Trip to Cataluña: Day 2

Defeating the waters

Day 2,  9:12

Standing up at 7 wasn't that bad, although I realised this morning that it would have been at 6 in my island. After breakfast we picked up all our towels and swimming stuff and now we are here on the bus, on the way to the "Noruega Pallesera". There are other schools staying in the hotel, who also do the same activities as us. They went rafting yesterday and told us that a girl broke her teeth and a boy allmost drowned. Sounds great, doesn't it? At least it's finally something really exciting to talk about here.

Day 2,  12:51

Rafting is definetly the coolest think ever. I love the feeling of the water splashing against myself and the adrenaline of rushing down the river. And how we rushed down that river. Equiped with our professional swimming clothes, boots and paddles, we thought we had done a great achivement after the first few rapids. Of course, we didn't know what was yet to come. The first real rapid, left all of us without breath after falling to the floor of our boat. I'm surprised nobody fell into the water. This rapid was called "La Lavadora" which means The Washingmashine. I'm sure that it would be a similar feeling to raft inside a giant washingmashine, specially if you change the cloths in it for tree trunks and rocks.
After this first rapid, we were allowed to go swimming in the river, with the warning that the water was icy. It was, but the strenght of the current would have been a better warning. It was a real challenge to try not to let the current carry you away from the boat. And getting back on the boat without help was simply impossible.
Then we prepared for the next rapid. This was similar to the first one, with a small exeption. It was a kilometre long. The speed of the boat made it difficult to avoid the tree branches banging into our faces and the strong waves made all of us feel stupid when we didn't hit the water with the paddles, because it move away from us.
The whole tour was simply amazing. I loved the rush and the breathtaking speed. At that moment, going with the river, I felt alive for the first time in a lot of time.


Day 2, 23:29

Hydrospeed was amazing. It was much scarier than rafting. In the water, I was alone and my only chance of survival was holding on to the board with all my strength. Of course, there were supervisors, so it was perfectly safe, but at least we all had that feeling in the water. We went through the same rapids as this morning. At least the first one, we only did a part of that journey. On the board I was independent and responsible for myself. I was the only person that I could rely on (ok, so there were supervisors, who cares?). I have one tip to give you before I stop writing. If you ever go hydrospeeding, don't you ever drop your board. You will regret it when the strong currents inmediatly starts turning and pushing you around until you can hardly breath. Just good I was rescued by a supervisor.