Rafting the Trancura

Shuewwy, things have become a little more exciting around here--which is exactly what was needed after a couple of more tranquil past weeks. Yesterday, Petro and I decided to do a little whitewater rafting in the river nearby to Pucon. It is noted in the area for some class IV rapids, so it made the idea of parting with double our daily budget a little easier (actually, alot more than double as out "entertainment" budget is somewhere around $5-10 dollars a day--mostly spent on things like wine, useless trinkets, and the occasional back alley craps games with the locals). The process of going about an adventure excursion around here is slightly comical--the day before we tried to sign up for the rafting trip and were told just to "show up." When we did do that the next day, instead of filling out loads of paperwork, signing our lives away, and actually paying for the trip, we were just quickly shuffled onto a bus. The only company document that would even link us to trip was a piece of paper that they asked us to write our names on--which wouldn´t even really link us because we had used our standard false travels identities of Andy and Mike Tiehen. Once again Mike is probably going to get blamed for something he did not do--sorry in advance Mikey--please raise it as your own....

Anyways, so we were off for a little fun. We lucked out with our rafting trip as our guide was great, our group was small (only Petro, I, a German, and a Swiss) and the rapids were often intense. After one particularly exhilarating plunge off a small waterfall where I narrowly stayed in the raft, I was feeling particularly badass until my sense of personal achievement was mildly stifled when I saw the 12 year old girl in the raft behind us conquer the drop right after--nevertheless, the rafting was pretty exciting--part of this excitement stems from the fact that the company seems to possess no liability. The only hint of their acknowledgement of some liability for our safety was the "safety kayaker" who shadowed our rafts. I did get the company to admit that the rescue procedure in the event of emergency went as follows--save in this order: the sue-happy Americans, the Europeans, and then any nationals who haven´t already drowned. With this news I felt assured. In terms of emergency procedures, none had to occur, however, much to Petros amusement, during the last 10 meters of the trip, our raft hit a rock in pretty stagnant water and tossed an unsuspecting me overboard. Good fun for all. And how does a rafting company with no liability congratulate their clients after the trip?--with free beer of course. There are some great pics of the trip, which you can see in the pics section.

Today is a big ? for me. Peter is currently on what should be an amazing trek up Volcan Villirica and sadly I decided to sit this adventure out due to a nagging pain in my ankle/foot that I acquired last week. Stayed tuned to Petros blog because Im sure he will soon have a great account and some pics of the hike.