Whitewater Rafting on the Rio Chili (that was actually chilly)
September 28, 2008 · Print This Article
The first time that I heard we might go whitewater rafting was in Baños, but when the chance came for the first time in Arequipa (or anywhere) I said “let’s go”. I was not missing this time because I had been waiting since Baños and was not waiting any longer. So, we got into a truck from our hostal, El Caminante Class, and we got started on our way to the whitewater rafting. On the way there we had to stop for all of our equipment like helmets, wet suits, the raft and a kayak too (actually two kayaks, but we only ended up using one). An then we were on our way. As the truck stopped again we got out and noticed that this was where we were going to be whitewater rafting. I can’t make the car sound here because we are just starting whitewater rafting we are not starting the car, we are starting to whitewater raft. As we went down our first rapid, I was like “WOW, this is awesome!”. We bounced around a lot. “Tow, Tow, Tow” (Try to imagine it even though you aren’t actually there) So, we went down the river a little bit, maybe a fifth of the way, and then we hit our first class III rapid and I was like “So awesome dude!” Because, we were bouncing around like “Tow,Tow,Tow”. As we went down the river and we came to stop, and I was like “why are we stopping”, we came to a class IV rapid. But we weren’t going to ride on it so we had to walk through it and my feet felt icier than ice cubes. Icier than the ice age. Iciest they have ever been in my life. That water was freezing. Then there were so many cool sites to see on our way to the next class IIs, IIIs, and our only IV. But, as we took all these rapids we were having so much fun that I didn’t notice when we stopped and he told us to get out of the boat. We walked a little ways down the river and I saw an amazing site. It was a rapid called “The White Canyon”. All the water bunched up so quickly and then crashed down and made a whitewater canyon. He said that we can ride on it or you don’t have to. I’m like “who would ever want to walk that thing, it looks awesome.” Some people didn’t want to, but I couldn’t understand that. We were just up there right over White Canyon. A lot of people were saying “yes” and others may have been sweating a little bit. And then “Kapfoosh”
It felt like we were going through a water tunnel because all of the water touched the raft and went around us. In the end we were all wet because of course the water has to come down and it came down on our heads and everybody got wet, wet, wet and more wet. After that it wasn’t as exciting because there were only class IIs and class IIs and they weren’t as exciting.
But then we came to what I thought was the most fun of the whole trip. 75% into the trip we hit a class III+ and that changed it all. It was about maybe one minute of almost class IV rafting and that made my day. But, what didn’t make my day was that we were almost done. Then when we got to the end I was “awesomely freaked out” because that was awesome, even better than horseback riding in Baños.
sweet pics. really cool whitewater. proud of you but especially E and K . . .
duke won over the weekend. we had 25 kids at the sleepover on sat/sun. broke a door to the meeting room but other than that, a lotta fun was had by all. we also had a small contingent from DFM in the gay freedom day parade sat, largely because of sandy’s efforts. jen wichman’s 3 year old rode his bike with a sign that said “I brake for love” on it. jon wm marched w/ buddies at ncssm including Rex, a very cute boy from Jon Wm’s hall. Hmmmmmm . . .
obama seems to be surging based on folks’ concerns about the wall st meltdown and the fact that obama’s head did not turn 360’s during the fri debates. as cokie roberts put it today, people’s desire for a change in washington - reinforced by the meltdown - is trumping any concerns they have about BO. the fact that he was a normal, predictable person during the debates, she said, may have reassured folks about voting for him, even if some people thought mccain might have won the debate. solid analysis but we will have to see if itshows up in poll #’s in swing states.
here in nc, people think BO might take the state and/or that his surge might allow hagan to beat dole.
i still say both are unlikely but then i didn’t think either had a chance in nc.
cheers -
rob
Hi Jack and Eliot,
We sure do love your blog!
I would like to go on record as saying that I think you guys are officially C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!!!!!! I cannot fathom what made you think it would be a good idea to go down a Class IV rapid!!
I definitely would have been one of those people “sweating a little bit” (okay, a LOT). As I was reading your entry, when I got to the “Kapfoosh” part, my heart was pounding!!!! (And I was sitting in my chair in my office while I was reading…)
The pictures are just AWESOME! I can’t imagine that no one in your family ended up falling out of the raft. You must have been holding on really tightly!
Thank you so much for sharing your great stories with us. I think you are great adventurers!
Take care,
Jen Johnson (and Claire, Zach, Tessa, and Blake)
Hey Jenny,
I love reading all of your comments and everything that you have to say. No, sadly none of the poeple in my family fell out of the raft but our guide did. We were walking a rapid and he was taking the raft down and the next thing we knew, there he was standing in the water soaking wet. It was pretty funny.
Please keep the comments up becaus eI know we all love to read them.
Ainsley
Thanks for the comment and by the way we were holding on really hard because Eliot didn´t have a paddle and was holding on all the time. And Ainsley and I when he said hold your handles we held our handles. So, it was pretty safe, but I was scared that somebody was going to fall out too. One time our guide fell out with nobody else in the boat and the water was freezing. Hoping your having warm water.
Bye, Jack