Thursday September 30, 2010

On Thursday morning we got up with our roommates around 6:30 because we were leaving for our white water rafting tour at 7:15. As I mentioned before our roommates happened to be on the same tour as us. Our first stop was at a bar associated with the company where we would learn about the rules associated with the tour and get our rafting shoes. The bus ride there took about 2 hours, and once we got there we were able to get some breakfast while listening to the safety regulations. From there we had to ride the bus for another half hour to an hour to get to the river. Upon getting off the bus we were given our helmets and life jackets, and within about 15 minutes we were walking down to the river. Thankfully Dani, Carrie, Katie, our roommates and I were all able to go together on a raft with our awesome guide Freddie. With an oar in hand we all just got into the raft, Katie and I in the front, and began heading down the river, no instruction given yet. That was terrifying because we had no idea what we were doing, and almost immediately had to go over a rapid. Right after our first rapid, which thankfully we made it through, we stopped at a calm spot to have Freddie tell us what we needed to do. He taught us some techniques for going through the rapids such as where you need to sit and what you need to do when he yells out certain commands. We then proceeded to practice those techniques a few times and then just continued down the river. At the first difficult rapid we came to the first raft, which had left a little before us, had flipped and everyone was at a stand still. Not a great way to start off the day. If that didn’t make us nervous enough Freddie proceeded to tell us about all of the incidents that have occurred on the trips. At that point all that was going through my head was what did I get myself into. We were held up at that spot for almost half an hour, but eventually we were able to get through. At the next intense rapid we came to one of the girls on our raft actually ended up falling out. This was terrifying to say the least. Even our instructor was swearing about it. Thankfully she was completely fine, but later he proceeded to tell us how one of his mates died in that exact spot. Once again the only thought running through my head was what did I get myself into, perhaps with a few profanities mixed in. After this the day went very smoothly although Freddie continued to tell us stories of people dying. Apparently the biggest danger in white water rafting is getting your feet caught in a rock underwater. This is why the first thing they taught us was that if you fall out just lift your feet up. As long as your feet are up you won’t drown because the life jackets that are used are meant to allow 250 kilograms (about 550 pounds) to float. We actually got to try this out in a calm, not rocky part of the river and just float down part of it. We also got to flip out of the raft going over a short waterfall, climb a huge boulder and then jump in the river from the top of it, and go through a waterfall. At one point we stopped for about half an hour for some lunch, which was some pretty good burgers. The whole rafting trip lasted about 5 hours, so by the end we were pretty tired, but it was absolutely incredible. It was such an exhilarating experience that I would definitely do many times again. I felt quite accomplished by the end of the trip because they had told us that it was a grade 4 river out of 6. The only down side to the whole trip was that there were an obscene amount of these huge flies that would bite you, which not only would hurt, but itch too. Freddie gave us this lotion that did a pretty good job at keeping the flies from biting you because it had a fairly high concentration of deet in it, but a few days later I learned that I am in fact allergic to high concentrations of deet...that was fun. Oh well it was still well worth it. By the end of the trip I was definitely pretty tired so it was kind of nice to have a long trip home so that we could sleep on the bus. On the way back we once again stopped at the bar to get some fries and to see the pictures that the photographers took along the river. The seven of us ended up buying a disk of the pictures and just split the cost, so I’ll try to post those pictures soon. We hung out at the bar until about 4:30 (and no Mom and Dad we didn’t have any drinks, we were all way too tired) before heading the rest of the way home. The ride to and from the river was gorgeous. The whole area is covered in mountains that rise high enough into the sky that clouds surround the peaks. Once we got back to the hostel we got some food before meeting up with our friends from home for gelato again. We then spent the rest of our night walking around the area, which didn’t last too long because we were tired and wanted to get some sleep after the exhausting day we had. Besides we were going to have another early morning the next day.