White Water Rafting (aka when I almost died)
To celebrate our 1 year mark (yet again) a group of us volunteers decided to do something extreme. Haha. The most extreme things I do are ride my bike and go for runs so white water rafting seemed like it was really out there. Initially I thought sure, I can do this. I am an athlete and I know how to swim so this should be no problem. Most of the time when I decide to do stuff like this I try not to give it too much thought. If I do, I might just freak myself out and decide not to do it and I will regret it in the end so I try to just say yeah and go with the flow.
So we were off to the rapids!
To begin, the guides here in the Dominican Republic almost never completely know english so there is always a language barrier as far as relaying important instructions on safety etc. Ah... whatever I can do this, I didn't completely understand him but I think he said don't fall out. Ok don't fall out. Easy...
First rapid, boom fell out of the raft. Hahaha. I was all laughs and smiles as I tried to pull my fat butt back in the raft. Ok don't fall out anymore.
The next few rafts were easy I was holding on pretty good then we approached a raft the guide called 'Mike Tyson'. Mike Tyson, the boxer? I wonder why?
Mike Tyson pretty much almost killed me. The rapid consisted of 2 falls in which of course I fell off on the first fall. Trying to pull myself back in the raft, the raft kept moving forward which meant on the next fall the raft went completely on top of me. Heather later told me she was screaming at the group "We're on top of her!" Underwater I remember tumbling pushing my hands underneath the raft thinking "And this is when I die, maybe I should have thought this one through..." Finally in what seemed like an hour, I broke the water with the eyes of helpless death upon me. Seconds later a guide jumped in the water to help me as I breathed in and out panicked that i forgot how to swim. As soon as I got in the raft I decided that I was not having the best time of my life as I thought it would be. Other volunteers were congratulating me and telling me I was having "the real experience" but I say bullcrap, I almost died. :)
The rest of the rapids I sat in the raft holding on for dear life. Thank god there was not another Mike Tyson and the rest of the ride was pretty smooth.
Upon getting back to camp, I just wanted to forget the whole thing but of course the guides revealed that they had taped our whole trip and were showing the video at lunch. I got myself a large, strong rum and coke and watched this video of our trip with 30 other participants as everyone echoed woes and sounds of pain as they watched me get pummeled by the raft. It was funny I have to admit and I now have soemthing else checked off on this DR Bucket list. Needless to say, I won't be doing this again.
Surely this was taken after Mike Tyson. I do not look like I am having fun.
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