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bruiser

the rest of the week managed to get better every day. lets just say I wrote nothing in my journal, hardly read any of my book, surfed no internet & I used my alarm more in one week than I have the past 4 months - they kept us BUSY!

day 2 was more intense rafting. we moved from the espolon to the azul river. its still raining so everything is still huge flood stage. quick warm your hands, paddle hard to work up heat, hope you dont fall out of the boat. that worked for some of us, but on the biggest rapid, josh (from chicago) swam, alexis (from CA) dangled off the side but stayed in, phil (our guide) cartwheeled off the side but hung on - for that split second I thought we were goners - no guide and there was still easily 40 feet more to get through - all white & dropping through this pinch canyon, no one in control! in that chaos, I hit the deck (thankfully I was on the high side of whatever made us dead stop) but also hit someones helmet with my chin. got a nice goose egg that turned into a full on bruise. at least I have my teeth. this is reason to be grateful. oh yeah, and the adrenalin high of making it through! paddle high five. this is gonna be a sick week.

next day we rode horses to la cascada - the outpost on the azul river we stayed at for one night. we got to gallop (a LOT), rode through the river in 4 ft deep rushing water, picked our way up steep rocky trails. this was the hardest horse riding Ive ever done. platina (from chicago) got drug through branches and eventually tossed, lots of us got whipped by trees - our crew couldnt disappoint in the injury department. that night we drank chicha (havent had that since peru!)  by the fire until midnight, waiting for the moon to come up. I realized I havent heard silence since I got here - everywhere is the sound of rivers flowing or rain falling, or both. we finally gave up on the moon and stumbled to our tents (I really did since I still have no flash light). that night platinas lotion froze - it was that cold.

the next day we rafted down the azul river with a perfect blue sky above us (itd been gray and raining every day up to this). we finally see the snow covered peaks surrounding this green rain-forested valley. this combined with the blue-green of the river makes you want to quit your day job and do whatever you can to see this unforgettable place. oh wait...thats what I did. wha-hooooo!

I guess they think we had enough rafting cause the day after this, they put us in "duckies" - basically an inflated bathtub for (only!) one. give us paddles, teach us a few key details on how to survive if we get flipped (why do I need to know this??) and shove us off. were on the espolon - the easiest of the rivers. navigating the small rapids feels like bump skiing and I LOVE it! my canoeing days even help in the paddle department.

first run - no prob! maybe I could get into this kayaking thing. second run, 2 problems - both involved swimming in a river so cold I loose my breath, cant function, swallow river, freak out becuase I feel like Ive lost control. alex, one of the other great guides, was there to save me. he said the look in my eye revealed all my fear.  I claw my pathetic way into his boat, we rescue mine (it stayed in the hole I got spit out of), I jumped in before we hit the big rapids and I tried to stop shaking and start paddling. what was THAT that just happened??

I go a little further, but now Im kind of a mess in the head. no surprise there is a second swim and this was pretty much the same as the first cept with the knowledge of the really big rapid coming up (to me, really only class 2-3) and I needed to get back in my boat NOW cause everything was still moving down river, of course. from the confusion, I end up missing the main rapid and glide down the easy way - so not complaining. we hit the confluence with the futa (I can say I paddled the futa!), I pull my boat to shore and collapse. I need a shot of whiskey, phil offered to join me...and later that night, lovely paulina the bartendress delivered.

the next morning is another ducky day. I politely refuse. but that afternoon, theres a chance to raft part of the futa we dont have too big a chance to die from. Im really nervous, but platina does some swift convincing - she wants to go but needs 3 more of us to say yes. shes such a hard core chick (she did the second day of duckies). this is the biggest day of all. now Im even more grateful that phil is deciding where we go & how we get there but of course he steers us to the biggest rapids. wow, I wish you could have seen them. 9 foot tall rollers, surrounded by misting swirls of white water and its raining and windy again but today it really adds to how ominous everything feels. the biggest waves curl back on themselves - thats what were looking for. we plow right into them. imagine a garbage can of water dumped on you, but DONT fall off the boat or you really would probably die if you swam (big class 3 with class 4/5 consequences). look over the side of the boat into the swirling hole - for SURE dont fall into that.

I see diego kayak ahead, raise his paddle. I can see the top of the paddle, but not him - the waves between us are that big. I realize this isnt the high sign of "Im ok", its the high sign of "phil, bring that raft straight towards the biggest waves of this stretch and head to me". oh shit, here we go....I brace for the biggest smash of water yet. of course we hit it dead on - phil is great at what he does - but the curl is so wide, the water drops behind us not on us (or maybe on phil, I really didnt look back). are we flipping? I dont think so....were flashing down the other side, hit a couple smaller rollers and in seconds, were JUST floating down the flat valley. take a breath, exhale!, another paddle high five - sweeeeeeeet  - we got to raft the futaleufu - not quite as much as we wanted, but it was in flood stage and sooooo intense!!!!

what a week. the paddling was the best ever. but we also ate the best meals (you rock diego & crew!), I got basically personal yoga every morning from liz, john showed movies of us on the water the first 2 nights (including footage of the great raft wipe out), we hit the hot tub and sauna every day (sometimes twice) and everyone at camp took such great care of us. especially thanks to phil, alex, diego, selena for watching out for our lives on the river.

this was truly an oasis from the backpacking life!

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