White-Water Fun

With the children safely sequestered with their Chilean "grandparents", Dustin and I along with Deb, Elizabeth, and Jordan Hostetter and Travis and Bekii Kisamore took off for a white-water adventure!

Our group before dropping in to Rio Petrohue. We felt pretty hot (and I mean that literally) in our wet suits and were bombarded by tabanos (the evil biting fly of the Andes), but we were soooo excited and happy!

These last two pictures are courtesy of the Ko Kayak website; couldn't quite bring a camera in the raft, so here's what we experienced! We had a spendidly sunny day; the sun sparkling off the pure crystal waters of the Petrohue. The water was the color of mouthwash! This was my first guided whitewater experience and I do believe I'm quite hooked; what a rush!!! Sad to report that none of us flew off the raft (after our orientation training I felt ready to rescue the poor saps who fell off). One funny Sarah moment of the day: So we had docked the rafts after a series of rapids and got to do some jumping from a rock into some mild rapids (amazing how far the water takes you by the time you emerge!). After two jumps and subsequent hard swimming to get back to the rafts, I was quite tired. I was about three feet from our raft, standing on a rock. It was time to board. I saw the raft...I knew I needed to get into the raft....my legs felt shaky and tired...I thought if I jumped to the edge of the raft I'd probably bounce off into the water...soooo, I just sort of belly-flopped headfirst into the raft. Yep...just flopped in like a dead seal. Ohhhh the laughter...and me, paralyzed and chuckling, butt in the air, head on the floor, flailing to right myself, hindered mightily by my lifevest and helmet and general humiliation. Well...at least my lack of grace is good for laughs ; ). All in all, we had a beautiful time; and if you visit us in Chile we're game to go again!