Back to whitewater rafting
The plan for today was 5 hours of
rafting on the Samana river grade 4-4+ until piculca creek camp.
Tex nearly fell out, but Murray saved him. They were busy high
5ing when Mael mentioned Caroline was swimming. The safety kayaker
brought her back and all was good. The next big challenge was 3
holes. We made the first hole, but Caroline noticed she was the
only one still paddling to get past the second hole, this was
definitely not going to work. We hit the wall and the raft
flipped. Yan, put at the back without protest was now a terrified
mess, so white and fearful. He held on to the wrong side of the
raft, preventing Mael from righting it until Murray climbed on and
added his weight to the effort. Yet again a safety kayaker brought
Caroline back to the raft. With a potter swim and eventually
calmer waters we made it to camp, where a gorgeous waterfall
swimming pool awaited. Caroline watched the fireflies flashing to
attract mates and then when one said 'yes' a brilliant fire orange
would flit across the sky. A good day, especially as Yan is a
virtually neutralized danger.
Just as Caroline was getting into her
hammock a massive branch fell off the tree, ripped through the
canvas and just missed her head. Luckily the team came and put a
new canvas over the old one and we were waterproof for the night.
Yan had been so terrified during the day that he screamed and
shouted in his sleep until midnight. He woke up early then started
screaming again. Caroline really ants to kick this man. Anyway,
torrential rain all night puts an end to the rafting and as we are
now not talking to Yan this is a good thing.
For the extraction Caroline and Yan are offered mules. Caroline
asks her mules name and it is pointed out to her. Yan ties his
water bottle and bag to it and says 'it doesn't matter if we
change mules does it?' Murray thinks the coward thought Caroline
might have been given a less frisky one. We already know what is
coming next – Yan is scared of mules! He keeps upsetting them by
grunting in fear. Caroline doesn't mince her words and tells him
to shut up scaring the animals.
Thank God our last night is in a Yoga lodge; but near disaster, they had us down for a shared suite with Yan! We couldn't put up with another night of his screams so he was moved to another room.
We found something Yan isn't scared of – having a massage!
Nico said he would take Caroline for a walk, really for coffee as the Yoga lodge only serves tea. If Yan had known he would have wanted to come, but Nico didn't say why as we had all learned days ago that the best way to be rid of Yan is to go for a walk.
one we didn't do
on the drive to Medellin, a Phoenix sculpture
There were gold extractors down much of the river and it was weird picnicing on beaches that glittered – though only with fool's gold of course.