I hadn't realized it, but I have done Canyoning before: I did it when I went to Columbia. You walk in / along a river and do jumps and you repel down waterfalls. Our Canyoning experience lasted a good 3.5 hours and it was great. Liz initially wasn't going to go because she can't swim but got up the courage to try. We drove about 45 minutes to the spot and then carried our wetsuits and helmets another 20 minutes to the river. After putting on our equipment and slushing, sliding down rocks and jumping through the water, we came to the first waterfall.
The first waterfall was about 25 feet and probably the trickiest. I went first and the guide told us that water would be pouring on top of us, so we needed to keep our heads down in order to breath. Repelling down a waterfall is tricky because you don't have much grip with your shoes. Add to that that you cannot see with the water pouring on you and then that you feel like you can't breath, it feels like an accomplishment when you reach the bottom no matter how awkwardly you did it... and we did it all pretty awkwardly. But, we all made it and were happy.
Our guide then led us to a rock and told me to jump about 8 feet down to the white foamy part of the water. He told me to make sure to jump down and not out because there was a rock wall only 7 feet in front of me. I judged and calculated it in my head and made my jump. Perfect. The only thing he didn't tell me was that the water was shallow and only came to my chest, but it didn't really matter. I did make sure to tell Dan before he jumped since he is pretty tall. Everyone but Jonathan had jumped and he was somewhat hesitant; he recently had knee surgery and wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything to mess that up. But we had all made it and so he didn't have any problem jumping. He must have gotten a little excited because he jumped a little too far out and came inches away from the rock wall in front of him. When we saw he wasn't hurt, we were all laughing. I was especially laughing when the guide turned away smiling and rolling his eyes and said, "Away from the wall. Jump away from the wall."
The next waterfall was about 45 feet and we went down with our backs to the wall. It was a lot of fun and we went fast. It was so much fun being at the bottom of the fall and encouraging the others. It was such a wonderful team building activity. It was all about trust, overcoming your fears and enjoying nature.
Liz was having a hard time mentally. Once she did the jumps, slides or repelling, she was fine but prepping her mind to do those things was not so easy. The guide recognized this and did a special repelling exercise for her to build her trust. He hooked her up and told her to walk down the rock. I think it really helped her. The rest of us had to jump into a space that looked 5 feet wide and we would be dropping down about 8 feet to get there. You want to jump out enough so you don't hit you butt on the rock but not too far because then you will hit the wall in front of you. That was probably the most exciting jump I did.
Next we came to a superslide created by rocks. The guide demonstrated and we followed. Awesome.
Finally, we came to the last waterfall which was a 100 ft (if I remember correctly). It was a lot easier to do than the other two because there wasn't water falling on us at the beginning.
Our guide had arrived late and gotten us there late and so we had to rush back to the hostel so we could change, get food and go paragliding. I thought paragliding was handgliding and I was really stoked. When I found out it was flying with a parachute, I was still excited but not as excited... until we started the trek up the mountain. We got in a van with a 15 year old driver and crossed over an Indiana-Jones-looking bridge (I could have sworn the driver called me Mr. Jones at one point). He sped up the mountain like a maniac; he went blindly around curves and as other cars were coming down the mountain. We kept getting higher and higher and the road got rockier and rockier. We were already above the clouds in Mérida but here, we were really up in the clouds. There was a huge group of people there... maybe 70 people. Everyone got paired up with an instructor except for me (they said mine was on the way). The first person got strapped up and the wind took him away. My stomach leapt with excitement.
My instructor came and rushed up to me and gave me a big surprise hug and helped me find my equipment. This was the first time I'd ever met Jose. 5 minutes later, we were up in the air. He was the most experienced instructor there and he had been paragliding for 25 years. He had a trick chute whereas everyone else had the regular kind. We got some serious height and the without telling me, he took me into a whirlwind dive (that's not the actual name I'm sure). It was an incredible rush. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster with the G-forces so strong that I couldn't move my face. We stayed up in the air for about 20 minutes and then he landed. God, I want to do that again. Apparently, it is one of the cheapest ways to fly - $1000 for 7 days of lessons to get certified and then $3000 for the chute. Next project here I come!
That night we bought hamburgers from the street; they were some of the best hamburgers I've ever had. Gooooooodness! Jonathan agreed; he wanted to order 2 more. After that, we played more Egyptian Ratscrew on the roof and Jonathan and I hung out for a while after everyone else had gone to bed to tell stories. Good times.
No comments:
Post a Comment