Arriba!
Gina. Lima, Peru.
Something about this trip is inspiring me to do things I wouldn´t normally do. Running down the steps on the Inka trail is a good example. Another excellent example is that Steve and went white water rafting on Tuesday in Arequipa, and it was all my idea. I don´t know what´s come over me. But I´m glad that we went rafting because it was awesome! And cold. Very, very cold. I keep forgetting that it´s winter in Peru. And winter means cold rivers.
We started out a 1 pm with Cusipata tour company. They were very highly recommended in our travel book for rafting and they were only $25 each for the 3 hour trip on the Chili River. The river had class 2, 3, and 4 rapids. To put things in perspective for non-rafters (like me), according to our guide rapids go up to class 6 which are basically unnavigable. So 4 is pretty darn good. We went with 7 other people and 2 guides. We were in a raft with 3 others who spoke English (a couple from the Czech Republic and a Brit) and our guide Roberto. Roberto was a funny little man who was very silly and animated. I liked him a lot. He obviously loved rafting, knew what he was doing, and had a good time doing it. It was fun to be in his boat.
I initially had doubts after putting on my wet suit (I felt like a Power Ranger–those suckers are tight!), jacket, life vest, and helmet. Roberto started explaining important things about rafting like the commands he would use to tell us what to do and what to do if we fell out. Apparently there was a pretty good chance that one or all of us would fall out of the raft at some point during the day. For some reason when I thought about rafting I didn´t think about falling out… I was nervous now.
Things started out pretty calmly on the river. We went over some tiny little rapids and then practiced all of our commands in a calm section of the river. Roberto did a great job of stopping the raft before each section of rapids to let us know what to expect from the river as well as from him as far as possible commands he might use. We had a silly little river rivalry with our fellow rafters–the 4 others in our group who were Spanish speakers and had Hector as their guide. They usually went down the river first, which was fun since we got to watch them as we went and so had even more warning about what to expect. Whenever we finished a section of rapids Roberto would yell ¨Arriba!¨and we´d all high five with our paddles. The other team, hilariously, would do the same thing but when Hector yelled ¨Tinky Winky!¨ How he came up with Tinky Winky I´ll never know.
Everything was going along pretty smoothly–the rapids weren´t as bad as I thought and I was doing a pretty good job of following Roberto´s commands quickly and keeping my butt on the side of the raft (something important I learned about rafting is you don´t sit in the raft but on the sides of the raft. This seemed completely ridiculous to me until I realized that the bottom of the raft is just plastic so that it can easily go over the rocks in the rapids. If my butt was down there it would be my butt going over the giant rocks which doesn´t seem like very much fun). So everything was pretty peachy until we went over some pretty big rapids and the left side of the raft (where Steve and the Czech dude were sitting) flew up into the air and Steve and the Czech dude fell out! As soon as I realized what was happening I instinctly grabbed for Steve´s life vest (which surprised me since I would´ve thought my instinct would be to grab onto the raft so I wouldn´t be next), but I was too late and he went swimming. It was pretty good timing on their part since the toppling set of rapids was the last in the bunch, so we were in a calm place and Roberto easily and quickly pulled Steve back in (the Czech dude was on a rafting team back home and so easily jumped back in the raft himself). I was freaked about Steve falling out, but he said it was actually pretty fun, so I just laughed at him and Roberto affectionately labeled them ¨Swimmers¨for the rest of the afternoon.
I had a close call myself later on in the day, but Steve was quicker to grab my vest than I was his, so I stayed in the raft. By the end of the afternoon my poor little hands and toes were red and freezing, so while I was having a lot of fun I was glad when it was over. We went over one big class 4 set of rapids where we all had to jump into the middle of the raft and hold on for dear life. I was very proud of myself for not shutting my eyes. The whole day was really fun and I´d do it again especially in warmer water. The river was very pretty with the volcanoes in the background (Arequipa has two active volcanoes just out of town. I tried to get photos of them, but Arequipa was also very dusty all of the time so there was never a very clear view) and some waterfalls. I was sad that we couldn´t take our cameras. There is no photographic proof of our river adventure, so this blog post will have to carry on as our evidence.
In other news, we´re still working on uploading all of the photos from Machu Picchu. I took a lot, but the end is in sight. I think we´re finally on day 4, so we should be done soon. And then I have photos of Arequipa to upload… I´m behind, but I´m doing my best with slow internet connections.
We came back to Lima today. We left Arequipa at 9 pm last night and didn´t arrive until around 4 this afternoon. It was a long day on a bus, let me tell you. I slept most of the way, so it went by quickly. It wouldn´t have taken quite as long as it did but we took the economical bus which saved us about 70 soles (or $23). It´s funny to get back to Lima today since we arrived in Lima June 3. One month in Peru and back to where we started (except we´re staying in Miraflores which is a nicer neighborhood on the ocean). Tomorrow I´m going to make potato salad and hamburgers and we´re going to get some Coca Cola and celebrate 4th of July! We´re talking about renting a cheesey American movie like ¨Independence Day.¨ We´ll see what happens. From here we´re going to plan our route up North along the coast and into Ecuador. We´re still looking for a good volunteer opportunity, so hopefully we´ll have found something soon. We´re waiting to hear back from a place now. I´ll keep you posted.
Arriba!
Tags: Arequipa, Cusipata, Peru
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