Near Death Brazil Experience
I´m gonna write about the first three days of my springbreak later. For now, I´m gonna focus on what happened today and write it all down while its still fresh in my mind.
We flew from Rio to Foz do Iguacu today, aka, Iguassu Falls. Got to the hotel around 2pm and decided to make the most of our time here since we only have one FULL day. So, we contacted our hotel person and got our personal driver/car to drive us to the Iguassu National Park on the Brazillian side. The park is huge so people took buses to get around, luckily we had our own driver/car. We decided to walk around the falls for pictures then do a whitewater rafting thing down stream.
It was soo hot and we walked so fast to make sure we would make it back to rafting by 4:30pm since that's when they ´close´. We had noooooo idea what we were getting ourselves into. Adele was the only one with rafting experience and she said it was fun, not intense at all. Alas, its 4:30pm, we paid our 90 reals (45 dollars) and climbed some scary stairs off of a side of a cliff just to make our way down to the water/falls. We weren´t expecting to raft so we were dressed in normal clothing... I was wearing a SKIRT, needless to say we looked like n00bs.
So on the left: scary ass stairs we had to climb down, and on the right, our raft. Upon arriving at the little green hut, we found three rather gorgeous and well built Brazilian boys. One of them proceeded to ask us in three languages... "fala Portuguese?" "hablo espanol?" "do you speak English?" we responded to the third one of course. Immediately, this 'alpha' boy starts to grin in a mischevous matter, snickering and joking with the other two boys in Portuguese. He's certainly got that kind of sleezy greasy Italian charm thing going on, and he was good looking.
I digress. At this point, he asks us if we have whitewater rafted before. We say no, we're total beginners. He laughs, asks us to sign some papers (death papers of course), and points at another sweet looking boy, telling us that he'll be our 'guide' and train us since we're 'beginners'. Then he asks if we wanted to change.... we looked at each other and responded lamely... "uh.... we didn't bring anything."
n00b level just went through the roof at this point. More snickering, followed by "Ok girls... so... sometimes.. it is possible that the raft flips over, and then we'd have to swin for a bit *mischevous smile*."
All of us... "uh.... do we have to swim?" him: *silent, looks around a bit*
You would THINK we would have an idea of what we're getting ourselves into, but we took it all so lightly. We really didn't think we were actually going to FLIP. So.. I tie my dress up, we get down to the raft, do a little bit of training, basic commands like, GO, STOP, HOLD blah blah blah. We were all a lilttle curious though. How come all three of them jumped on? And one of them even put on a wetsuit, did they honestly expect us to go swimming? Questions questions...
Before we almost died, alpha male asked us ... "so do you girls have boyfriends back home?" us.. "nope!" we later realized that he probably asked that because he was thinking "Phew! That means no one's gonna miss you if you died, and no one's gonna come after us!"
We were literally in calm waters rafting for 20 seconds before we got close to the rocks, over this giant current/eddy thingy when they told us... ROW AHEAD, KEEP GOING. But isn't this where we HOLD ON TO OUR LIVES? Apparently not.
The last thing I remember after thinking "OH SHIT" was the sound of water and bubbles and me losing control of my body.
First thought was disbelief, WTF, did we honestly flip over on the FIRST dip?
Second thought was confusion, was I the only one tossed off the raft? Because everything happened so fast that I didn't even see our raft flip so I wasn't sure.
Then fear struck me. I realized that not only did I not have control over my own body because the currents were so strong, but I was being pulled in all different directions due to my lifevest. Then survival instincts kicked in and I just knew that I had to kick and kick and kick, the light from above the water seemed to get closer, then *BUMP*.
I hit some large object and couldn't get to the surface. I looked up and realized, as my heart went cold, that I was trapped under the raft. As this point, I am NOT calm and am struggling like crazy to get somewhere. Suddenly, there's air! YAY! The raft was flipped over and there were air bubbles, I hung on to the sides and took a couple of breaths along with some gulps of water because the current was still very strong. Just as I was contemplating my next step of action, to stay in the air bubble or to swim, I was swept away again. This time, my life jacket pulled me up. I tried to look for people, anyone, that could save me. Dipping in and out of the water again, I saw our boys, they looked intense, but calm, yelling orders and directions, doing everything BUT paying attention to me or even in my direction.
I panic. OMG, they don't even know where I am let alone that I'm about to DIE. Another gulp of water and I try to scream. Nothing came out. I tried my hardest to mutter up whatever strength I had left to scream, NOTHING. Swept under again. Now I'm more desperate and scared than ever. I struggle against the currents to get another shot at rising above the surface when I felt a shadow looming over me. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. *BUMP* Right when I thought I should've hit the surface, I hit something. I look up and well, isn't this swell, it's the raft again. Except, I realized... this time, it's flipped over the way it's supposed to and that means no more AIR BUBBLES. I died a little bit inside at this realization and figured, well, I'm trapped either way. One last gamble. I'm fighting and fighting to get around it, nothing, I had absolutely no control.
All hope was lost and I could feel my body getting warmer, letting go, accepting my fate. In my head, I went through silent goodbyes and apologies. I remember thinking: Dear Dad, you told me not to do anything stupid or dangerous and I did and I'm gonna go, sorry, I love you, bye mom, take care and don't be too heartbroken. Adele and Jess, I hope you two are alive and rescued, if I died and you guys were still alive, I would feel a lot better. Please please please let them be ok. Goodbye world.
Your life LITERALLY flashes by before your eyes. I was seriously ready to go. Then I closed my eyes and stropped struggling. I drifted and drifted. Then suddenly, I felt a strong grip on my life vest. Then I was surrounded by warmth, and finally, air. I could barely register that I was rescued and who my rescuer was. I looked up to see 'alpha male' swimming and dragging me to the raft. He jumped on, then with ONE arm, lifted me into the raft as well. I felt like a limp fish. Looked around and saw Jessica and Adele. Jessica's faced might've resembled my own. Filled with shock and fear still, we just looked at each other while I choked and coughed out water for like 10 minutes. The silence was filled with "Did that just happen?" and "did we just almost die?" so no one said A WORD...
Until our greasy rescuer laughs and goes "AHAH, well wasn't that fun?" Jess looked ready to SLAP someone, I felt the same way. What kills me is NOT KNOWING how in control they were, and if they purposely had us go over that current KNOWING that we would flip and KNOWING it's all under THEIR control but scaring the CRAP out of all of us. Either way, so two of our rescuers smirked, jumped on the rescue boat that was actually cruisin/followin us around just incase and left us with the quieter of the three. We were told that we were going to row a bit downstream and that we could swim if we wanted to. We had the whole river to ourselves and no one else was allowed to swim, so we thought, why not. That swim alone was well worth the near dying experience. The water temperature and flow was PERFECT, and swimming down the river in the middle of the rainforest was SUCH a great feeling. It was so quiet you could hear the birds, trees, and every sound echoed. We tried to make conversation with our shy friend and rescuer through gestures, half-assed italian/spanish and english. All he did was smile and laugh at or with us. We did find out that his name was Jonas though. Here we are, post near dying and post euphoric swimming with Jonas:
As you can imagine, for the rest of the trip/night, all we talked about was this whitewater rafting incident. I later found out that Adele and Jess were under the water for like a second, then found the SIDE of the raft, held on until the boys flipped the raft over, THEN were helped inside. The whole ordeal lasted 5-8 minutes, they said. So the WHOLE time, I was struggling in water and having the raft flipped over ME. Grrrreeaatt. So I really wasn't just panicking and drowning, I really was... drowning. Scary thought.
Anyways, it is obviously NOT March when I started writing this entry. But I thought I should finish it up so I can write my customary THANKSGIVING entry! Yay!
-Maria
We flew from Rio to Foz do Iguacu today, aka, Iguassu Falls. Got to the hotel around 2pm and decided to make the most of our time here since we only have one FULL day. So, we contacted our hotel person and got our personal driver/car to drive us to the Iguassu National Park on the Brazillian side. The park is huge so people took buses to get around, luckily we had our own driver/car. We decided to walk around the falls for pictures then do a whitewater rafting thing down stream.
It was soo hot and we walked so fast to make sure we would make it back to rafting by 4:30pm since that's when they ´close´. We had noooooo idea what we were getting ourselves into. Adele was the only one with rafting experience and she said it was fun, not intense at all. Alas, its 4:30pm, we paid our 90 reals (45 dollars) and climbed some scary stairs off of a side of a cliff just to make our way down to the water/falls. We weren´t expecting to raft so we were dressed in normal clothing... I was wearing a SKIRT, needless to say we looked like n00bs.
So on the left: scary ass stairs we had to climb down, and on the right, our raft. Upon arriving at the little green hut, we found three rather gorgeous and well built Brazilian boys. One of them proceeded to ask us in three languages... "fala Portuguese?" "hablo espanol?" "do you speak English?" we responded to the third one of course. Immediately, this 'alpha' boy starts to grin in a mischevous matter, snickering and joking with the other two boys in Portuguese. He's certainly got that kind of sleezy greasy Italian charm thing going on, and he was good looking.
I digress. At this point, he asks us if we have whitewater rafted before. We say no, we're total beginners. He laughs, asks us to sign some papers (death papers of course), and points at another sweet looking boy, telling us that he'll be our 'guide' and train us since we're 'beginners'. Then he asks if we wanted to change.... we looked at each other and responded lamely... "uh.... we didn't bring anything."
n00b level just went through the roof at this point. More snickering, followed by "Ok girls... so... sometimes.. it is possible that the raft flips over, and then we'd have to swin for a bit *mischevous smile*."
All of us... "uh.... do we have to swim?" him: *silent, looks around a bit*
You would THINK we would have an idea of what we're getting ourselves into, but we took it all so lightly. We really didn't think we were actually going to FLIP. So.. I tie my dress up, we get down to the raft, do a little bit of training, basic commands like, GO, STOP, HOLD blah blah blah. We were all a lilttle curious though. How come all three of them jumped on? And one of them even put on a wetsuit, did they honestly expect us to go swimming? Questions questions...
Before we almost died, alpha male asked us ... "so do you girls have boyfriends back home?" us.. "nope!" we later realized that he probably asked that because he was thinking "Phew! That means no one's gonna miss you if you died, and no one's gonna come after us!"
We were literally in calm waters rafting for 20 seconds before we got close to the rocks, over this giant current/eddy thingy when they told us... ROW AHEAD, KEEP GOING. But isn't this where we HOLD ON TO OUR LIVES? Apparently not.
The last thing I remember after thinking "OH SHIT" was the sound of water and bubbles and me losing control of my body.
First thought was disbelief, WTF, did we honestly flip over on the FIRST dip?
Second thought was confusion, was I the only one tossed off the raft? Because everything happened so fast that I didn't even see our raft flip so I wasn't sure.
Then fear struck me. I realized that not only did I not have control over my own body because the currents were so strong, but I was being pulled in all different directions due to my lifevest. Then survival instincts kicked in and I just knew that I had to kick and kick and kick, the light from above the water seemed to get closer, then *BUMP*.
I hit some large object and couldn't get to the surface. I looked up and realized, as my heart went cold, that I was trapped under the raft. As this point, I am NOT calm and am struggling like crazy to get somewhere. Suddenly, there's air! YAY! The raft was flipped over and there were air bubbles, I hung on to the sides and took a couple of breaths along with some gulps of water because the current was still very strong. Just as I was contemplating my next step of action, to stay in the air bubble or to swim, I was swept away again. This time, my life jacket pulled me up. I tried to look for people, anyone, that could save me. Dipping in and out of the water again, I saw our boys, they looked intense, but calm, yelling orders and directions, doing everything BUT paying attention to me or even in my direction.
I panic. OMG, they don't even know where I am let alone that I'm about to DIE. Another gulp of water and I try to scream. Nothing came out. I tried my hardest to mutter up whatever strength I had left to scream, NOTHING. Swept under again. Now I'm more desperate and scared than ever. I struggle against the currents to get another shot at rising above the surface when I felt a shadow looming over me. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. *BUMP* Right when I thought I should've hit the surface, I hit something. I look up and well, isn't this swell, it's the raft again. Except, I realized... this time, it's flipped over the way it's supposed to and that means no more AIR BUBBLES. I died a little bit inside at this realization and figured, well, I'm trapped either way. One last gamble. I'm fighting and fighting to get around it, nothing, I had absolutely no control.
All hope was lost and I could feel my body getting warmer, letting go, accepting my fate. In my head, I went through silent goodbyes and apologies. I remember thinking: Dear Dad, you told me not to do anything stupid or dangerous and I did and I'm gonna go, sorry, I love you, bye mom, take care and don't be too heartbroken. Adele and Jess, I hope you two are alive and rescued, if I died and you guys were still alive, I would feel a lot better. Please please please let them be ok. Goodbye world.
Your life LITERALLY flashes by before your eyes. I was seriously ready to go. Then I closed my eyes and stropped struggling. I drifted and drifted. Then suddenly, I felt a strong grip on my life vest. Then I was surrounded by warmth, and finally, air. I could barely register that I was rescued and who my rescuer was. I looked up to see 'alpha male' swimming and dragging me to the raft. He jumped on, then with ONE arm, lifted me into the raft as well. I felt like a limp fish. Looked around and saw Jessica and Adele. Jessica's faced might've resembled my own. Filled with shock and fear still, we just looked at each other while I choked and coughed out water for like 10 minutes. The silence was filled with "Did that just happen?" and "did we just almost die?" so no one said A WORD...
Until our greasy rescuer laughs and goes "AHAH, well wasn't that fun?" Jess looked ready to SLAP someone, I felt the same way. What kills me is NOT KNOWING how in control they were, and if they purposely had us go over that current KNOWING that we would flip and KNOWING it's all under THEIR control but scaring the CRAP out of all of us. Either way, so two of our rescuers smirked, jumped on the rescue boat that was actually cruisin/followin us around just incase and left us with the quieter of the three. We were told that we were going to row a bit downstream and that we could swim if we wanted to. We had the whole river to ourselves and no one else was allowed to swim, so we thought, why not. That swim alone was well worth the near dying experience. The water temperature and flow was PERFECT, and swimming down the river in the middle of the rainforest was SUCH a great feeling. It was so quiet you could hear the birds, trees, and every sound echoed. We tried to make conversation with our shy friend and rescuer through gestures, half-assed italian/spanish and english. All he did was smile and laugh at or with us. We did find out that his name was Jonas though. Here we are, post near dying and post euphoric swimming with Jonas:
As you can imagine, for the rest of the trip/night, all we talked about was this whitewater rafting incident. I later found out that Adele and Jess were under the water for like a second, then found the SIDE of the raft, held on until the boys flipped the raft over, THEN were helped inside. The whole ordeal lasted 5-8 minutes, they said. So the WHOLE time, I was struggling in water and having the raft flipped over ME. Grrrreeaatt. So I really wasn't just panicking and drowning, I really was... drowning. Scary thought.
Anyways, it is obviously NOT March when I started writing this entry. But I thought I should finish it up so I can write my customary THANKSGIVING entry! Yay!
-Maria