Did you go white water rafting today?

…I did!

Brad and I woke up around 5 a.m. to head out to Jarabacoa and go white water rafting. The plan was to catch the 6 a.m. Caribe Tours bus to a town called La Vega, and from there take a guagua to Jarabacoa, where the white water rafting place is. Unfortunately, we had one of the most fun and best bonding nights last night, as the staff went dancing. That is another funny story in itself. We did wake up, just not quite as promptly as we had hoped. Constance is pretty much the most wonderful intern coordinator ever since she let me wake her up at 5:40 to drive us to the bus station. Small problem. None of the three of us knew exactly where the bus station was. We had to make that bus since the rafting trip started at 9 a.m. and Jarabacoa is far enough away to where we would need all three hours.

We missed the 6 a.m. bus, went to another station, took a Javilla Tours bus to Santiago, hopped on a guagua to La Vega, got on another guagua to Jarabacoa, took a moto up to Rancho Baiguate, and arrived just before 9:30 a.m.—amazingly, we were still able to pay for our trip and head out with the group! For the price we paid, we got to white water raft, rent all our gear, and had two all-you-can-eat, DELICIOUS meals.

Rafting the Yaque del Norte River was just amazing. I have been rafting once before, in Colorado, and that was one of the best experiences of my life. This was absolutely wild, especially because it poured last night, so the rapids were stronger than usual. For one rapid, we counted seven people who fell out of their respective rafts (this happens often, and really isn’t a big deal as the current pops you right back out of the water, but this is nothing like the US!) Brad and I headed up the front of our raft, with three other American girls whom we didn’t previously know and our guide behind us. Our guide likes his rides to be more interesting, so he would take us ways to make the ride rougher. At one point, Brad’s entire body weight was on my face when we went through a rapid. Don’t worry parents, my face is still fine!

One of the girls in our raft came into the ride pretty afraid. She and Brad were thrown out in the first ten minutes of our trip, and even though she was fine, she started to panic. We even had her sitting in the middle of the raft, where she was safe and didn’t even have to paddle (thus, we did all the work), but she started getting hysterical and insisting that we let her out of the raft. This was impossible, as we were in between two cliffs. She started crying and cursing and yelling that it was her right to be let out of the raft and no one was listening to her. It was quite the ordeal. We were able to get her out of the boat and to a place where the bus that had taken us from Rancho Baiguate’s property to the water could pick her up.

I have never felt fear like that! I am really thankful that I haven’t, because she was really distraught and it just seemed like a miserable place to be, stuck in a panic attack like that. Luckily, we were able to continue our ride and it was wonderful. I am continually in awe of the beauty that surrounds me. It is impossible for me to paddle down the longest river in the Caribbean, dodging massive rocks and watching the way the current moves the water in the most unique patterns, and think that all this creation came from nothing. Being in nature convinces me more and more that God made this world beautiful for us to enjoy and to show us his character.

Just pointing to some places we've been on this world map: Alexia, Brad, Rebecca, Camille, Robin, Constance, Phillip
Out dancing: Jennie, Alexia, Camille, Robin, Rebecca, Constance