White Water Rafting

So, as I said the three of us decided that we were going to do the white water rafting tour, never having done anything like this before none of us quite knew what was in store for us. We made our way out of San Gil in a rickety bus on rickety roads for about an hour and into our sexy blue helmets and life jackets. Our guide started off the safety briefing by tell us that there are five levels of rafting and the rapids we would be attacking were between 3-5!! OMG... noone had told us this before we set off?! But no turning back now.

He then proceeded to tell us all the various scenarios that could happen, ie raft flipping upside down, if you fall out and don't manage to grab onto the rope on the boat etc etc. Fear probably doesn't even come close to what we were feeling. But no hanging around, after a quick pep talk and a swift rescue practice, we were on our way pretty rapido (excuse the pun)!

I was in a boat with Kristie, one of the English girls we had met in Bogota, the guide, and a guy called Bram, who was staying in our hostel. Al and Flo were in a bigger boat with four other people not including the guide. So our boat went first and right into the first rapid which was only small (PAH small, it was level 3) and all was well... it wasn't until rapid two (level 5) that shit hit the fan. All I heard was our guide shout "PRACTICE RESCUE". One of the things the guide had told us was that when it came to rescuing - only one person was to do it and the rest to listen to the guide. Upon realising that I was not the rescuer I followed my strict FORWARD instructions (paddle forward). Thinking that boat 2 was just having a practice rescuse I was slighlt confused to turn around, whilst paddling my arse off, to see 4 people from the other boat shaking in mine?! Why had they all done a pactise rescue? Turns out... it wasn't a practice rescue at all, it was a full on wipe out. Jesus. I had missed everything, from our epic rescuse mission to the wipe out itself, I was too concerned about going FORWARD! But everyone survived, although I am not sure that many of those that capsized were that enthusiastic about continuing, but there was no choice. So back into our respective boats, and on our way...

So I forgot to mention "INSIDE" which was def the word of the day. This meant "GET IN THE BOAT NOW!!!" And when you heard the word inside you just clung onto the outside rope and prayed you would make it out the wave alive. I can safely say that there were a few occasions we just did not wait to be told to get inside, we just did out of sheer fright, assuming the guide had forgotten to shout it, naturally. I'm not sure that Alice made it outside much, but enjoyed herself all the same.

After the first few rapids, things started to get easier and perhaps our team started to get a bit ahead of ourselves, I am not sure attacking rapids without our feet strapped in was the best idea, but you know being hardcore is unavoidable!  After many 3 and 4 rapids and the odd 5 dropped in, we had a break and were allowed to jump out of the boat and bobbed along with the current. It was an amazing feeling just being swept along whilst lying back, looking at the amazing scenery. It wasn't until Kristie, Bran and I (the other boat opted out of jumping in the second time) that I started to get nervous. Was that a rapid I could see in the near distance and FORWARD I could hear coming from boat 2? AAAAAHHHH rescue please.... hello... anyone? Our guide casually steers the boat towards me, notices how close I am to the rapid and shouts RESCUE... er what am I meant to do again...oh nothing, just get my ass in the boat asap, he had 2 other people to rescue. Luckily it was olnly a rapid 3, and by this time that was easy of course, but all the same I am glad my ass was in that boat and not still in the water. Anyway fast FORWARDing got us through the rapid pretty fast and we moored up to a tree for our final pep talk of the day. Apparently we were about to hit rapid "sorpresa" (suprise) and a surprise it was! Our guide went over all the capsising drills and made it pretty clear that this was no rapid to be bargaining with. All I can remember is seeing a wave that must have been the size of the niagra falls and hearing INSIDE, INSIDE, INSI... blub blub blub. There was so much water in the boat I had no idea if I was still in it, all I knew was that I was clinging onto a bit of rope for dear life. Turns out I was still in the boat... phew.

It's difficult to explain the adrenaline rush or the experience full stop. Imense, Scary,Thrilling to name a few, but I don't really want to try. All I can say is that if I could afford it I certainly would have done it again today.
One of the most amazing days of my life - one never to forget. Luckily we have a video of the last 5 rapid (which I really don't think captures the scariness of it) and photos for proof, which I hope to get onto facebook when I can. 

That night - still on a high, a few bottles of rum later and a silent disco in the hostel (created by myself and flo) off we all went to the land of nod and to relive the day. AMAZING!