If there’s one thing which Cagayan de Oro is famous for, it’d be this. This is a must try for fun-loving and adventurous people. So that's why my adventurous friends and I didn't give a second thought booking our white water rafting with Kagay.
There really is nothing quite like rafting down the Cagayan de Oro River...12.34 kms with 14 major rapids ranging from class 2 to 3 with a total run of 2-3 hours depending on the water level. And that's just the basic course.
Welcome...cry me a river.
As soon as I saw the river, I panicked. I am afraid of deep water and to add with, it’s mud-colored rapid flowing water! I never thought that this was what we signed up for. I’ve seen pictures of white water rafting from friends' albums and boy this doesn’t look like this! What a luck, our guide told us that it rained hard the night before so the water flowed with mud from the mountains.
We had an orientation first and you can sense from the voice of the guide that white water rafting is serious..and fun? He demonstrated some basic instructions like paddling, rafting techniques, and safety precautions. And then we’re off..
See the shock in my face..tulala
We had to go through 14 rapids. And I was really feeling nervous. We met our rowing guide and we immediately boarded our rafts. I think there were around 10 rafts along with us. I saw one raft as it passed a rapid and I was feeling more scared. It was like floating inside a washing machine.
As we paddle close to the first rapid..
Here we go!
Danger is coming!
On our first rapid, we felt that our raft was out of balance and the guide gave us some instructions but it was too late. Our raft turned upside down and all of us were thrown in the whirlpool.
Yes that's us!
Recalling this experience always gives me chills. I remembered that I was under the toppled raft and I was trying hard to get away from it. I struggled to keep afloat but found it hard because of the strong current. I closed my eyes and thought I am about to die already..while on vacation. Yes, I can be overly dramatic sometimes!! I held my breath as long as I could as I waited for help. I was able to drink some muddy water..It felt like forever floating there. I got suffocated by my life vest and helmet and the silly me tried to take them off. Good thing, they were fastened tightly or my stupidity could have left me dead. Lots of things were going through my mind that time. First thing, my parents didn’t know I went to CDO and we did rafting. And now I am submerged underwater and struggling for my life. I got a bit distracted when I felt that my strapped flip flops were (which is my fave slippers btw) slipping from my feet. I thought this was really really my end..
And then I heard a voice shouting “lie down, lie down”. I shouted back that I can’t. Then finally, he grabbed me out of the water. Whew, I’m finally safe. Something funny happened. I saw my flip flops floating after me and I told the rescuer to get it. Haha demanding! The rescuer turned out to be the photographer of Kagay. And before he helped us he was able to capture moments of our near-death experience. Haha. That's why we had our near-death experience documented.
All of us were rescued. The rafting of the other groups was temporarily delayed until we have fully recovered from the incident. I really thought that we would just called the day off and wait the other rafts finished the whole rafting course. But that was just wishful thinking. Since there was no other way to get out of the river, we had to ride our rafts again and flow downstream and paddle our way.
After surviving that almost near-death experience, we felt tougher. As they say, what can't kill you can only make you stronger.
The bolder, confident, and adventurous us!
There were still times that we were almost on the verge of getting into a mishap again. In fact, one my friends, Gyles, was thrown into the water when we unexpectedly had a bumpy ride near the big rocks. But we were able to help him by reaching him using the paddle.
So after 12.34 kms, 14 major rapids, and 2 hours, we survived our white water rafting!!
High five!! A+ for teamwork
Don't we just looked all so happy and proud of ourselves? This experience strengthened my bond with my friends -- well I call them kaladkarin friends. Because we always travel together.
I wouldn't hesitate a bit to try white water rafting again. Though we met a small accident, I felt that our tour organizer, Kagay, was very professional and highly-trained to deal such kind of situation. It's funny that I'm writing this entry almost exactly the same time we had our rafting, two years ago.
HIGH FIVE to WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!
*One of my goals for my blog this year is to write all my travel posts since I started traveling. This is a backlog post. To the best of my memory, I've written this white water rafting post which happened in 2009. Better late than never!
That sounds like so much fun! I'd love to have the chance to do something like that. Thanks for sharing!
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