Day 47: Rafting the Rapids in Bquete

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We were awake nice and early for our big day on the rapidos (god my Spanish is getting good). Well, it wasn't because we were so excited/nervous that we couldn't sleep. It was because (1) the curtains in our hotel room were basically a sheet that didn't stop any morning light coming through; (2) the bed was so uncomfortable that Rach and I both found ourselves sinking down into the middle; and (3) the hotel backs onto a supermarket delivery dock and a bloody big semi decided to rock up at 5am, and keep the engine running as the entire thing was unloaded. It sounded as though it was backing back right into our hotel room!

Anyway, so wasn't a great start but we had to be up anyway. We grabbed a quick breakie at the bakery right near our hotel but we were pushing for time as our pick-up was at 8.30am and this was the only bakery in the world that didn't open at the crack of dawn. They finally opened their doors at 8.10am, we scoffed down our yogurt, fruit and granola and made it back in time for our rafting pick-up.

We were told that it'd be about 1.5 hour drive to the start of our white-water rafting adventure. Unfortunately, that didn't incorporate the piss-farting around Boquete the tour company did. First we stopped off at the office (fair enough, we had to pay the $69 for the rafting trip and pick-up some fellow rafters). Next stop, we picked up another couple, then back to the office as they forgot to pick up water-proof 'booties' to raft in. Now the only instruction we were given when we booked yesterday was 'bring your passport' as we were going through a border checkpoint with Costa Rica. That was when we met the 2 Americans. Oh my god, unfortunately this blog is going to focus quite heavily on one particular individual who basically destroyed our rafting experience. We had all piled into the mini-bus; Rach, myself and John (from our tour group); a lovely Spanish couple, a guy from Poland who's driving from Alaska to Panama City, an American couple (slightly annoying however not the ones I'll be focusing on) and two 50 year-old American men. As we took off, our driver asked everyone 'did you remember your passports?'. And guess who forgot...the 2 yanks. They brought photocopies...for a border checkpoint...idiots! So we had to drive out of town to the house they were staying at and pick-up their passports. By this stage, it was already about 9.45am, and we had wasted over an hour already.

The trip out to the rapids was sooooooo painful. One of the yanks sat in the front talking to the driver so he was harmless. Unfortunately that left one in the back with us and he was THE MOST annoying, arrogant, loud-mouthed, obnoxious and rude person I've ever met. Luckily he was sitting behind Rach and I so we didn't have to engage in direct conversation however we had to put up with the drivel that was coming out of his mouth. He just wouldn't shut up talking about how hot his wife was (she wasn't that good either), how handsome his kids were, how rich he was, how he had the best job in the world, how awesome his house is, this guy thought he shat out gold nuggets.

Anyway, I'll skip to the when we got dropped off at the rapids as its making me angry just typing about it. He jumped out of the bus and was surprised by the temperate change. We had come down out of the mountains where Boquete lies and it was stiffling hot. I quickly took off my long-sleeve top as I wouldn't need any help getting the arms warm. We got our safety gear on and watched a very basic safety demonstration on what to do if you find yourself de-rafted and end up in the water.

We then huddled into 2 groups, Rach, John and myself purposely siding up the Spanish couple as we didn't want anything to do with the yanks. Unfortunately, when we were introduced to our guide, we discovered that he didn't speak a word of English!! We were quickly given a Spanish lesson by our lovely co-rafters, however in a mad panic; left and right, forward paddle and back paddle all sounded the same!!

We jumped in the boat, John and our Spanish friend in the front with Rach and I taking up position behind them with the Spanish girl behind me, the Panamian guide at the back. We took off down the river full of apprehension and dread at the task ahead. Luckily that was when we discovered our guide spoke 6 words of English; left, right, forwards, back, stop and DOWN!

We sailed down the rapids, carefully listening for instructions and coming across some challenging rapids. We hit some pretty hard and got thrown around quite a bit, getting absolutely drenched in the process. I've been rafting a couple of times before in NZ and in comparison these rapids were pretty tame, at best grade 2 with maybe a set of rapids a 3. It was still really enjoyable however, especially at one point where we went down quite a big set of rapids and our guide ended up flying through the air and landing with his head next to Rach and I!!

The other boat began to annoy us as they had absolutely no co-ordination what so ever. Somehow the useless muppets kept falling out of their raft and the guide had to keep fishing them out with emergency ropes and oars. At one point, they even lost an oar so we had to pull off to the side and wait until they fetched it from the shoreline.

We stopped for lunch after about an hour of rafting. They set out a good feast of chicken and salad sandwiches, with lollies/chips and ice-cold drinks to fill us up. The annoying yank was running around yelling how the boat landed on top of him when he fell in the water. I really felt like walking over to him and giving him a crack over the head with my oar. Instead I just walked away until I couldn't hear him.

We jumped back in the boat for round 2 and set off down the river. The 2^nd half was pretty mundane with little to no rapids. It was nice though to float down the river on the current, enjoying the sites and chatting away to our fellow rafters. We looked across at the other boat and were once again annoyed, the stupid yank (remember, this guy is 50 years old) had stood up in the raft and with 2 legs on either side, balanced himself and was rocking the boat from side to side. Meanwhile, his other rafters were still paddling away to the guide's instructions. We tried to convince our guide that we should ram the other boat and try and knock him over but our charades wouldn't translate.

We decided at one point that it would be nice to take a dip so we put down our oars and fell out of the raft. It was really cool as the current was really strong and we went flying down the river. We had to keep our legs out in front of us to stop the rocks underneath from scraping against us.

We scrambled back into the boat and before we knew it we'd reached the end of the trip. They greeted us with ice-cold soft drinks and we piled into the mini-bus for the dreaded trip home. The annoying yanks were so amped after rafting that we had to have a beer stop. This was fine, as the trip was 1.5 hours and it was good to get some snacks for the trip home. However, after another 10 mins, the annoying yank would not shut-up demanding another beer stop. For heavens sake, we just stopped...why didn't you buy a whole slab! So we stopped again, wishing more than ever that we'd just drive off while he was in the shop.

So the trip home was again painful, having to listen to this muppet talk about how awesome he is at surfing. We got caught up in a massive downpour which further slowed our progress back to Boquete. We finally got back to our hotel around 5pm (not before having to drop the yanks back at their house out-of-town) and it was seriously bucketing down! We wanted a bit of time to wander into town and take a couple of photos however there was no-way we were going out in that!

We changed for dinner and met our tour group for some Peruvian cuisine. I decided on seabass with lobster and prawn medalions and Rach went some chicken concuction with rice. Hers was really good however I was quite disappointed with the quality of mine (and mine was $18 and hers only $9!!). We wondered home pretty early, given we were stuffed after the big day travelling and rafting and we have a big travel day tomorrow to Panama City, leaving at 7am.

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