I almost died white water rafting in San Gil, Colombia
- Cecilia Markley
- 2 days ago
- 13 min read
As we hit the rock, everything went in slow motion. At first, I thought I would stay in the boat, since my feet were tucked securely into the foot holds.
But then I felt a body slam into me, and I went flying. I was in the air long enough to take a deep breath, and then I hit the water and was sucked under.
San Gil, Colombia
My boyfriend, Marijn, and I arrived in San Gil on Wednesday, Feb. 25, just a week after getting to Colombia. We had done Cartagena and Santa Marta in a week.
We had secured a volunteering gig in San Gil — more on that and everything else I did in San Gil in my next article — and would be staying for two weeks.
San Gil is known as the adventure capital of Colombia. Tourists flock here to paraglide, white water raft, bungee jump, rappel down waterfalls, and more. We knew we wanted to paraglide, which we did our first Saturday there. When we got the volunteering gig, we decided to make the most of it and do as much as we could fit in.
A last-minute decision
We were awoken at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 2 by a knock on our door. Whoops, we had slept in. I got the door, and Katherine, one of the employees at the hostel, was there to ask if we wanted to go rafting today.
Not only was Katherine asking, but Sam, the owner of the hostel where we were volunteering, had messaged me to ask us to go.
This was a big deal because, according to Sam and later confirmed by the employees at the rafting company, the water levels on the Suárez River had been too high to raft for the past two weeks. Despite it being dry season in Colombia, it was raining more than usual for this time of year in San Gil.
So, the implication from Sam messaging me and Katherine knocking on our door was that, if we wanted to go white water rafting, we should take the opportunity to go today. We had planned to visit the nearby town of Barichara today, but after thinking it over for about two minutes — since we only had an hour to get ready — we decided to go.
We didn’t ask any questions, such as what level the rapids were, which definitely would have been valuable information.
Preparing for the excursion
Those who know me know I am a strong swimmer, having swam competitively throughout childhood and through high school. I have rafted three times before, on rapid levels as high as IV (V being the highest rapids can be for commercial rafting).
Marijn, on the other hand, is not as strong of a swimmer and had not rafted before. But when rafting, you wear a life jacket. And, in my experience, people rarely fall in. Having fallen in before, I told him that I found it fun and thrilling. When I fell in previously, I was quickly pulled back in by my raft mates.
We were picked up by the company at 10 a.m. and taken to the office with the 12 others in our group. We were asked to sign the typical liability paperwork saying the company isn’t at fault in case of injury or death. It was here we learned the rapids were level V. I asked Marijn if he was sure he wanted to do this, and he assured me he did and was excited about the activity.
An hour in a van later, we had made friends with several of our fellow rafters — two were woman with whom we paraglided two days earlier — and arrived at the river.
Pre-rapid briefing
When we arrived, we were given life vests, helmets and paddles and headed down to the river for our briefing. I had heard this all before and wasn’t stressed. Despite knowing these rapids would be more intense, I trusted the guides, myself and the others in my raft.
The guides walked us through how to paddle and when to do what: forward paddle, back paddle, only the right side of the raft paddle, and so on. They explained we may sometimes have to jump inside the raft completely. When rafting, you sit on the side of the raft, but if faced with an intense rapid, the guide will shout to get inside the boat so as to not fall out.
Next came explaining what to do if you fall out and how to rescue people who do. They told us that most of the time if you fall out, you will remain by the raft and be pulled back in by your raft mates. However, if you end up far from the raft, you should keep your feet up and lay on your back with your feet facing downriver, kicking hard.
Every time I have gone white water rafting, there are always guides in kayaks accompanying us. They have multiple jobs. One is to head into the rapids prior to the rafts, assess the situation and let the guides on the rafts know what to prepare for. Their other job is to rescue rafters if need be. We were taught how to grab onto the kayak correctly in case of rescue.
Before we divided into groups of seven and split into two separate rafts, the guide giving the briefing pointed to the other side of the river. There we saw a red line with water splashing over it. He told us the red line is the highest the river can possibly be to allow the company to safely proceed with rafting that day. The water was at the red line, and this was the first time it wasn’t above it in two weeks.
It’s all fun and games
Marijn and I hopped into the blue raft with the two women we knew from paragliding, one from Switzerland and one from Canada, and three others: a couple from France and a man from England (note: I share these details about them only so I can explain more easily everyone’s positions and other details when the crash happens). Our guide, Eddie, joined us.
The seven others joined guide Nestor in the white raft. The guides reviewed instructions once more, and we began, following behind the two kayak guides, one in a green kayak and one in a yellow.
The first two rapids were an absolute blast. I remember looking at Marijn sitting in front of me laughing and smiling the whole time. I was so worried he would be scared due to his lack of experience, but he told me after the first two rapids how much fun he was having.
I recall thinking the rapids weren’t intense enough. I was in the back, so that may have been part of it, as the front is where you get the most action. But I would have loved bigger waves and more thrills. I am down for pretty much anything. I think of myself as someone big into adrenaline: skydiving, ziplining, paragliding — I’ll do it all.
That’s why I was ecstatic when Eddie told us the third rapid would be the most intense. As we headed into it, I could see why: the waves were the biggest I had ever seen rafting, and the rocks were gigantic, especially one in particular.
Eddie would rearrange our positions between each rapid. Going into the third rapid, I sat in the back on the right side of the boat, Marijn in front of me, and the Canadian woman in the front. On the left side sat the English man in front. Behind him were, in order, the French man, the Swiss woman (next to Marijn), and the French woman (next to me). Eddie sat in the rear instructing us.
As we approached the boulder, Eddie yelled to paddle harder, and then to get down inside the boat. But it was too late. The right side of the boat smashed full speed into the rock.
The longest 30 seconds of my life
I know from experience as a swimmer how to take strategic breaths, so as the body of the French woman slammed against me and I went flying into the air, my instincts kicked in and I took a deep breath.
I landed in the water around 20 or 30 feet away from the raft, toward the center of the river, and was sucked under by the whirlpool, where I was violently whipped around in circles. I emerged seconds later and saw Marijn in the water to my left, nearer to our raft, which had collided with a rock on the left side of the river.
I called out his name to no avail and was smacked by water again, filling my lungs. I knew I couldn’t waste breath again, so the second time I emerged from the water, I tried to inhale as much air as I could, but my lungs had already taken on so much water that even above water I felt like I was drowning. I was sucked under again, knocked around even more violently this time.
The third time I emerged, I assessed my surroundings and determined I was in the middle of the river, so far from my raft that my best bet was to swim for the right side of the river, as the right had less intense rapids. I turned my body to the right, lying on my back like I was taught, and tried to kick toward the right riverbank.
It was no use. I was pulled under again, swallowing the most water yet and banging against rocks. When I emerged, I couldn’t breathe no matter how hard I tried. The combination of water in my lungs and waves pounding my face made me feel like I was still underwater. In the 30 seconds I had been in the water, the rapids had pulled me over a hundred feet from my raft and fed my lungs more water than I could handle. It seemed hopeless.
Rescue
As I struggled to keep my head above water, I heard the green kayaker call out to me. In no time, the kayak was next to me, shouting at me to grab hold.
I wrapped my arms and legs around the front of his kayak like a koala — one of the techniques they told us about at the briefing — and struggled to maintain my grasp on the slippery plastic.
I could feel my grip slipping, and I imagined what would happen if I lost hold of the kayak. I couldn’t breathe with the waves slapping my face, and I knew consciousness would soon evade me.
Seconds later, I felt several hands grabbing my life vest and shoulders, and I flopped face-first like a dead fish onto the bottom of a raft.
Reaching shore
I didn’t move off the floor for several seconds, and I heard Nestor, the guide of the white raft, shout instructions to the rafters as they tried to check on me. I realized only later that they were still in the rapids and had to get to safety before they could check on me.
Before I knew it, we were at the shore. Nestor leapt up from the back of the raft and shoved all the others off of me as he heaved me off the floor of the raft, ripped open my life vest and removed my helmet. I coughed up what felt like a gallon of water as I stood up and rushed off the boat to land, not even stopping to thank anyone for rescuing me.
As I disembarked the boat, Nestor followed me, still trying to examine me and see if I was injured. As he grabbed my shoulders, I turned to him, and the first words out of my mouth were, “Where is my boyfriend? Where is Marijn?”
Reunited
Nestor responded that everyone was alive and safely on shore, and at the realization that Marijn was alive, I burst into tears. I suppose it was mostly out of relief, and partly from the trauma of what had just happened. I sobbed as Nestor embraced me and tried to calm me down.
I pushed him away and looked around frantically until my eyes reached Marijn, about 30 feet away upriver, with Eddie, the yellow kayaker, my raft and everyone else on it. We ran to each other, embraced and cried.
My first thought when I hit the water had been Marijn, and my first question when I could speak again was about Marijn. When I saw him in the water, I thought I had lost him, yet here he was, alive.
Finishing the river
When the guides finally managed to pull us apart, they examined me and realized my arm was injured. I guess the adrenaline had prevented me from noticing the pain. Marijn and I both said we didn’t want to get back in the water, but they told us we still had 3.1 more miles (5 kilometers), too far to walk, so we would have to go through two more rapids and could skip the last one.
I couldn’t paddle with my arm, so I was placed in the middle of our raft, and Marijn, with an injured knee and scratches all over, paddled next to me. I basically cried nonstop through the next two rapids, terrified of going back into the river. Luckily, they proved to be much tamer, and we made it through without issue.
At this point, Eddie had us pull over to the left riverbank. Marijn, Eddie and I got out and walked about a half-mile, Eddie apologizing profusely the whole way for what had happened. He took us to a rock where he explained the raft would meet us at the end of the final rapid. From there, the rest of the river would be calm.
Fifteen minutes later, the raft met us, all pleased at having completed the final rapid successfully. We continued to the end of the river and had lunch before being taken back to town.
Going to the hospital
The company offered to take me to the hospital, explaining they would cover expenses until the end of the day. We didn’t want to go at first, both being mentally and physically exhausted from the experience and just wanting to rest. But after encouragement from Amanda who works at our hostel, we decided to go.
Nestor, the guide from the other raft, took us. The hospital did an X-ray on my arm, determining the bone was bruised, not broken, and giving me a brace to wear. In addition to my arm, I have an enormous bruise on my upper right thigh. I’m not certain if the injuries came from hitting a rock or a person, but the doctor thought likely a rock.
What we learned later
When we finished rafting and Marijn and I had had some time to recover from the shock, I thanked those in the other raft for saving me, specifically thanking the woman who had pulled me out and continued to check on me while the raft navigated the rapids.
I talked to the others in our raft and learned that all of us but the English and French men had gone in. They were in the front left of our raft and weren’t hit as hard by the impact on the right side. Even our guide Eddie went in the water, but he pulled himself back in the boat within seconds.
The three of them then worked to pull in the rafters near the boat. The English man described how they tried to grab Marijn, who had gone under the boat, but they couldn’t get hold of him, and Marijn couldn’t maintain his grip on the rope on the side of the boat. He was sucked away by the current.
The three men then turned their attention to the French, Canadian and Swiss women in the water. The French and Swiss women were rescued within seconds. I learned from the Canadian woman that she remained in the water for over 10 seconds, being whipped around in a whirlpool created by the boulder. When she was rescued, she had swallowed a lot of water as well.
Marijn was the second-to-last rescued, and he was in the water for at least 20 seconds. He had been pulled so far from the boat that the yellow kayak, who was further upriver than the green kayak who saved me, had to rescue him.
The Canadian woman — who had the most rafting experience of anyone in our group with at least a dozen under her belt — told me after that in her opinion, Eddie could have prevented the accident had he noticed the rapid sooner. I had no idea if there was any merit to this opinion, but it was interesting to hear.
Her opinion was backed up at the hospital by Nestor. He told Marijn that, in his opinion, Eddie could have avoided the crash.
Nestor’s boat didn’t crash, and no one from his group ended up in the water. In fact, they avoided that particular rapid altogether by steering to the right side of the river.
Nestor also said that these were the most intense rapids he had ever encountered in his time rafting on the Suárez. I asked him if, in hindsight, he still would have gone that day, and he said yes, he still felt it was safe to go.
The footage
Luckily, the guides wear GoPros, so later that week we received footage of the accident. They didn’t release the footage from Eddie’s perspective, but Nestor’s GoPro caught much of it, particularly what happened to me.
In the 2 minute and 24 second video, we watch and listen as Nestor shouts instructions to his group to paddle through the intense rapids, at one point shouting to get down inside the boat.
The team reaches the right side of the river when suddenly, Nestor yells at the group to stop and has them turn around and paddle back toward the middle of the river, back into the rapids.
At 1 minute and 29 seconds, just as Nestor’s head turns and our raft comes into view, I can be seen hitting the water. Nestor shouts instructions and the group paddles forward. The green kayaker can be seen paddling into the rapids to rescue me. It is not until 2 minutes and 10 seconds, a full 40 seconds after I landed in the water, that the rafters begin to pull me from the water.
Looking back now almost three weeks later, I ask myself: do I regret going?
What I regret most is putting Marijn in danger. I’m the one who loves water activities, and I said I wanted us to try rafting together. If something had happened to him, I would have blamed myself.
This experience won’t change my love of thrill seeking or of the water, but I think that’s it for me on white water rafting. And going forward, we now know we need to do our research thoroughly before signing up for an adventure activity.
I love travel and all of the new, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that come with it. But nothing is worth risking your safety or potentially losing your life or the life of a loved one. I am so grateful we both came out of this with minor injuries, and I plan on savoring every moment of our time traveling together going forward.
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