I don't have many pictures from the white water rafting day but I'll tell the story in words instead. The morning started off with a good breakfast of huevos rancheros, fried eggs served with corn tortillas and a tomato-chili sauce. The meat eaters got a side of sausage and the vegetarians got a side of avocado. All the juices (orange, grapefruit and guava) were freshly squeezed. My favorite was the grapefruit - not too sweet and not too tart, very refreshing.
Karen and I were feeling quite nervous about the rafting at this point. I was nervous as I'd never done it before and Karen was nervous just because :) we met our group for a gentle meditative yoga practice. We did some partner work to help stretch us out and to connect with each other. This practice was exactly what I needed to calm my nerves. I was feeling pretty confident and peaceful until we had the safety briefing. ha! Then I was nervous all over again... the guides do have to go through all the worst-case scenarios, some of which I hadn't even thought of, so it brought back a bit of a sense of worry to me. We walked down to the river and spent some time with our guide practicing commands and maneuvers.
Martin sat in front of me - I watched him and followed his movements. Monkey see, monkey do! I managed quite well without my hearing aids, between the little I could hear from the guide, and the visual cues from those around me.
Sharon and I ready to go!
Karen and I don't look nervous at all, do we?
The girls with our wonderful guide
We went a little ways down the river and pulled off to the side to walk ahead a bit and check out one of the rapids. It was a Class Four rapid that day (Class Five is the highest) and we had the choice to opt out of this particular rapid if we wanted to. I decided to go for it... if I was going to raft, I wanted to do it right! Sharon, Martin and I paddled for our lives and then we sat down low in the raft. We did well! Luckily we were the first boat to go, as the third boat flipped over and its occupants went floating down the river. If I had seen that, I'm not so sure I would have had the courage to go! The photo below is my raft after it went through the rapid.
The rest of the trip was a lot of fun. We had stretches where we paddled like crazy, others where we could just float along and relax. It was really neat to see how the guide would tell us to paddle, and how the raft would respond just as he wanted. These guys know the currents well! We stopped a couple of times to climb boulders, and could jump off of them if you wished (I didn't).
Our guide also stopped at one point and found a plant that you can use as s soap to wash your hands. I'm sure he also shared a lot of other interesting information but as I didn't have my hearing aids in, I was able to just soak in the atmosphere. We got splashed a lot by the water and once I got over the initial shock of the colder temperature of the water, I found it quite refreshing as the water was fresh and not salty. I loved looking at the path of the water, and the boulders that were on either side of the river and in our paths, I loved breathing in the fresh air. It was a cloudy misty day and I loved the feeling of the rain on my face, as we don't have rain like that in Cayman.
I really enjoyed the rafting and quite wish now that I hadn't spent so much time worrying about it! It was a lot of fun and as I love the water, it really suited me.
We had a quick lunch of pasta then headed back to our rooms for a rest. Mid-afternoon, we met for a yoga practice, which I'll describe more in another post as I have enough yoga pictures to justify a post of its own. After the practice, we met for drinks and then had supper together.
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