Did I Mention That I'm Afraid of Heights?

Much to our mothers' dismay, after two days of steady rainfall, Jeff decided that enough was enough: rain or no rain, we needed to get out and do something.  The rain had left Jeff with plenty of time to start fantasizing about all the different extreme activities Pucón had to offer.  The fact that we would be "rebelling" against our mothers only heightened the temptation (let's just face it, we're our mamas' good little kiddies most of the time).

But what would we choose?  Canopying?  Canyoning?  Hydrospeeding?  After much deliberation, we finally decided on canyoning: a fun mix of hiking through rivers and rappelling down waterfalls.  As exciting as the prospect of getting out and doing some outdoor activites sounded, I have to admit I had my reservations about this particular choice.  You see, heights and I have an interesting relationship.  There are many activities I like that involve heights, but every time I find myself lifted to a certain level off the ground my legs start turning to jello and my heart starts beating rapidly.  Add to that the fact that one of our bunkmates had told us about a girl who had a complete emotional breakdown at the top of one of the waterfalls when he had gone canyoning a few days before, and I was left feeling a little trepidatious about the whole endeavor. But Jeff really wanted to go canyoning, so I knew I would have to find a way down those waterfalls.

So, geared up in our wetsuits, we set out into the afternoon drizzle for the four hour trip with our guide, Julio.  The first half hour was spent hiking to the creek through thick underbrush.  We felt like quite the adventurers.  When we finally reached the water, our first adrenaline-filled water activity was sliding down some rock formations.  Julio kindly took pictures of our reactions as we slid down (incurring quite a few bruises on the way) through the frigid water.  Unfortunately, the camera must not have been on the correct setting because all the pictures came out very blurry.  At least he was trying to be nice.

It's blurry, but I think you can tell we´re smiling

After being thoroughly baptized by the glacial water, we were ready to face our first waterfall.  Of course, I insisted Jeff be the first to go down.  As we waited for our guide to set up the equipment, I scoped out the waterfall from a safe distance.  "You are at least a little nervous, aren't you?" I asked Jeff as we waited. He admitted that he was, which made me feel better.

Once the riggings were set up, our guide explained how to rappel down and then proceeded to hook Jeff up to the lines.  After he had Jeff ready to go, Julio motioned me over to the edge.  Content to take pictures from afar, I reluctantly inched toward them.  Julio took me by my harness and latched me in so I could safely take pictures closer to the edge.  Despite being securely fastened to the carabiner and still a couple feet away from the edge, I could feel my legs starting to turn to jello.  Oh, God, how in the world am I ever going to go over that edge!?

Jeff, with his usual determined concentration, took a couple minutes as he tried to make sense of our guide's unintelligible English and attain perfect rappelling form. Slowly, mechanically, he started to make his way down. Too afraid to get too close to the edge, I stood as still as possible and listened once he was out of view. "Please don't die, please don't die," I kept mentally repeating.

He looks like a pro!

(might just be because of the beard)

A few minutes too many later, we saw the rope moving as Jeff signaled he had made it down.  I let out a big sigh of relief before my heart sank to my stomach, knowing that it meant it was now my turn.  Julio pulled the rope up and then fastened me in. I earned a minute's reprieve as he took the camera and lowered it down to Jeff.  As I waited for the rope to come back up, I commenced a war within in my mind making all sorts of threats to myself about not freaking out - I will refrain from repeating any of that conversation because I really don't think anyone needs to know just how mentally disturbed I am.

It was finally time for me to make my way to the edge.  Slowly, carefully, I made my way over.  I remembered Jeff's advice to trust the equipment and did my best to do so when Julio told me to lean back.  "Just don't look down, just don't look down," I kept thinking as I leaned back.  I was surprised (no, make that astonished) when I actually didn't plummet to my death after I leaned back. Julio instructed me to then start walking down. "OK, you can do this."  I started stepping down, cautiously letting the rope through my hand to give myself slack.  As I started to make my way down (still not looking down) I began to realize that this really wasn't all that bad.  Actually, if anything, I was annoyed with how slowly I was going down.  Then I slipped a little and the first thing to enter my mind was that I was going to kill Jeff if I made it down alive.  I regained control and continued my descent, even taking a few peaks below every now and then.

I finally made it to the bottom.  Relieved to be alive and happy to have Jeff right there, I quickly yelled for him to come over and help me get off the ropes because I was so scared and cold that I had forgotten how I was supposed to unharness myself.  Jeff quickly had me extricated and I beamed at my victory.

I'm alive!

(and freezing!)

Our next waterfall was just a minute's walk away.  Jeff and I peered over the edge as we giddily chatted about our first descent.  As I had feared, Jeff wanted me to go down this waterfall first so that I could take pictures of him.  Though I was still petrified, I finally consented.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself

A bit more confident that I wasn't going to die, the second descent went much better.  By this point, it was raining pretty hard, which, for some reason, made me feel that much cooler as I made my way down.

A more comfortable (though still nervous) smile

I reached the bottom, pleased with myself, and deftly unfastened the equipment.  This water ended in a cavern, so I had to wait in the freezing cold water as the camera was lowered down to me and Jeff was hooked up to go down. The positioning of the sun made it difficult to take decent pictures, which Jeff thoroughly chastised me for when he got down and looked at them.

After Jeff was finished, Julio made his way down, showing us what amateurs we really were.  We then started to make our way through the cave.  All I can say is: amazing.  Jeff and I had felt like we were on another planet when were in San Pedro de Atacama.  Here, we felt as though we had been transported to Jurassic Park.

Jeff snapped some really incredible pictures as we made our way through the cave.  At some points it did get too dark for decent ones.  As fun as splashing through the cavern was, I was happy when I saw sunlight ahead of me because it was cold.

When we emerged, I was happy to see the sun was pushing its way out. We only had a couple minutes to bask in the sun, however, before we were making our way through another cavern.

One of our favorite pictures

After the second cavern I enjoyed the warmth of the sun as we made our way through the water.  During our hike, we had to perform a couple maneuvers with the help of Julio in order to make it around some difficult rock formations.  Since Jeff was following behind with the camera, I generally got to be the first person to try these out.  Julio's poor English made these slightly frightening tasks that much scarier because I quite often was not all that sure what I was doing.  Once we were out in the open, it was easier for me to push Jeff ahead and let him be the first victim so that I could figure out what was going on before it was my turn.  The picture below was taken when Julio, holding a rope attached to Jeff's harnass, swung Jeff around a rock, where he free-fell into a small, cold pool.

After watching Jeff's fall I wasn't so sure it was something I wanted to do. Jeff, however, came out smiling and laughing, telling me how fun it was and that I had to give it a try.  Finally I relented, screaming bloody murder as I plunged into the water.  Scary, but fun.

Finally, we reached our last waterfall of the day. Though I still felt some jitters, I was comfortable enough to really take my time and look all around during my descent.

It's a little blurry, but I love this picture

By this time, both Jeff and I were starting to feel a bit tired, so we declined when Julio kindly offered to let us go down the waterfall again.  He shrugged his shoulders and began to pack up as Jeff and I took a little rest, warming up in the sun.

We were done with the waterfalls, but apparently we weren't done with our hike.  We spent the next hour intermittently slogging through the creek and paths that were heavily overgrown with very prickly underbrush.  There were a couple times both Jeff and I wondered if Julio actually knew where he was going.

Finally, we reached a clearing where we saw a small, and incredibly clear, pool of water and a platform.  Julio informed us that this was the last water activity of the day and that Jeff and I were supposed to jump in.  Jeff and I walked onto the platform and decided to jump in together.  I looked down and saw little fish swimming below as Jeff and I counted "one, two, three! . . . " OH . . MY. . . GOD!

We waded out laughing hysterically. Julio informed us that the water temperature of the pool we had just jumped into was eight degrees celsius (forty-six degrees fahrenheit). All part of the experience!

* We need to give another special thanks to Lee for letting us use his awesome, water-proof camera.  Without it, we would not have gotten these great pictures.  Thanks, Lee!