. Well... we don´t follow directions verry well. Kate and Tyler jumped the wrong way...out of the boat. Sarah didn´t hear the instructions and fell out carrying Alis paddle with her. I heard the directions too lae. By the time I processed which way I had to jump it was too late and the raft was vertical. By default, I jumped but fell out of the boat. I was a little concerned when I was the only one being carried downstream and had to be rescued by our kyack. Me and him got to do the sexy pose. Woo Hoo. Well, we all survived and were pulled back into the raft. We got a lecture on not paying attention and had to go over all the commands again.
Later on down the river we decided to play. Our guide had us stand on the side of the raft and run around th edge. We all did so. Well Ali didn´t get the chance. We forced Sarah to do it. As she was running around the kyack thought it was funny, which it was to bump into the raft, knocking Sarah into the water. I tried to save her by pulling her back into the boat. When I grabbed her life jacket to pull he in, I got a quick kick in the rear and went flying over her head. Thank you to our guide I had to be saved again instead of doing the saving. When we both got back into the boat Ali freaked sarah out telling her not to move and to stay calm. Sarah had forgoten her waterproof bag with camera in it was still around her neck. Her bg was no longer water proof.
We were all back in the boat. There was a rule that if anyone fell out we owed the guide a beer. Well he is up to 6 at the moment. But the kyack and the guide switched places. And the guide was now in the kyack and fell out. We were all square on the cerveza rule. We al managed to stay in the boat for the rest of the journey. We came to a point where we had to get out of the raft and go around this intense rapid. It would be painful if we went through. I believe it was a class 6 and above. So we walked on the bank to a ledge where we had to apparently jump off. I don´t jump off ledges into strong flowing rivers. I was the last one to jump and tried to negotiate and do the geometry to assure that I wouldn´t die. I finally jumped and survived.
We all made it safely. At the end of the trip we were allowed to float the rest of the way in the water. We jump in, minus Ali and float down the river. At this point the river was really cold. We got out and changed and had snacks and pisco sours waiting for us. There was a professional photographer who took some pictures of us on the trip down so we were able to see the photos. It was so much fun.
Later at the hostel that night we had dinner and wine and sat around laughing. Then we listened to Kate and Tyler have a fight about how long to hang a dead elk in the garage before the meat is ready. We were all very amused. It was such a fun day! Hopefully tomorrow I will get to climb the volcano.
04/30/2008
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