the river wild

okay, i never saw the movie "the river wild," but from what i know, it's about a family rafting somewhere in north america, stuff happens, and then some guy tryings to kill them. well, we aren't a family vacationing. we weren't rafting in north america, hell, we weren't even rafting. oh, and no one was trying to kill us. but that's just details, right?

after what seemed like weeks of rain (though in actually was only one day), we decided that the only thing to do in the face of more rain to go off and indulge in activities which already involved water. after considering all the water related activities that the lake district had to offer, we decided on hydro-something or other. now, what hydro something of other involves is putting on two wetsuits (ugh, i loath wet suits), grabbing onto a plastic board, and going head-first through rapids in freezing river water. sound like fun? you bet it was!

hydro-thingie is not horribly technically challenging, the main point is to avoid the big rocks while still managing to fly over the big rapids. when you hit the waves right, you go flying through the air. when you don't, the board goes flying into your face. hmm, i guess it did involve a bit of finesse, but after some incomprehensible spanglish directions, i think we got it down... or at the least our guide thought we did because off we went. me, with my bruised hands from putting on the damn wet suit. amy, with her flippers one size too big. and ari, with the underwater goggles that he wore to protect his contacts (but really only served to make him dizzy). yes, we were ready to go.

the ice-cold water was strangely refreshing, and when we weren't navigating the rapids, we floated down the river looking at the passing scenery. was lovely, a bit like wakayama and shikoku rolled into one. after letting the class 3 rapids toss us around for a bit, it was all over-- time to strip off the horrid wet suits (have i mentioned how i detest them?) and drink some hot cocoa.

our protest of the rain continued with our evening activities. we rented a car, and along with a couple from hong kong, set out for the hot springs in an attempt to recapture the glory of our japan days. after an uncertain and bumpy ride down some middle-of-nowhere road, we arrived. the hot springs were just what we needed. outdoors and nearly deserted, the the pools were set in near darkness down by a river. we soaked till about 10.30 before we made our way back to the hostel (we had a curfew, after all).

the next day-- more rain, more car rental fun (of which i am sure amy enjoyed the most, being our residential manual car chauffeur-- sorry amy!). the five of us set off to experience the lake district (or at least attempt to so we felt like we had seen something). we saw waterfalls and lakes, and even attempted a national park before the rain depressed us. in the end, we decided another visit to a hot spring was in order, so off we went. the second place we went to was more built up than the one from the previous night, but we enjoyed the high-tech hot spring gadgets.

and that is pretty much our time in the lake district. the next day after some wandering about, we took a bus down to puerto montt... but more of that from ari...