Posts Tagged ‘Watersport Activities’

Rio Trancura – Even the name sounds erratic

Today I had the chance to join Rafting for the first time. Without thinking twice about what I was getting myself into when I was invited to go rafting I just said yes and chose the most difficult of the two options – Rafting Alto. Everything or nothing right?

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and we had temperatures around 27°C – what would be better than to spend the afternoon on the river and let the rapids throw you around?! Therefore I prepared myself at 2.00 p.m. for rafting “alto”. The trip started from the agency where myself and five other adventure seekers met along with two guides who joined us in the van and we were driven to Rio Trancura.

After more or less 25 minutes we reached the river, where we got our wet suits. They had changing rooms there, where we could put on the gear. There they also had lockers where we could safely store our things to pick up at the end of the trip. Wearing the wetsuits the van took us a little more upstream. While we reached the drop-in we got additional protective gear, like a helmet and life-vest.

At the drop-in we reached a beautiful – still quiet part of Trancura, where we received safety instructions and after that the trip began. First we practiced commands with a guide named Miro. For controlling and having an overview he sat in the bottom of the raft. The second guide joined us in a kayak.

The group felt really connected with the commands we had learned and we had to paddle stronger and stronger and quite quickly we reached the first rapid. It was a quite a soft one, but that was nice to get the feeling of the power of the river. But the next rapid was unforgiving! We got crashed through the waves and skidded left and right through the stones – water splashed all around us and the level of adrenalin got higher and higher! So much fun! With every rapid we passed thru, the euphoria grew and the group feeling got even better – nobody wanted to wait for the next challenge.

And so it was a big surprise when they told us we had to get out of the raft – they explained that there would be a rapid, which is only possible to portage. We got out and made our way through a trail in the forest and after a few minutes I was above a cliff. Next to me was a really nice waterfall and 100m further in front of me there was a culmination of rocks. The mission was obvious– jump off the cliff into the raging water. I was so glad just to jump in that moment, because if I had thought about it first, I wouldn’t have jumped. But I jumped and it was breathtaking – when I jumped in I felt the raging water surrounding me – pushing … pulling, I have never felt something like that before – what a great experience! Without the adrenalin from before I think I wouldn’t have done it – but I did! You don’t know how proud of myself I was! When I came up from the rapids I was a little afraid not to get in the raft again, but there was no problem and after everybody got safely back in the raft the tour went on.

Afterwards there were some challenging rapids – but the adventure was over far too quickly! The whole group was happy and the smile on our faces stayed there for the rest of the day.

At the finish we were welcomed with cookies and juice and we rested from the exiting trip and were filled with energy. We took the wet suits off and the van drove us back to Pucón.

 

That was such a breathtaking experience and for me for surely it will not be the last time! But rafting “bajo” I guess would not even be a consideration in my mind after this adventure!

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