Saturday, February 7, 2009

fall down with the rest of them



American Lit class at a little restaraunt in Choshuenco. Keegan goes and writes that the river is the cure of loneliness. And Jason reads this poem he wrote in 5 minutes and it blows me right out of the water. It ends with the lines: I want to fall down with the rest of them, I don't want to feel this unrest again.


Jason! I tell him, standing up out of my seat. I don't know what you're writing about but that is how I feel right now, exactly, about the waterfall today. I took a bad swim on the San Pedro and I'm shaken up, I'm shaking up, I feel like I've been beat up, I wake up with a new bruise every day flowering on my shoulder, my leg. I don't know if I need to run this waterfall today. I don't want to be back in a kayak at all. But I want to fall down like the rest of you. I don't want this jumpy feeling, this unrest.

Isaac looks up from his writing. He observes me. He is banging is pencil against his page making a racket. "So fall. " He says. Then back to his fidgetting, his writing.

So we drive into the Andes and hike into a 30 footer on the upper Trancura. Keegan sits at the lip holding his paddle to show me the line, Jason talks to me in the eddy and shows me just how to plug this one. Buck pulls in front of me, smiles, says I'll see you at the bottom! And is gone in a flash of green.

I head towards the lip, make a left stroke, tuck and fall. When I emerge there is cheering everywhere. Isaac is steaming towards me and shouting over the pounding white of the falls' curtain: "YOU FELL LIKE THE REST OF US!" yeah, I tell him. And I'm not ever going to feel that unrest again.
Palmer and I celebrating the aftermath


The 30 footer on the upper Trancura and our new after school fun spot.

1 comment:

Nick Best said...

thats awesome!! big drop. keep the updates comin. love checkin in on the trip and living vicaraously (sp?) through you.