Canyoning (August 17, 2006)

Our canyoning tour started this morning around 9:30. First we walked around the town looking for a waterproof disposable camera so we could capture some of the action. Since we were the only two people going on the tour, there was no rush and they said we could leave whenever we wanted. The canyoning was ½ hour drive up the valley, and then another ½ hour walk to the start, where we began descending the valley in the river. That means walking in the river, rappelling down the waterfalls, jumping off boulders into the pools of water below, and sliding down natural water slides. We had wetsuits on and wore helmets for protection. It was loads of fun! The scenery was beautiful too. There were three waterfalls that we rappelled down, the first was 7m, the second was 12m and the last one was 28m. The first one we went down behind the waterfall so it wasn’t very difficult. The second one was the hardest because the water was pounding down hard and we got banged around a little bit (good thing for the helmet!) and Lincoln lost one of his sandals! His sandals are very old, the Velcro doesn’t work very well on the straps, and he was going to throw them away at the end of this trip anyways – too bad they couldn’t have lasted a couple more weeks. We searched the river as we continued on but we never found his sandal. Our guide Wilmer gave one of his shoes to Lincoln for the rest of the way and Wilmer went barefoot. Good thing they had the same size feet.

Near the end of the descent we stopped for lunch – delicious cheese, tomato and onion sandwiches, cookies and fresh pineapple. We ate on a boulder beside a lovely swimming hole, and there was a couple of families there enjoying a swim. One of the ladies wanted her picture taken with Lincoln, the guide and I, so we obliged. After lunch we continued down the river for another ½ hour or so and did a little section of rock climbing down a ridge, which was fun too. All in all it was a great day!