Banos - Day 3

Canyoning is what i signed up for today. Which in pictures at the tour operator showed images of rappelling down a waterfall with ropes.

It was a bit more involved than that heh. The entire excursion was making our way through a narrow canyon with fast moving waters gushing through it. Sometimes it involved swimming through sections, hopping over huge rocks amongst the whitewater, jumping off the top of small waterfalls into the pools below, shimmying across rock walls with ropes and of course rappelling down huge cliff walls alongside the waterfalls.

One of the jumps was pretty intimidating. A 30 foot drop into the pool in front of where the waterfall splashed down with sheer rock walls on both sides and then needing to grab a rescue line that the tour guide would toss and hauling yourself in against a strong swirling current.

We all had wetsuits for the cold waters, life jackets to not drown, and harnesses to rope ourselves in for all the shimmying and rappelling. Plus helmets.

For the first rappelling, we had to climb up a rock wall and wait on a small ledge over top of a large waterfall while the guides set up the rope system. This really unnerved me. I was harnessed in, but i felt so exposed at the same time. And then to rappel down, you have to lean yourself backwards over the cliff and have your body perpendicular to the cliff, facing upwards to the sky. But its a lot easier than it sounds once you get past the initial fear of dying that your brain screams at you repeatedly haha.

The rope goes through some tight loops in your harness, making it very easy to control your speed. You can slowly walk your way backwards down the cliff wall, or push off the rock wall with your feet and release a bit of rope at the same time to drop yourself downward in a hopping motion. Once i got past the first waterfall, i was excited to do the rest of them.

Started at 9am and didn't finish until 4pm. Which was immediately followed by some survival celebration beers. What a day. Capped off the night at another brewpub i stumbled upon with some new friends.

I couldn't bring my phone into the canyon today so i got a few images off the internet of the same falls we rappelled.Read more