Dec 7, 2009

White water rafting was yesterday. I chose the extreme package, which terrified me a bit. I've never been, and I had no idea what to expect, but I was told that there would be more flipping and more activities so I said what the hell and signed up for it. I was picked up around 8am by a guide/driver, Vinnie. He had said that Deb had told him to give me a "real extreme" experience so again, I'm completely mortified that he's going to kill me. We got to the river, got in our groups, had a bit of a delay with some girl on our bus, but then headed off. The river is controlled by a power company. I guess they use the water to generate power and rafters have to pay a levy to release water for us to raft through. That was pretty cool... almost like the movies when someone opens a door and water comes pouring in... but on a big river and your on a raft! Part of the "extreme" trip is that there are only six people on the boat instead of 8 so we had more work to do. There was a drop pretty quick after we started so we all hung on for dear life, but it got easier the further we went. The trip lasted pretty much all day. We started around 10 maybe and didn't finish until 4ish. The guide we had, Paul, was really cool. These guys run the same trip every day with inexperienced travelers, so they knew what to expect and how to prepare us for every rapid and every turn. After a few rapids I felt very safe and started to loosen up a bit. They had to do some waiting between rapids to wait for the other rafts, which could have been annoying, but the view was amazing. There were mountains and rainforest all over the place so there was never a dull moment. We rode through a waterfall so I was showered by a waterfall, something I've always wanted to do. We stopped at huge rocks that we got to jump off of. It was pretty intense. The first time I had to have a guide count to three for me, the next time it took me a good minute before I could force myself to do it, and the third time they told me it was important that I get a little running start to jump OUT and not down. That terrified me but that probably worked the best. I'm not used to jumping off high anything, so it was weird breathing on the way down and catching your breath before hitting the water. It was a huge rush. There was one big rapid that we went down. The guide told us to all get to the front of the boat, so we all thought it was going to be super steep and scary, but really, he just wanted us to tip when we got to the bottom. Once we were swimming, we rode the current along and had to meet him at one of the side banks. There was a small rock we could have jumped off of but the current was pretty strong and I couldn't catch the side of it to climb up. It was a lot shorter than the others, so I would have done that in a heartbeat. There was a few times he wanted to tip the raft but we sort of refused. For me, it wasn't the tipping I was worried about, it was getting back in the raft that was a pain in the ass. We thought we were pretty cool when we could keep the raft from tipping when Paul tried to get it to flip but eventually we were excited to flip and enjoyed the swimming. We flipped once and I got caught in a little current and ended up hitting my hip on a rock.. that sucked. So far, there is no bruise, but it sure feels like there should be. If one appears I'll take a pic of it and post it because it'll be a doozy. Another time we got to a point where there weren't boulders in the water, but molten rock, so it was a lot smoother so we got to get out and ride the level two rapid down the river IN THE WATER. It didn't look that scary, but I got pulled under more times than I would have liked. I'd get above water to gasp for air and then be pulled under again. The waves were pretty big so I couldn't see where I was going. They said that it was crucial that we make it back to the checkpoint and not past it or we'd hit the level five rapid and probably die so when I finally could see the raft I was so anxious to get to shore with water in my lungs that it wasn't that enjoyable. Pretty cool to say I did it and definitely a rush, but they gave us the option to run back and do it a second time and lets just say I wasn't too keen on that. One of the guys on the boat ran back and did it a second time but he said he hit a different line that time and had the same thing happen to him that happened to me. I wish I had a different line because that could have been really cool. I don't know how many rapids we went through, but it was quite a few. The guides sort of trapped us in a few so we had water rushing into our rafts while being stuck on a rock, pretty cool. They knew how to put on a pretty good show I thought. Because Vinnie wasn't my guide, he didn't get to mess with me like he wanted, but he was always close by so he swam over to me and pulled me in the water a few times, hit me with his paddle when he could, and splashed me every chance he got. Great! It was a really good time. I'm pretty sore this morning though. I couldn't sleep on my side where I hit the rock, my neck is pretty sore, and my arms are a little wobbly. Definitely worth it!