White water rafting madness

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  Boquete, Panama
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Caught the plane at 8.15 which stopped briefly at Bocas then onto David which is a big city on the other side of the mountains. AS we approached David the countryside reminded me of Wiltshire with fields and cattle graszing in undulating countryside. I was headed for a place higher up and took the bus to Boquete. Minimal in an old boneshaker. As it cilmbed higher the surroundings were just like the Lake District. The place I am staying in has a swimming pool and is owned by a German. As I walked round the town it is clear that there is a big German community here- Apparenty there are also lots of English people here with holiday homes. I hope to spend a couple of days here. The other thing I noticed that there were a lot of native indians with the women in very colouful dresses.

In a foolish moment I signed to do some rafting although I have never done this before. I was assured that I would be in a team of novices. We set off in the van and after  and hour crossed into the Costa Rican border. There were no border formalities. First surprise. After anothe tortorious journey through a forest we came to a really fast flowing river. No surprise as there has been a lot of rain here lately. 

Then a really scary briefing on how one could get sucked under, hit you head on rocks and have limbs trapped in  rocks (best thing to do is to break off your limb as that way you would at least live). About 20 mins of this sort of chat and one of the group bujrst out crying as she too was a novice.  I wish I had taped this for the trainers back in the UK.

Well we all got into the boat and went flying downstream (if that is the expression). We follwed instructions on when to and not to paddle, got swamped a few times and were scared all the time. The torture lasted one and half hours in all although we did stop at a calm bit for lunch. With hind sight I can say I enjoyed it but not at the time. I donīt think I shall do anything of the sort again.

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