We traveled the country from the Pacific to the Carribean and arrived in Porto Viejo, we checked into the colourfull Rocking J's.
Here we met up once again with the lovely Margot and settled down into 3 lovely tents pitched on a wooden floor with a comphy matress on each.
The first three days went by with a series of parties, a lovely dinner offered by Catalina & Maria and we met up once again with the great Jose, his pimped car and funky sound system.
After a couple of nights spent listening to Reggaeton and going to the beach, we decided to celebrate the farewell to Maria by going rafting.
The Pacuare is considered the 5th best rafting river in the world. There are rapids of class 3 and 4 in the lower section and it is exactly those 35km that we decided to challenge.
The rafting experience was the most expensive entertainment we entained in the entire jurney but it was some of the best money ever spent.
We woke up early in the morning and drove with quite a headache to a bar where were picked up and brought to the Pacuare River.
Here we were introduced to out guide, Angel and told that there would be two boats, both of 6 people, one with us and the Angel, the other with 6 yankees and a guide that looked like he was out of Baywatch.We also had 2 support Kyaks in case something went wrong.
Team Angel
We started off slowly, learning how to row in syncrony and how to repond to the commands of the angel, we descended the first rapids and were shocked after a few bumpy rides to discover that all we had hit was a class 2 rapid.
We rafted ahead of the yanks over several rapids and finally we made it to the half way point where we had a rest and got some food under our teeth.
Half way through and all alive
The Pacuare is a dream, its is just completely virgin jungle. The rafting alternated extremely intense moments of rowing and trying to figure out commands over the roar of the river with other quieter moments where we could just let the current drag us and and admire the wonderful lush vegetation and animals, this is what really makes it one of the best rafting rivers on the planet.
This is a class 3...
We ended our lunch break and put our wet t-shirts, life jackets and helmets on, and prepared the second and more challenging part of the river.
Angel seemed quite happy and we were having the time of our life. We had been rafting for some 4 hours now and were coming up to the final part of the river and the final level 4 rapid when all hell broke loose.
Things getting serious
Perhaps we had gotten a little overconfident and had loosened the foothold on the boat, but i don't think anythink could avoided what happened. It didn't seem like we were going very fast and Angel noticed that the water was getting shallow, he tried to warn us, but as soon as he said "cuidado", we didn't even have the time to ask him regarding what and the raft came to a sudden dead stop with incredible force. Natxo, Maria and I were flung across the raft as we were sitting on the high side, Roque, who was on the low side but with a footstrap managed to hold on whilst David and Catalina ended up in the river. We tried to extend a paddle for them to catch on to, but it all happened too quickly. David heroically managed to grab hold of Catalina but she was pulled away by the current.
Angel somehow managed to grab David and pull him into the boat although in a slight state of shock.Natxo, Roque, Maria and I paddled with all our strength to get the boat to shore, at this stage Catalina had managed to grab hold of a rock in the middle of the river just 50 or so meters before the final and most vicious rapids began. We hit the shore and as Roque leaped from the boat with Angel to go help Cata. Angel told Cata to try descend a little more the river which she did, and he then threw a life line to her which she managed to grab on her second attempt.
We pulled Cata to shore and all reunited in a huge hug, thilled that nobody was hurt.
This may sound like a drammatic description but it was a few very tense minutes during which we feared for Cata and David's safety is they had actually ended up in the class 4 rapids.
We got back into the raft and passed the rapids with the help of the baywatch guide. One on the other side of the rapids, the other guide left us as the original crew of the boat.
Angel tried to relax Catalina, who was pretty under shock, by telling her that things like this happen all the time, but his movements betrayed his calm demeanor as he lit up a sigarette and smoked it with a very trembling hand.
We resumed the last part of the rafting this time with a lot more fear and respect for the river but as we were coming up to the final few bends, we run into the exact same situation whereby the raft stopp abruptly. This time the impact wasn't quite as intense and the first time and the fear and experience from the first time meant that only Mr Bristol had some stability issues and ended up with his ass well out of the boat. With some quick reactions and some help with Roque and myself he was back in the raft and finishing off the final rapids.
All in all it was the most exiting day in trip and one of the most exiting in my life. The trip was amazingly bonding, and perhaps it was part of the reason why it was so sad to see Maria and Catalina go, that and the fact that they are simply two amazing people and friends. Thanks girls, I really miss you!!
Thanks guys, you're the best!!
Once the rafting was over we head back to Rocking J's and met up with Txarlie, after 4 long years.
No comments:
Post a Comment