Traveling the World

The next day I got a voucher for the white-water rafting activity because it cost me around $70 and I really wanted to do it (the voucher was good for 5 years, and it has 3 years left on it still!).

After that I went Canyoning!
There were two Canyoning trips going that day: a 2 hour and a 6 hour trip. Needless to say I took the 2 hour trip because I didn’t want to push myself too much after yesterday’s fight with the Sun.

Anyways, me and about 15 other people I didn’t know got suited up and climbed into a van that drove up the mountain for 20 minutes on a tiny winding road.

The first “jump” was actually a “slide.” We got down on our backs and they pushed us and we slid into the water below (about 3 or 4 feet, nothing major).

We eventually had to repel down about 30 feet into the next cavern.

All the while it was 60 degrees outside and about 60 or so in the water, and I was freezing! The instructor told us to put our arms at our sides and lift our shoulders in order to keep the blood flowing to warm ourselves up (sorry no picture!)

The instructor kept making fun of me because I was wearing contacts and every time I got into the water I had to stop and wipe the water out of my eyes!

We had this one jump of about 10 feet, and we were told to jump for 1 single point because if we were off by even a few inches we would either hit the wall or a large rock, so I was naturally pretty scared. After nailing the landing, I was pretty confident. Then came the final, large jump of about 30 feet (no ropes folks!) Here is a picture of the Instructor doing it because the one of me isn’t as spectacular

After that I went back, relaxed, packed up and we went to the train station to head on over to Venice!

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Balmers

We arrived at Balmers around 10am on a beautiful sunny day. There was not a cloud in the sky and the amazing breeze made us want to explore the town! We immediately put our stuff down and purchased our activity packages. The others wanted to do the six hour canyoning activity, but I knew I couldn’t hold my bladder that long. I didn’t want the embarrassment of pissing in the water and having everyone say, “hey, this is supposed to be cold water.. why is it so warm all of a sudden?” and then I say, “I didn’t do it,” when in fact I did! In the end, I chose on the three hour canyoning activity with some other backpackers. I planned to go white-water rafting as well, but I never made it.

Balmers

My canyoning was set for the mid-afternoon, so we decided to rent bikes and ride around town! After getting bored of the town area, we headed for the hills. Well, actually we rode into the Swiss Alps! We forgot to bring a map, which made the leisurely ride even more adventurous. The beautiful blue cloudless sky and light breeze felt like a perfect opportunity to embrace the European spirit of freedom, so I took off my shirt and continued to ride! The only problem was that I failed to realize how the Sun would affect me. Turns out 60 degrees is quite cold after being pelted by the wind for several hours. This, in conjunction with the strong rays being absorbed by my body because of the lack of pollution here caused me to get heat exhaustion. In the end, I missed my white-water rafting activity slated for later in the day, and I slept instead.

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