Andes Rafting at Cascadas Las Animas

The adrenaline was pumping and nerves were at an all time high as we arrived at the Andes for our group rafting trip. Most of us being novices, we had only a slight idea of what to expect. However, a concise, hour long, sarcasm laden safety information session would tell us everything we needed to know and expect, granted it may have aroused more nerves then it did calm. The first thing we learned, and the most important theme of the day, was that teamwork would be essential. This was not going to be like disneyworld, as our rafting instructor noted, these were class 3 rapids that would require focus, poise, and a cohesive unit of good partners and teamwork. We were instructed to be smart, aggressive, but above all calm. In the case of someone going overboard, a common occurrence  in rafting, panic is the one thing that can exasperate the situation. We were reminded, its only water, keep calm and you will be fine. The same is required and perhaps even more important for the rescuers though, as a panicking partner is completely and utterly useless. As a partner you need to be aware, alert and calm in order to be able to help your partner in case of an emergency. We went over the several different options to return someone safely to the boat, by extending out a paddle, throwing a rope, or the overboard rafter swimming calmly towards either the "german only" speaking kayakers that escorted us down the rapids, or back to the raft if possible. The instructor told us to always be looking forward, not up, as He is not going to help today, its our teammates that we need to be looking for. Finally, we also learned how to pull someone back onto the raft. You have to grab the person by the life vest, and then push down a little, not as much as to drown the person, but to use the bouyancy of the life vest as leverage to pull the person upwards onto the boat, falling backwards if need be to utilize your body weight as extra strength. After quickly explaining the dangers of being careless with your paddle on board, it was time to suit up.

We were fervently urged to make sure we used the restroom before putting on the wetsuit as you can imagine. Looking like cirque du soleil rejects, we took to the rafts and met our guides. The captain of our raft, Yuri, was a seasoned expert, despite telling us he had just passed an online class the night before to be qualified for the excursion. Yuri was a year round raft guide who also worked in Brazil and California among other places, so as you can tell work really sucks for Yuri. Nevertheless, Yuri somehow manages to keep high spirits and have a blast doing his job. Before taking to the rapids, Yuri taught us all the maneuvers we would need to know and drilled us as best he could. We mastered paddling, spinning the raft, taking cover, and jumping to different sides. Ok, maybe mastered isn't the best word, but Yuri was satisfied,  and where we fell short of perfection in those maneuvers we made up for it with our FIESTAS, as we would lock our  paddles in the air and scream out our group howl after successfully passing through a rough rapid. We all agreed we had some of the most fun we had ever had in our lives, from riding the bull, holding onto the front of the raft with one hand, to going for a swim in the shallow areas of the rapids, its harder to get back into the boat then you think, to Yuri having us dive into the face of a rapid, we had an unforgettable experience on that over 7 mile stretch. From the magnificent beauty of the landscape we passed through, to the roughness of the waters that splashed, ripped, and cut through us, to the feelings of camaraderie and family we experienced, the bulldogs group consensus of rafting was absolute sublime.