Sunday clouds and rain
Monday clouds and lots of rain
Tuesday I think it was clouds and rain but can't be sure....'
Wednesday nice skies and beautiful cumulus clouds but too much wind..
Thursday more of the same...
Forecast for Friday and Saturday a little less wind but maybe more clouds and rain..
But on Monday, after the task was canceled a group of pilots from Chile and Argentina organized a raft trip and I managed to get invited along... A nice van came and picked us up at our hotel and we drove about an hour or so to the Southwest of Pocos de Caldas eventually stoping in a small town to sign a waiver, pay the fees, and be fitted with helmet and life vest.
We then boarded a large old bus which was much better suited to wet bodies and clothes and such and headed down to the river which was only another 15 minutes or so away. We received very detailed instructions, not a word of which I understood, and loaded into 3rafts and were on our way. It was completely mellow and I figured I was in for a nice easy afternoon of rafting through the beautiful Brazilian countryside.
Not 5 minutes later, we were directed to stop paddling and "everyone get in the river". Hmm, ok, I guess.... Not too worried about Anacondas, alligators, piranhas, or whatever else might be lurking I obliged along with everyone else and over the side I went. We then spent quite a bit of time learning how to manage ourselves in the water and inside the raft when it has been flipped over, and how to get ourselves and each other back on board. Of course we also practiced flipping the raft back over...
Ok, fine, it's a beautiful afternoon, the sun is out, the water is warm and I'm enjoying myself. We loaded back in the boat, and not 10 minutes later I see that the river uphead is kind of disappearing, and I don't me around a bend. Ah, our first rapids. Once again, 50 meters or so before the rapids, "everyone into the water". Hmm, this raft is feeling pretty good so why do we want to go back in the water now? apparently this was the next step in our training... practicing floating through the rapids with feet near the surface so they don't get snagged on anything. Close your mouth and cover your nose so you don't get water up it. This was where I learned that it is apparently ok to drink large quantities of water from this particular river. I kind of enjoyed being free of the raft and just racing down the rapids when they started getting a little bigger, and apparently my life vest was kind of worn out and didn't do so well at keeping me on the surface. Sure I would eventually come up, but at one point I was driven really deep under the rapids and it was completely dark and I didn't come back up for a REALLY long time...
I'm a good swimmer and can hold my breath for awhile but this is where I started thinking, "they'd never be able to pull off something like this at home".
Back in the boat we all climbed and it's really beautiful with the dense vegetation enclosing the river on both sides and it wasn't too hard to imagine yourself on some river deep in the Amazon Forest. Tropical birds, beautiful flowers, and bananas and other fruits growing wild along the shores where it didn't look like anyone could ever reach them.
So now that we've all been aclimated to being in the river instead of on it, and tested to make sure we won't drown too easily, it's time to start playing with the boat in the rapids. Apparently it's not enjoyable enough to just paddle down the rapids... now after we finish a stretch of rapids, we immediately paddle into one of the side back eddies and work our way up to the last rapid. I'm in the front of the boat and I'm game I guess. The closer we get paddling upstream back to the rapid, the harder we must paddle to keep making progress. Are we gonna like surf the rapid or whats the end game here? It didn't take long to realize that the end game was to drive the front of the raft into the rapid and see if we could keep it from being flipped over.. Well, no, not even close... bodies and paddles flying everywhere to the apparent delight of our guide... Of course we get to keep trying this maneuver until we eventually figure out how to throw our body weights into the right position to counter the barrage of water which drives down the front of the raft. When we succeed after several tries we are all shreiking with delight while we thrust our paddles into the air in an act of total conquest of the rapid...
We float idly for awhile watching the other two rafts repeating what we had done. Then we all enjoyed another half hour or so of gentle waters and beautiful scenery. We then pulled up to the shore and I wasn't clear if we were done or what but we climbed up the grassy bank and were met with some nice cold water and then told to head down the trail along the river... Apparently the river was far too dangerous ahead to attempt in a raft so we would walk around and they would porter the rafts for us. We enjoyed about a 10 minute walk along some pasture land and then turned back through the woods to the river and some very big rapids where the river had really narrowed. The first thing I noticed was that the rafts had now been located UP river in a small side eddy from where we stood along the rocks and rapids. Hmm again. Apparently there was more to our last 'exercise' then I had realized. It was final preparation for the grand rapid finale....
But not quite yet! We're not ready and still one more bit of training to complete before we're ready to raft down this "something much bigger than a class 3" rapid. I don't know what the actual class was and don't really care... just clearly much more of a rapid then I'd ever been in... I can see the plan now. The last exercise is to get us actually into the serious rapid so we don't panic and freak out if we end up in it during our last stretch in the raft. Out on the rocks we climbed one or two at a time to where one guide had a rope which went around your wrist which you could grasp with that same hand. Down below and farther down the river were the two other guides firmly anchored with the other end of the rope. One after another we went with most really enjoying the exercise. Some would jump way out and plunge down feet first so that it looked like the two guides below were pulling up some large heavy object from the bottom of the river.... I had to do this very carefully so as to not further injure a frozen shoulder so I jumped out and did a 'back flop' so that I wouldn't go too deep.
Nothing to do now but put our trust in the guides and go for it in the rafts down the last stretch of this large rapid. I was genuinly uneasy but they had us far enough down the rapid that if you did go in you could hold your breath long enough to get swept down to the bottom... and we were prepared now right! We were the last raft in line so we had the pleasure of being able to watch the first two rafts to see how this was going to play out. There was a rope tied to an island in the river and one of extra guides helped to guide the raft out into the river by holding onto the rope and moving the raft out in the eddy of a huge boulder. Then away they went and immediately 4 of the 6 were in the river being swept away. They were soon all acounted for and apparently no worse for the wear... The 2nd raft made it with all on board so that was encouraging, and we followed and made it as well but it was very exhilerating to say the least and I was glad it was done and had enough. If this had been training for a bigger rapid I think I would have cried uncle and bailed...
The rest of the trip was through gentle rapids and calm sections which we were able to enjoy from within the raft with no more 'training'. After we finished and walked back to the bus we were each given a small plastic cup and poured some very sweet wine to toast our successful adventure...
I had almost stayed to lay around the hotel and was so very glad to have enjoyed the area from such a different perspective....
No comments:
Post a Comment