Monday, February 21, 5:00am Eastern Daylight Savings time
The Cathedral steeple shown in my prior email has indeed collapsed. We saw footage on TV. We are very lucky to have gotten out of there. You can find out more on your TV or internet.
Last we heard this is considered an aftershock to the September quake although nobody died in that one and the death toll is 67 so far. The city is devastated. People are not allowed to shower or flush toilets. At least 30 aftershocks to this one, some pretty big.
Our tour goes on.
Yesterday we participated in underworld rafting. We're lucky we are not on the adventure tour because this is more than enough adventure for us. Upon arrival at the underworld office and turning in our liability release, we are "kitted out" and measured for booties and wetsuits. A prior occupant of my wetsuit saw fit to crawl over rocks on his knees and butt. My initial concern over these openings later turned to relief.
All valuables (cameras, etc) are left in our van. Our leader opted out of this adventure and we know why. We haul a bag with our wetsuits, boots, booties, gloves, life vest and helmet (quite a full bag) along with a bag with a change of clothes for later to the underworld van for a ten minute drive closer to the underworld. We then board a home-made train for a 4 km trip even closer to the underworld. We then haul all of this gear through the rain forest to the open air changing area. We are all wearing bathing suits under out clothes. The interesting part comes later.
Home made train
Everyone changes into the underworld gear (so named because it is hot as he--) leaveing our dry clothes in the “bush” and we proceed on a little hike, over a suspension bridge where we are issued our former truck inner tubes. We then schlep all of this through the forest for about an hour, during which time we climb the advertised 128 steps (actually 132 but they don’t count certain stones as steps). This is when I appreciate the ventilation left my the former underworld participant. Fortunately, it was overcast and relatively cool outside.
Prior to the big schlep. That's why we're still smiling.
Next, we enter the actual cave and get some cave history. The cave gate is unlocked (access is restricted) and the gate is locked behind us lest anyone has a change of mind. There are handy lights on our helmets as this is an authentic cave with no electricity or boardwalks. We are instructed to keep our hands off the stalactites (growing from the roof) or stalagmites (from the floor) as they have a long growing cycle, about one inch per thousand years.
I know this looks like a hokey Catskills resort shot but we are in a genuine cave.
We all shut off our lights to experience total darkness. We are never usually in total darkness as some light creeps in from under a door, alarm clock, etc. Total darkness is really dark.
Moving along becomes more difficult (helmet lights are no now) as the ceiling gets lower and lower. And lower. It is cool inside the cave and there are some neat formations, some of which are 250 thousand years old. There is a crack (fault) along one ceiling where an earthquake shifted the cave a long time ago. This brought up the obvious question, even before today’s earthquake, what do we do in the event of an earthquake?
a. Panic
b. Don't panic
c. Get out
d. Hold your breath
e. Recite the Sh'ma (say your prayers)
f. Call your Spelunker
As it turns out, a cave is a very safe place to be in an earthquake. They are in a mountain and very stable. If they were not, they would already have collapsed and would not be a cave.
Finally we reach the river area with the glow worms which we came all this way to see. We back into our tubes in the cold water (welcome, cold water) everybody shuts their lights off and we follow the constellation of glow worms on the ceiling toward the exit. If you stop seeing glow worms you have drifted under s rock shelf and you should re-direct yourself. One in our group got lost and left behind and she was not too happy about that. The guide did not see her because it was dark in there. Always count your guests.
We all shut off our lights to experience total darkness. We are never usually in total darkness as some light creeps in from under a door, alarm clock, etc. Total darkness is really dark.
Moving along becomes more difficult (helmet lights are no now) as the ceiling gets lower and lower. And lower. It is cool inside the cave and there are some neat formations, some of which are 250 thousand years old. There is a crack (fault) along one ceiling where an earthquake shifted the cave a long time ago. This brought up the obvious question, even before today’s earthquake, what do we do in the event of an earthquake?
a. Panic
b. Don't panic
c. Get out
d. Hold your breath
e. Recite the Sh'ma (say your prayers)
f. Call your Spelunker
As it turns out, a cave is a very safe place to be in an earthquake. They are in a mountain and very stable. If they were not, they would already have collapsed and would not be a cave.
Finally we reach the river area with the glow worms which we came all this way to see. We back into our tubes in the cold water (welcome, cold water) everybody shuts their lights off and we follow the constellation of glow worms on the ceiling toward the exit. If you stop seeing glow worms you have drifted under s rock shelf and you should re-direct yourself. One in our group got lost and left behind and she was not too happy about that. The guide did not see her because it was dark in there. Always count your guests.
Bring on the glow worms. Note the ventilated knee.
In all honesty, the glow worms are cool but it would take about 100 of them to equal one lightning bug. We learned some glow worm facts which are interesting but I will spare you.
The river is low because it will not rain until tomorrow so we can miss our helicopter over the glacier. That means we get stuck on rocks all the time which is a pain. It is nice to emerge into daylight and all the neat green vegitation. We get into and out of our tubes to drift down the river. We are advised to raise our butts when we go down the rapids to avoid a "river spanking."
They forgot to tell us about the sand flies.
After walking down the river of round rocks because the water is so low (our guide apologizes) we drop off our tubes (woo-hoo) and proceed to the open air changing area to remove our gear and get into dry clothes. No swimsuits this time. There are some handy modesty bushes available and all goes well. It is finally over. We return by home made train to the van and finally turn in our gear.
Next day, Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Plenty of rain so the river is up but we are on our way to the glaciers. Our helicopter ride is cancelled but we do get to hike (rain stopped) to the Fox Glacier. It is cool.
That's the Fox glacier behind us. Not to worry, it moves pretty slowly. Although we heard another nearby glacier calved tons of ice as a result of the quake giving some tourists a pretty good show.
Close up of folds in glacier. It is very big and I am still very far away.
That's it for now. We have to be at the helicopter office at 6:40 tomorrow morning as a double bonus for missing the flight today.
Only 5 more nights in New Zealand then we control the schedule.
Regards,
Steve & Laurie
PS: Go to www.caverafting.com form more cave rafting info. We are on the February 21, 2011 afternoon group. It's under the "online photos" section
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