Scariest Day of my Life

So today was a crazy day.  We headed out at 7 am to Esperos to do some white water rafting.  I have gone several times before in Montana and it was lots of fun.  So I thought we would enjoy some scenery, go down some rapids, and have a great time.  My day did not go according to plan.  When we signed the waiver they told us we had to swim a class III rapid; I thought maybe they were joking or they wouldn't make us do it.

After our 45 min drive we got to the river and sure enough we had to swim the rapid.  It was pretty scary, I swallowed some water, but I survived it.  I thought it was weird because no other company had made me swim a rapid, I should have known at this point that something was not good.

I'm not sure who this is, but this is the rapid we had to "swim down."

So we started down the river with Rambo, our guide, Suzette, Jon, and myself.  Jen, Chris, and Mike were in another boat.  We went down a couple rapids and then were chatting while watching the other boats come through.  The rapids thus far had been fun, but the river was narrow and there were lots of rocks.

You can see Jon and Suzette here.  I am on the other side of Jon, going through one of the rapids.

Mike, Chris, and Jen's boat.  This kind of shows how you have to manuever through the rocks.

 Everyone headed through the next rapid and this is where the craziness begun:

We started going down the next rapid, but I could tell the guide was trying to get us to turn.  Next thing I know we went straight onto a rock and were stuck, I thought this cannot be good because we cannot go down this huge rock.  I look back and notice the guide is out of the boat trying to pull us out.  That did not work and he started yelling something.  Then I feel Jon coming on top of me, thinking what is he doing.  Then under water I went.  From what I was told, Jon was pinning me down under water so he said he had to jump out of the boat so I could come up.  Suzette tried pulling me up at one point and then jumped out before Jon.  I didn't get swept out into the current instead I got pushed toward a cliff.  I stood up my shoulder was up against a jagged edge and I had my feet planted in the river bottom.  The current was strong and I didn't know how long I could stand there and I didn't know where Suzette and Jon went and if they were ok.  The guides were yelling at each other in Spanish trying to figure out how they were going to get me.  Their first two plans failed and I didn't know how long I could hold on.  I started yelling at them to hurry.  Finally they carried a raft upstream and rode it back down to me.  Then I held onto a rope and they led me to the other side to safety.  Seriously I have never been so scared in my life.  At one point I didn't think I could hold on any longer and I didn't know what would happen if I let go.  It was about 5 minutes, but felt like forever.  All I could keep thinking about was

I wasn't the only one worried.  Mike said he was freaking out.  He couldn't see anything that was going on.  All he knew was Suzette saying I was stuck under water, but then Jon said he saw me standing against the cliff.  He said he was getting more worried because of the look on the guides' faces.  He could tell it wasn't good, but didn't know what was going on.  He said he had some crazy thoughts going through his head.  After I was rescued I got the heck out of there.  Luckily I was able to hike out because I was down with that river.  I think I will stick to safe adventures from now on!!

Hiking out.  I know such a pansie, but not worth the risk!!