Today I went wild water rafting on the Pacuare river. The rainforests that surround the river are home to exotic animal species such as jaguars, monkeys, ocelots, and a very large number of birds. Also it was considered one of the 5 nicest rivers to practice rafting by National Geographic. Enough with the wikipedia stuff. It was simply AMAZING!

We did a 4 hour trip of 30 km without any stops, but it felt like an hour. We sat in a boat with six people and one guide. The guide gave instructions when to peddle forward, backward, stop, left backward, right backward and so on. In the beginning you just follow the instructions and don’t know why, then you see a big run ahead which swings you all across the river. After a while you can anticipate on what the guide is going to say.

As we approached the misty mountain steeps where all the wild animals live, it felt like that scene from Jurassic Park where they approach the island LOL. We went on a 1 to 4 level raft. Level 5 is for pro’s. So when the guide screamed: “THERE IS A LEVEL 4 AHEAD, FORWARD HARD!!” You start peddling like crazy! At one “level 4 run” we lost one of the rafters. She bumped in to the water and had to be saved. We also had a lot of nice, quiet pieces though, where we could relax and enjoy the great nature around us. The water coming from the hot springs is so clean you can drink it. There where beautiful butterflies surrounding us along the way. They had really nice colored, almost luminous wings. At one point we voluntarily jumped in to the water and took a swim. At the end of our trip it started to rain, giving the surroundings an extra scenic appearance. One word: WOW! This shouldn’t be in the top 5, but numbero uno!