Honestly, this is fun :)

Hi to all,

What a week it has been. After solo we headed off to Rio Sarapiqui so that we could do our whitewater rafting phase. White water rafting is much much less scary than kayaking but still has its share of spills and thrills. Rio Sarapiqui (I think that I have spelt it wrong but it is pronounced ser-a-p-qee) is a river that is mainly class 2 and 3 rapids. To give you a rough guide to the classes of rapids I have written down my interpretation.

·         1 is easy and kind of smooth water with a few ripples

·         2 is easy as well but there are some waves and drops but nothing to fret over. You can go over these rapids without much skill and if you fell out you were being an idiot.

·         3 is medium difficulty. You can get rescued out of these rapids but you can also swim out of them. There is a risk of falling out but there is a very real lack of stress associated with it. You will get into holes (spaces found behind big rocks in the river) do some fun drops and hit a few walls but all is still fun and dandy

·         4 is difficult. There are massive drops like 10 foot, big holes, underwater caverns, self rescue is very difficult and there are some problems if you fall in. You need to have some experience with the rapids as a crew, let alone guiding. You have to follow a variety of paddling commands.

·         5 is very difficult. They do not recommend you run these in rafts. It has massive holes and drops, if you fall in you need to be skilled in self rescue and there is a very high risk of injury.

·         6 is classed for “Are you freaken insane?” Not to be done in rafts and requires a lot of preparation beforehand. The questions you need to ask yourself before you do this is about wills, saying goodbye to loved ones, selling off property etc.

We were in Sarapiqui for a few days and it was a lot of fun, however, we had our video camera, I pod, lenses, sunglasses and various chargers stolen from our cabinas. The cabinas have both security grills and windows but they removed some louvers and stuck a stick into the cabinas and grabbed my dry bag and my stuff sack with all of that stuff in it. This is a very big piss off considering we have no charger for our camera. We got a police report that day and will start the insurance process now but it is still rather annoying. We are going to look for a charger for our camera but if we do not, we will have to buy another one.

The next river we went to was the Pequari (p-qua-ree). This is a class 3/4 river and is voted in the top ten rivers in the world to go whitewater rafting in. It is beautiful with clean water and forest all around. In addition, it has some awesome rapid that get you grinning from ear to ear. They also have some fun names for the rapids that are class 4 like upper and lower grave, pinball, magnetic rock. Sandra and I had a ball going down the rapids and all was whoops, yells and fun.

And then I fell in…

I was guiding a class three and we went over a large rock because I could not turn the boat in time. We went over the rock and I fell into a “frowning hole” or a keeper. What happens in these types of holes is that you are essentially in a washing machine. The way the water works is that it goes over the rock and creates a spin where you can get stuck in the whirlpool. I fell in, got sucked under then resurfaced for about half a second when I was sucked back under. When you are in you do not know which is up and down, you are basically spun round and round. It took me a couple of cycles before I even realized I was getting stuck in the same place.

Usually behind a rock is a good place to be because it has an eddy that you can swim out of and go through the rapids to the next safe spot. I was not that lucky. So I am getting dunked again and again and loosing all of my available oxygen. I manage to get breaths when I get pushed to the surface but they are only half breaths. I liken it to being dunked by a wave at the beach but instead of that process being at most 10 seconds this was a repeated dunking… it was scary. On my fourth or fifth trip to the surface I looked at Danny who was shouting instructions to both the raft and to me. Now I had realized that I was in a keeper from the third cycle and the only was to get out of a keeper is to put your body into a ball shape and hopefully you catch alternate current that shoots you out of that hole. When I saw Danny he was crouching down and signaling to me to ball up and escape that way. I balled up and almost caught a current but it sucked me back. This process repeated itself a few times but with new oxygen in my lungs, I balled up again and got shot out of the hole like a cannon.

Then I had to swim down the rapids where I was so tired I could not get my body in to the “defensive swimming position”. I hit so many rocks on my way down the river. By this stage, two rafts were at the shore line getting ready to rescue me, they threw out a rope bag to me (but missed really badly, they accidently let go of the end they were meant to hold on to and so the bag plus all the rope went sailing past my head. I remember thinking that I have just gone through a big ass hole, don’t add more work for my by chasing shit that you want to throw to me) The rescue kayak was heading to my position by this stage and I grabbed hold of the back of it and got towed to my raft where danny pulled me in and removed my PFD (personal floatation device) cause by this stage I was freaking out and sort of hyperventilating. Sandra was looking at me with complete fear in her eyes and the rest of my crew (Mitch and KJ) were also really concerned.

All I can say that it was one of the scariest moments in my life, but the training we have had at OB prior to that point told me to be calm in the water, ball up, swim in the defensive position, which kept me sane and alive.

The rest of the week has been rather uneventful. Sandra and I are going into town today so we can replace the digital camera charger and get a new calling card so that I can call Mum and Dad tonight.

Tomorrow we are off to do some more rafting and then it is the end of the course. I will wait to finish before I blog about it.

Love you all and see you later.

Glen

Comments

[Julie]

Oh, you poor things. Its times like these, I wish I could just wrap you both up in my arms and give you the biggest bear hug possible. Though Matt's hugs will probably be better. Least you can come away from this and you can honestly say that you have had an experience of a life time. Certainly not something you can do here in Australia.

I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your stuff. I too, would be quite upset about loosing possessions. After all, you worked so hard to aquire them, and all some one has to do is take them, and they don't understand that it takes work to get them. Insurance may be able fix the problem, its just time consuming and really a big pain in the ass. Though least on the up side, you have done some pretty amazing things, and you have been able to use them up until now.

We are all good. We are seeing the lawyer today with a LIST!!! Yes a list. Guess who helped us work it out. Yep - MUM.(Thanks mum!)The poor lawyer won't know what hit him.

Christmas this year will be interesting, it may not be with your "real" family, but the experience of having it in another country must be great. I'm wondering if it is so comercialized over there, like it is here. I imagine there is a lot more religion tied up with Christmas. We are having Christmas at my place with Matt's family and Ma and Pa. They get to meet the "in-laws". Now that is going to be an experience and a half. But so worth it. I'll have a beer for you! Will be thinking of you.

I spose i shouldn't write another novel. Its just so easy to do.

Lots of love to you both.
Stay safe but have fun.

Sandy, Matt, Brock and Blake.