River Rafting on the Urubamba River

Trip Start Aug 10, 2007
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Trip End Dec 27, 2007


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Monday, October 15, 2007

We woke up this morning with lots on our minds as we had to meet at 9am to go white river rafting, but had a number of things to organise before this.  Our first task was to buy train tickets to Machupicchu, for the next day, and we made sure we were at the train station in Cusco just before 7am standing in the queue, hoping that they would still have availability.  After just over an hour we had secured these - paying $93 each (which was quite a lot I thought!) but no doubt worth it.  Greg had come along with me but because the queue was taking so long he decided to go off and try to get some of the other things done.  We were also hoping to book our trip to the Amazon, but unfortunately the office for that only opened at 9am....so that would have to wait until we returned from our river rafting!  We also managed to book accommodation in Aquas Calientes, a small town really close to Machupicchu, before leaving...so that meant Tuesday and Wednesday were sorted - phew!  We also picked up our laundry which was a relief as we were seriously running out of clean clothes and Greg managed to hand in the memory cards from his camera to be copied onto DVDs so that we can re-use them....as I´m sure you have realised, Greg enjoys taking LOADS of photographs! In our wetsuits
In our wetsuits
 ! 

With many things accomplished, we were now ready to head off to the travel agent where we had booked our river rafting trip, where we were expected to meet at 9am.  We joined up with 5 other travellers (2 Irish guys & 1 girl and a Austrian couple).  They were all loads of fun and we had a good time chatting and laughing on our 2 hour journey to the part of the Urubamba River where we were to have some fun on the Grade 3 rapids.  I was a little apprehensive as I knew that it was not the rainy season...so I was rather concerned that we might arrive and have to float slowly down a measly river whilst getting stuck on rocks every now and then!  Greg, however, the more optimistic of the two of us, was rather excited!

We arrived at the lodge and changed into our wetsuits, helmets and life jackets and then loaded the boats onto the trailer and drove on for another 15 minutes...further along the river.  That was when my enthusiasm started to grow as I noticed some really good looking rapids along the way.  We were given a bit of training before starting and then did some practising in the calmer waters...which was quite hilarious.  We were in a raft with the Austrian couple, which I was quite pleased about, as the Irish looked a little useless!  There were about 8 commands which we needed to learn and then it was basically a matter of knowing your left from your right and forwards from backwards....that was part of the problem...our guide, Carlos, was full of encouragement, but also uttered a few sterner words after one of us had taken a little too long to react Julie looks a little skeptical ....... grade 3?
Julie looks a little skeptical ....... grade 3?
 .  He made it very clear that in an emergency situation, this would simply NOT be good enough!  We all pulled ourselves together and then seemed to be doing quite well.

We had now moved into some smallish, Grade 2 rapids and were having fun!  Then the bigger ones started to appear and we were READY!  Carlos would say: 'okay chiccos are you ready for manouveurs?' ....and then once we had come out of the rapid without flipping the raft...we would have to do a high 5 with our oars!!  When we got to a deep, calmish part of the river, Carlos asked us if we would like to 'flip the raft' (on purpose)...I said yes and then saw the look on the Austrain couples faces...oh well...to late...that was all the encouragement Carlos needed...before anyone had time to object we were already being instructed as to how to go about doing it.  At this point I was now thinking: 'what the hell am I thinking'...the water was freezing...but too late at this point...we were going over!  I remember hitting the water and then thinking: 'Shit, I've got to get out from under the raft' and then 'oh my gosh this water is FREEZING' and then...'shit one of my slipslops have fallen off!'  And then a lot of laughter and screeching from everyone!  It was great!  We were pulled back into the raft one by one and then headed off for our final 1/2 hour of rafting during which time I could now longer feel my feet.  

We got back to the lodge and had an amazing sauna in an authentic peruvian sauna Lunch
Lunch
 .  This means a stone room with a huge metal cylinder in one corner which contains a raging fire inside...the smoke is all channelled out the room through a chimney while the heat from the fire heats up the room.  Carlos threw a whole bucket of water on the metal container which resulted in an immense amount of steam filling the room, which when mixed with the huge bunch of eucalyptus leaves, created an amazing, sinus clearing aroma.  We then jumped into cold showers and were served a tasty lunch of veggie soup, bread, chicken, salad and chips. 

It was a really enjoyable day from which we imagined we would awake the next morning with rather stiff upper body muscles...this was to be proved TRUE!  I also had a nice blister on my thumb from the paddle....but as we always say....'IT'S ALL GOOD!'
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Comments

wendykay
wendykay on Oct 17, 2007 at 07:41PM

Hi again
What fun that sounds...like something Brad, Noen & Ror would love to do! Brad leaves for London on Friday for a conference on something or the other! Enjoy & God's blessings. Love u Mom xxx

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