Careful what you wish for

After waiting in San Gil for a few days for the Rio Suarez to be low enough to raft, I was finally able to go today. I was told by Ivan, the helpful owner of the hostel I´m staying at that the river was had class 5+ rapids. After being told in both Ecuador and Panama that we were going down rivers that rated 3-4 and being somewhat disappointed, I thought that 5+ would be a really good ride.

We had to wait until noon to set out to let the river get a bit lower. We picked up the 12 people going on the trip from various hostels and grabbed the rafts, kayaks and guides. Arriving at the river, it was a muddy brown torrent and looked like it was going to be intense. We did the standard safety talk and hopped in the two rafts to practice a bit. Along with the two rafts we had three other guides in kayaks to grab anyone that fell in. Little did I know how key they would be. The raft I was in had two people that had rafted before and four who had never rafted. The other raft had people who had all done at least 4´s before.

We set off down the river and the first rapid we hit was a 4. I was in the front and we went in sideways and I got thrown out when this big wave knocked me across the raft. I got trapped under the raft for a few seconds (it seemed like much longer) but was able to push my way out, just to get a massive mouthful of water when another wave hit us as I was getting pulled in. We pulled over to the side of the river to regroup and I saw that the other raft had gotten through with their crew intact.

As I tried to catch my breath and calm down a bit, I realized that I was definitely getting more than my money's worth on this trip. We made it through the next couple of rapids ok, and then pulled over again to get instructions on the class 5 that was coming up. Coming into the first part of this one I´m not sure what exactly happened, but I think we just took too direct a rout through this wave that was about 8 feet tall. The entire raft tipped up on the side and we tried to high-side, but the whole thing flipped. Once again I was under the raft and struggled to get out. I couldn´t get a hold of the raft and ended up having to ride through the entire 400 meter rapid on my back. It was damn scary - every time I could get my head above water I would get sucked back down and swallow more water. This repeated about six times until one of the kayaks got close enough to me so I could grab on. I was on the front of it, but had to move to the back so we could pick up another one of my raft mates. We finally got out of the worst of it and got near enough the other raft so they could pull us aboard. I was so spent that I couldn´t offer any help and it ended up taking two guys from that raft to pull me aboard. I couldn´t get my breath and threw up a little water.

We stopped again so the guides could get the flipped raft on the right side of the river and to allow everyone to recuperate. At this point this Irish couple let the guides know that there was no way they were doing the last class 5. The guides told them they could walk around the last rapid, and asked if anyone else wanted to walk it. I sort of did at that moment, but there was no way I was admitting that. The guides did a bit of re-arranging of people so all the inexperienced people weren´t in the same raft, and we set off again. The next two rapids were class 3, and we got through fine. We stopped one last time for instructions on the final class 5. I was REALLY hoping I would stay in the raft/not have it flip here. Being 0-fer on the class 5´s and swallowing another bunch of water was not something I wanted to have happen on my trip.

We headed down towards the last big rapid minus the Irish couple. I was really nervous going into this one through some hard-earned experience. We hit the rapid, navigated the first little class 1 and plowed into this massive class 5. We were set up right going into this one, and had a roller-coaster ride through the waves which the guides later told us were over 9 feet high. A few times I though we were going over, but the raft stayed upright and almost before I knew what had happened we were through. I felt completely exhilarated as I realized there were just little choppy waves ahead of us and the guide said we were through!

We paddled down the river a bit to a beach where we pulled out. Snacks followed and then we loaded in the van and headed home. I was talking to this German guy sitting next to me who turned out to be a river guide, and he said that there was no way people with no experience should have been going out on that river in it´s current state. I told him that I had gone rafting about seven times on 3´s and 4´s, and he said even that was about the minimum that you should have to do that kind of whitewater.

I think I´ve learned a few valuable lessens. First, don´t go rafting down a hardcore class 5 with a bunch of inexperienced people. Second, don´t take class 5 rapids lightly. Third, stick to class 4´s, because they skew more on the excitement side of excitement/terror. Actually, scratch that third one as now that I´ve had a few hours, I´m ready to try one again.

Minus the fact that I don´t have much hair left on my left shin from the rubbing on the raft while trying to keep myself in and possible dysentery from drinking half the water in the Rio Suarez I´m pretty much no worse for the wear. I was supposed to catch a night bus to San Augustine on the coast tonight, but after getting back to the hostel, there was no way I was hopping on a bus for 12 hours. I´m staying one last night in San Gil and then heading out tomorrow evening after the Cup final. I´m going to sleep well tonight.

Finally, to all my friends who surf bigger waves, I think you are nuts. The whole being held under thing is pretty damn scary.