Saturday, October 19, 2013

Splishin and a Splashin and a little White Raftin

The first half of the year is peppered with long weekends to help school pass by a little quicker.  It’s perfect for getting out of La Unión (when it’s easy to feel trapped here) and explore what the rest of this country has to offer. Last year we were constantly scouring the travel guide books to figure out what crazy adventure we could find for the next break. We quickly hit all the hot spots in Honduras and saw the highlights. This time around, since I’ve already done all the major touristy things, I’ve looked forward to my breaks being a little more relaxed. I have no problem re-visiting those places because now I get to look for the hidden gems in each town – which not every tourist finds at first glance.

Admittedly our first long weekend vacation choice was driven by my need for adventure. Last year for Christmas my sister and I went to the coastal town of La Ceiba and the one thing that we didn’t get to, that I had really wanted to do, was the white-water rafting. I had heard scintillating rumors that the rafting in Ceiba was not only the best rafting in Honduras (which, to be honest, was not a shock so much as hearing that Honduras even had rafting) but that the river was genuinely rough and boasted crazy rapids; so the rafting promised to be thrilling! I had to go back and eagerly recommended it to everyone for our 4-day weekend off.

My awesome persuading powers were successful and we soon were all piling into Jake’s car for our mini-vacation. Everything else that I did in La Ceiba over that weekend is meaningless next to the rafting. The hotel was nice, the food was average, the mall was cool, the grocery store was neat… but the rafting! (My whimsy for big cities has slowly diminished since living in La Unión is not this giant, mind-blowing transition this time.)

The Cangrejal River winds through a valley that splits two national forests in Honduras. You are surrounded by pure, natural beauty and many eco-lodges. Over the weekend that we were there it had rained a considerable amount so it wasn’t exactly safe or recommended for us to start rafting at the very top. When Honduras in general seems to lack concern for safety, I truly appreciate the moments when someone is looking out for us and guides us into safer situations. We drove along the river until the guides found a starting location where they felt confident enough in us as river navigators and the river itself to start the journey. Once they picked the ideal location, I knew in my heart they were spot on as soon as I saw the ‘Colorado’ license plate hanging from the gate. Perfection.

There were 6 of us girls, 2 guides, and 2 boats. Rachel (Suby-Long) and I, being the Colorado natives that we are, were the only two of us teachers who had ever been rafting before. My crew consisted of Kate and Rachel (Liscombe), and our fearless leader, Victor. We named ourselves the ‘vampire bats’ and came up with our own bat battle cries. We felt ferocious. Before embarking down the river we practiced in a little cove; we worked to synchronize our rowing forward, backward, and on opposite sides, and diving into the boat for safety. (Bragging rights: at the beginning, our guide demanded more from Kate and Rachel because the two of them rowing on one side together was not matching the strength of my lone soul rowing on the other side.) Finally Victor found his confidence in us and we were ready to begin!

We swiftly paddled from one rapid to another, always rowing out of them with grace. We were soaked from head to toe as water continually blinded us and flooded our raft with each dip into a rapid. (Earlier that day I had checked with our hotel liaison if our trip was still scheduled to go since it had been raining. She laughed at my because she misunderstood me and thought I was worried about getting wet when in reality I was trying to figure out if the water levels had risen too high, potentially making it too dangerous for us to go. Darn language barrier.) A few times I was a little worried about losing a contact from the force of the water splashing into my face! On one or two instances we had to abandon our paddling and dive into the raft to avoid all being tossed out. I am pleased to announce that my leg has a natural survival instinct programmed into it – I almost fell out but as my body was leaning dangerously closer and closer to the river, my leg reached out and wrapped itself around Kate’s leg to keep me from falling completely in. Kate’s mouth met my fist on one bouncy rapid and then met her own paddle during another, giving her a slight fat lip (but this was the only blood spilt in our boat). The other boat did not have as much luck as we did. Molly fell in during one of the first rapids; it was a little scary to watch her body being rushed towards some unfriendly rocks. And while trying to haul her back into the raft, the guide lost his stability, yelled “Oh shit!” and then tumbled in after her. Thankfully they both were fine. Through it all we were always in a fit of laughter by the end of each rapid because of how much fun it was!

We stopped for a snack break half way through the trip. They sliced up some juicy pineapple and poured refreshing iced tea for us to indulge in. The second part of the river journey was much more subdued and risk-free. It felt more like a lazy river as we just floated down it and moseyed our way to the end. (I think Molly greatly appreciate the change in pace after being tossed out earlier.) Our raft was dying for one final hoorah (maybe have someone launched into the river or play bumper boats to the death with the others) but no such craziness happened. We floated safely to our destination, but we were still all smiles from the trip. It is something that I am very glad that I went back for and would recommend any tourist to go take part in!

Pray for our safety as we have another long weekend ahead of us and will all be traveling around the country. This year is a little different in that we don’t all travel as a herd of gringos; we’ve been picking separate destinations and heading in opposite directions. Would you please pray for everyone as we travel to different cities over this weekend? Pray for smooth bus rides, easy transitions, and safety wherever we find ourselves. 

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