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  • Day 123

    White Water Fun

    March 30, 2016 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    I return the car first thing in the mornig as we have booked to go white water rafting, the weather is forecast for rain all day and with us getting wet anyway it seems like the perfect activity to do. We have some breakfast and get into our swimsuits and make the short walk to the agency we have booked the trip with. The weather is really cloudy and just starting to spit, but im glad it didnt rain last night as this could have taken the river higher , im up for fun, but not putting our lives in danger. The company we are doing this with is not the one we have booked with so a minibus picks us up just after 11. Its only a 15 min drive to the site where we pick up our safety gear. We are given a vest style wetsuit that has seen better days and a air of booties a thin windroof jacket, a helmet and a life jacket. Once evryone is dressed we get back on the bus to drive to the river. The rafts are lowered over a bridge and onto the water and the safety brief starts and the situation of us falling out the boat is gone into in great depth (is this really a possibility) ah well its a bit late to worry about getting wet now. We are in a boat with 3 Chileans and one of them has a go pro so were actually going to get video of us in action. The start of the rafting is practising our manouveres which is all done in Spanish i understand most of it but on the things that i ask when i dont understand the instructer tells me to copy my amigo , does that include falling in? We paddle down the river listening to the birds while we practise paddling forward paddling bacwards, and jumping in the boat. As we float down the river we come to our first grade 4 fall and to say i get a little bit wet would be an understatement. we are the first boat of 3. One has Germans in and one has Americans two of them are really big girls and as we wait for the other two boats to come down the boat with the Americans gets stuck the guide in our bus jokes about mcdonalds and finally after a lot of rocking they are free. We continue down the river getting swallowed by the falls until we come to one that we are unable to cross, so we take the raft to land and walk around while the guys lower the raft down on a rope, even theyre not willing to take the raft down. When we come to the end of the trail we are told that we have to jump of the ledge into the water. I honestly think they are joking but when the first guy jumps i realise thats not the case . Its my turn and i hold my nose and jump out as far as i can i hit the water and the coldness takes my breath away. I swim to shore and climb out of the water , im so cold i can barely feel my hands, another small walk and we are back in the boat.and heading for our biggest fall yet. As we head towards it the guy is telling us to paddle faster , and my heart beats faster, we decend the fall and water fills the boat, i hold onto the rope like my -life depends on it. and we make it through , i honestly didnt expect it to be this full on , my heart is pounding ot of my chest , we descend over several other waterfalls and when we arrive at the end were told to jump in the water and swim to shore , once againn i am shivering, we climb out of the water and carry the boat out, the changing rooms are here and once in dry clothes its back to the bus. Today has been brilliant and now its back to the hostel for our night bus out of here . The plan is to go and grab a bite to eat at the place we ate yesterday, but the rain has been relentless all afternoon , and the though of getting on the bus alnight in wet clothes doesnt appeal so we decide to go hungry instead and catch a taxi to the terminal . Hungry but dry we board the bus to Santiago and were soon on our way.Read more