River Rafting at Cagayan de Oro - Timeless Thursdays 18

First of all, let me greet you all a Happy October, and thank you all so much for those who joined last week's Timeless Thursdays! it was the first time that more than 10 people joined and I am so grateful and happy.

I am an adventurous person in the sense that I am not afraid of getting lost on a place because I always believe that there are good people everywhere as much as there are bad. But when it comes to extremes, I usually fold and pass, but for this one, since it's on my bucket list, I braved myself and said yes to river rafting! Besides, I have my best friends with me to do it with.

Last 2015, we flew over to the southern island of Mindanao for a mini reunion trip with the gang. We chose Mindanao because it is one of the islands we all have never been to and we thought it's time we check it on our travel maps together. One of our highlights is white river rafting in the mighty Cagayan de Oro River (it is usually called Cagayan river but we also have a Cagayan River in the north which is the longest river in the country).

All 8 Complete! (Faith, Lea, Dianne, Myrcel, Rjay, Lea, Judy, Stevenson)

We were so excited and yes, I, a bit nervous. I do know how to swim but I am not so good at it. Especially seeing the rapids, it was a bit awakening to see the water crushing through the rocks and banks. But of course, we will be accompanied by trained boatmen or rafters (don't know how they are called) so I was quite confident in case I fall out. But I kept telling them "Kuya wag mo papataubin ah!" (Brother, please don't let us fall).

Look how brave (I look like), beside my cousin Judy in front

Yes, I was super nervous the whole time but don't get me wrong, it was so much fun! There were a few rapids that almost tipped us off but since boatmen know we are quite a fearful group, they did not let it happen as much as they can. Look how they are still smiling at the back of the boat when we all look so wacky!

Towards the end, our guides led us to the still waters before we enter the final stages of the rapids because they said we had to cool ourselves. The heat was quite unbearable for a cool January day so they asked us to dive in the waters so we can submerge ourselves because the life vests tend to be too warm and can lead to hyperthermia. So we did!

(Myrcel, Judy, Stevenson, Rjay, and Faith in front) 26 years of friendship.

You can see that the waters seem dirty but those are made of soil and sediments constantly mixed with the river water due to the rapids. Though we cannot see what's below, we were quite relaxed at these moments due to the stillness of the water, though we are still constantly moved by the tide. 

But not for long, because the boatmen calmly told us, "Sirs and Maams, please don't panic. We'll slowly get each one of you back to the boat because there's a river snake just a few meters away from us". It was very good that all of us did not panic but I volunteered to be the last to be pulled on the rubber boats because I am a heavy weight! The boatmen and a few of my friends helped to pull me up HAHA.

Glad it's over, we had so much fun though!

It took us about an hour and a half of nerves and laughs! But in the end, we feel so happy and celebrated at the banks. Our guides made us strike some funny poses just like the one above. Nope, I did not pull back the heads of my two friends, I did not!

This experience was truly one for the books. I am proud of this adventure, that I have done it, and have done it here in my country. But it will not be as fun and as memorable without my dearest friends to do it with me. I miss them so so much in this pandemic especially the two that I did not pull heads on the photo because they can't just go home due to the situation (Dianne on my left lives in Paris and Lea on my right lives in Kuwait). But we never stop praying and communicating often, we believe we'll see each other again, as complete, very soon!

Stevenson the Rafter

Never stop paddling!

Stevenson

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