Two breaths away from drowning

May 18th, 2009: The “red phone” at the Macondo Guesthouse in San Gil rang this morning, the Rio Suarez a class IV+/V-, was running. Actually...the river is running every day, but was closed for the past few days due to a big storm that battered the area, causing the river to be too strong and dangerous to raft on. Today the guides were willing to risk 7 foolish participants lives that was willing to pay $120,000 Pesos’… to challenge, a Colombian. A mere few hours later...I was two breaths of water away from drowning.

After being picked up we were driven down into a lush canyon which was where we were issued some thorough instructions, in English from our skipper (our guide) – thanks bejesus…I could understand him. After getting into the boat near the riverbank, we practiced some of the commands on the water and casted off… for a 3 hour tour. Not even 49.0506066 seconds into the rapids we lost someone off the side of the boat but quickly performed a failed textbook recovery - fortunately down the least brutal part of the river.

The Rio Suarez is a consistently turbulent machine, violently churning anyone who it could taste. After each big rapid we would paddle to the side to catch our breath. For safety reasons we had a man in a kayak that would float in front to save someone if they fell out of the boat…but note that he could only save one person, at a time.

Rapid after rapid we were getting better and better at listening to our guides commands and becoming more and more comfortable with the river. At the end of a tough rapid we would raise our oars in the air and do some high fives joining the oars in the middle tapping them together to celebrate our success.

Prior to going down the last rapid which was a class 5-, our guide disembarked our raft to attempt to plan a route for the mountains of H2O that needed to be climbed and of course…conquerd. We were forewarned that this was a tricky spot and if we don’t do exactly what he commands we will definitely not make it and the experience will not be pleasant. We back paddled off the rock and began our journey into the K2s’ and Everests’ of the H20 world as the finale of this trip. Our guide shouted, “FORWARD HARD – FORWARD HARD!” as we sliced the water with our paddles digging deep in the water powering ourselves forward. Some small premature cheers leaked out as we barreled through the rapids. Seconds later he yells, “GET DOWN, GET DOWN!” dropping into the boat we braced ourselves for the inevitable…the boat completely flip over and out fell the 7 foolish participants including our guide. The river consumed us as we were violently raped by the grouchy Rio Suarez.

Underwater for more than a breath, inhaling the filthy water without my trusty set of gills…I popped up as would a soggy apple. Gasping for air grabbing on to the rope of the upside down raft, I was immediately forced back under – fighting to keep from going under the boat and to trying to keep my feet in front of me to protect myself from the rocks…this was just the beginning of my 2 minute and 59 second battle (the actual time that was taken from the video footage that I have). I barreled through mountain after mountain of H20 - each time I managed to get my head above the water I was able to take a small breath of air and a larger breath of water… I kept involuntary going underwater, continuously fighting for more air but was not receiving what was needed. I felt myself getting weaker and weaker and was slowly sinking. “Why isn’t my life jacket keeping me up?” I thought. From at one point the chest straps were extremely tight but they seems to have loosened up during my advanced struggling session. This could be because of the poor quality life vests that in no way could have passed any sort of test. Wanting to rip off my jacket I didn’t, for it being ingrained in my head since I was a youth that life preservers save lives even though it seemed to be bringing me down.

Hitting a rock ripping my Teva sandal almost completely off, I made a quick and easy decision at that moment. Save a $70 sandal and protect my feet or...attempt to capture another sustaining breath of air. So air won, the only free thing we actually have cost me a about 3 days of expenses. What I was doing wasn’t working. Barely being able to think, I needed to get away from the raft. I was outside the raft along the middle portion cruising down the river side ways. Moving along the rope breathing, feeling and seeing the air for brief moments, I was being teased by the Rio Suarez before getting pushed back down. This is one moment when the body slows down time in a crises, it did not benefit me...I wanted it over and for me to be back on the boat doing those cheesy high fives. The water was going into every orifice, pumping through my body without my permission. I wanted it to just …stop.

I was losing all my strength and was hoping that it was going to get calmer and this rapid was going to stop and let us regroup. Seeing a glimpse of the river ahead, I realized that the fight was coming to an end and that I was almost there. At that moment I heard a foolish participant ask if anyone knew how to turn the raft back over - since we also lost our guide for a brief amount of time. Hearing someone’s voice was the best thing I heard for a while. It was much better than just hearing the noise of the rushing water and my struggles under the water.

Along comes to my side was the kayak…my one hand locked onto the rope which was connected to the raft, I reached my free hand and rested it on the top of the guys deck just to confirm to myself that it was going to be okay. Eventually we made it to the side of the river. Land! At that moment felt as if I was going to vomit from the over consumption of water and perhaps adrenalin. I made it and I knew then the battle was over. There we waited for our guide – him too battered by the fall injuring his knee.
Looking back at this thinking…would I do this trip again if I knew what was going to happen? My answer would be…yes, definitely. I made it out safe and it sure is a lot better than just floating down the river being bored. Hmmm…perhaps I took inn too much water and too little air for an extended period of time…causing me to lose a few more of those nifty little brain cells. Lets see here…2+2=4 . Nope…all is good – sheesh, I am so fortunate for having at least 4 fingers.

Laying down for bed…the scene of me grabbing the rope was stuck on replay – were the tears that leaked from my eyes the filthy water that made its way in?…or was it just...