Week 2 - Rafting

It was an early start as we were being picked up at our hostel at 9am. Grandma rustled up a nice little breakfast for us and then we were picked up in a 4x4 minibus by the legends who were running the show. We collected a few more rafters and then we headed south for about an hour before leaving the main road for a bumpy little dirt track. To say it was fairly rough in the back of the minibus would be an understatement. To be honest this was far from ideal for the two of us as we were quite tender after a 60km cycle the previous day. We made it to base camp after what seemed like an eternity and we were soon on the raft and on our way. All soreness from Monday was quickly forgotten. It was an absolutely brilliant experience and probably the best thing we've done so far. We'll definitely be doing it again as apparently there are world class rapids all over the place in South America. Probably the only person I've ever met who wouldn't enjoy the buzz of it would be Kiely who'd be well on for it but bail at the last minute. His fear of anything extreme is legendary. The river we did yesterday is called the Rio Manso and runs to the Chilean border. It had rapids that were category III plus so it got fairly hairy at times as Roy can certainly testify. We came through one particularly rough bit of water and I just about managed to stay on the boat. I looked back to see how Roy was getting on (he had been one place behind me to the right) but there was no sign of Roy. I had a look in the river and we had 3 rafters overboard including Roy. The look on his face was worth the price of the excursion on its own - you can see for yourself as it was captured by a photographer on the river in one of the truly great photos in the history of da lads.



My concern for my travel companion is all too apparent with the look on my own face.



Roy says that the Jewish guy sitting behind him started to fall out and decided that if he was going he was taking Roy with him. A shaft that Leary himself would be proud of. That incident was the highlight of the rafting itself, although it was also brilliant when our guide - a legend called Colo - told us we could jump out of the boat and have a swim. We didn't so much swim as float quickly down the river and through a couple more small rapids. Absolutely class. We eventually disembarked at the Chilean border (which consisted of a small wire fence in a field and an open gate with no sign of authorities of any kind). We picked up a couple of quick beers in a little hut next to the river and then headed back to base camp in the minibus where a huge barbecue with lots of wine was waiting for us. After dinner we took part in what must be one of the great games of 5 a side in history. 10 players from numerous nations came together to play barefoot on a small bobbly pitch with a soft football and brilliant little goals made of logs. A couple of the South Americans on our team tended to take a bit too much out of the ball at times (Mickey Mogs would do well over here I reckon) but we managed to win with the golden goal in the end. After that it was back on the 4x4 and back to civilisation. What a belter of a day and Roy has the bruises to prove it after crashing into a nice big rock when he fell overboard. Can't wait for the level IVs and Vs in Chile and Peru...