First, we had to take the two and a half hour ride out to the starting point, and most of this ride was on a gravel road. Once we arrived, we were served tea, coffee and a nice assortment of pastries for breakfast. Then we had to suit up ... I think I had one too many of those pastries.
We also had a jacket that went over this, which seemed a little excessive to me. The rapids were not too wild, but everyone in our raft was from our hostel and enjoyed themselves anyway. Our guide was a great laid-back guy, and he told all the standard jokes. He also helped to make the ride more entertaining by doing things like getting us wedged sideways on a rock, letting us go down a rapid out of the raft, and getting everyone to sit at the back of the raft and rocking back in an attempt to make it vertical. This made me start thinking of how happy all rafting guides seem to be. They are all laid-back, personable and get to meet new (somewhat) adventurous people each day. James was apparently thinking the same thing, and we briefly considered career changes.
After the trip down the river, they had some help waiting to get the rafts out of the river.
We had also just crossed the border into Chile, so now I've also technically been to Chile. Of course, I will leave off the "technically" bit when I tell people that I have been to Chile.
When we returned to the starting point, we had grilled meat and sausage, empanadas, potato salad, fruit and wine. After lunch, some of the guys from our raft got the bright idea to jump off the bridge outside into the river. It was about thirty feet high (supposedly). I have to admit that it did look like fun, and James gave it a try. I tried to get a picture of him in mid-air but the camera was too slow.
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Everyone was tuckered out after the exciting day.
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Thank you for not posing a picture of James in his wetsuit.
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