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Woke somewhat hung-over a grabbed a bit to eat before meeting for our canyoning trip. Canyoning is basically when you go down rapids with your body rather than a boat or raft. You rappel, jump off waterfalls, go down slides and swim etc to get down the river. We suited up in pretty thick wetsuits with booties and all. The only exposed part of our bodies was the hands. We put on helmets with individual names on each and I picked the one called "robocop" (just for you paul). We also put on life jackets ontop the wet suits which looked pretty destroyed and ripped (a somewhat scary thing to notice). After getting all geared up we jumped into a van with a kiwi and a guy from switzerland with dreadlocks to head off towards the river we would be going down. We parked and took a short hike a ways up the river to the starting point. One of the first things we did was rappel down a cliff area which was pretty intimidating at first you had to basicall jump backwards over a cliff and the rock you put your feet on was really slick but once you
got in it wasnt so bad. After this we jumped down a medium size waterfall we came to a pretty large rapids where a rope was set up so that we could swing over a large waterfall and be caught on the otherside by one of our guides. It was a pretty huge swing and required alot of faith in the instructors to make the leap. Josh and I were the last to go and the instructor keyed in on the fact that we wanted to do things that were a bit more insane so he told us that we should push out as hard as we could with our feet as we swung and he would make us go really fast over the falls. He explained further to Josh but forgot to mention to me that we should hold our hands up the entire time so that when we went past the guy that was going to catch us we wouldnt destroy our hands on the rock wall. I thought we were supposed to hold our hands up so that the picture would be cool as we rounded the corner, bleh. Anyway when I went I swung way past
the guy and didnt really know what was going on as the rock wall came up and I guess I didnt know what else to do but grab the rope and hold on. My left hand was pretty mangled in the process and it started to swell immediately, luckily the water was freezing so it helped with the swelling a bit. After the swing we reached another double waterfall and were informed that we should go down laying backwards. It was a very freaky feeling as we had no idea what might be under the water or where we would go but everyone said fuk it went for it anyway. The first small water fall wasnt so bad but the second actually made you back flip, legs over your head into a pool where all sense of direction was lost and it was actually a bit difficult to find your way out. One of the guides was waiting by to grab anyone that couldnt get out of the hole the falls produced. We did a few more cool jumps and slides until we reached the bottom back near the van where we started. Cayoning was a sweet experience and parts
were actually really intimidating but I wish a few of the jumps had been higher. My hand was also really swollen at this point but still didnt hurt much because it was so numb. We headed back to the hostel and they served everyone beer and bread with some odd mountain cheese or something that was delicious. One of the guys working there also said I should disinfect my hand so he dumped iodine all over it which hurt like hell. We hung out for a bit and talked with some of the guides about life in interlaken and extreme sports etc... After I napped for like 2 or 3 hours as I was pretty exhausted from the night before and canyoning. We woke to pouring rain, it had basically been raining nonstop since we got back from canyoning and continued the rest of the time we were in Switzerland. Everyone was a but down from the weather so no one really wanted to party much. Josh and I went back to the hotel part of the hostel and met with the girls from last night again to play a bit of chess and drink a few. It was relatively
low key with the weather and our level of energy.
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