That time I almost died
For four months I lived in the Dominican Republic while on a study program with BYU. Toward the end of our stay (four days before, to be exact) I had a near-death experience. Seriously, I almost died. Anyway, I got to thinking about that location a few days ago and I thought I'd try googling it to see what came up. There were some good links to YouTube so I thought I'd share my story, and that video. This is definitely a flashback because I was there nearly 12 years ago!
Okay, so here's the story.
My friends and I had heard of a really cool place to go visit in the Northern part of the country to a place called 28 charcos which, translated, means puddles or waterfalls. It was a great hike through the waterfalls and bepebbled river bottoms. We wore tennis shoes without socks and bathing suits. Parts of the hike were dry and at other parts were deep water that you had to swim through. The idea was that you'd hike all the way to the uppermost fall and then cliff jump and or slide down the natural water slides.
They call it nature's best kept secret. It really was an amazing place. We were having a ball! We had this guide that we called Tarzan because he'd just grab a vine and swing around the jungle like Tarzan. He was very short but super strong and would help pull us up the different cliffs along the way. Some points were so steep that we used rope ladders. Most tourists only hiked up the first 16 or so "charcos" but we were led all the way to the top. In researching this place, I see it's now called 27 charcos. It makes sense to me now why they no longer allow anyone up to the 28th one. In fact, I wasn't even sure we'd make it all the way up there. We got to what we thought was the top and all of the sudden our guide takes off hiking off the path. He led us up to the top of this cliff and dared us to jump off.
There was no way I wanted to jump off. It was about a 70 foot drop from what I remember. There was only about a 10 foot in diameter hole to jump in and there were rock ledges all the way around. The trick to doing this cliff jump was to step out, not to jump or you'd hit rock on the other side. A few in our group went and I was trying to get up the courage to go for it. I said a little prayer and then the unthinkable happened. I slipped. I was falling straight for the rock cliff, not into the deep center. I was so afraid that I'd land on the rocks. Somehow, I landed in some water, but it wasn't the deepest part. It was probably only about 10 feet deep where I landed. I landed hard. And it hurt! I totally blacked out under water and I know I heard screaming on my way down. As I floated up to the surface, I came out of the blackness. I couldn't feel anything below my waist and I was afraid I'd broken my neck or something.
As I started to figure out what had happened, I gained back some of the feeling. I had a lot of pain in my ankle. I thought for sure it was broken. The main problem with my injuries was that I was at the very highest of the waterfalls and had the entire hike down ahead of me. Our guide literally carried me down on his back most of the way back. At the point where we had climbed up the rope was the hardest. It was a sheer cliff and I had to maneuver my way down without the use of one of my legs. It was pretty hard but I managed. At one point, Tarzan slipped with me on his back and landed on top of me. After that, I figured I could make it the rest of the way on my own.
My best friend Cathy, who was with me, started breaking out in some strange rash on the way down and was having a major allergic reaction. I had a broken ankle, and her dad had missing bags that we had to retrieve at the airport. It was a long night.
Four days later I had to carry home all of my luggage (I think I had like four heavy bags) with a swollen ankle and a hurt back. I went to the doctor after I got back to the states and had a sprained ankle (it did get better the next day so I knew it wasn't broken) and a compressed vertebra. I had to see the chiropractor the entire summer before I finally felt better.
Before I jumped I told Cathy that she'd better take a picture to prove I'd had the guts to jump. I've never seen it but I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
A few things I noted about the video.
1. everyone is wearing life jackets and helmets. No such thing when I went
2. everyone has a guide- we had to specially request one
3. there were only 27 charcos, when we went there were 28
4. there are now railings and guards and there wasn't anything like that when I went 4:52
Thanks YouTube for keeping the memory alive!
Okay, so here's the story.
My friends and I had heard of a really cool place to go visit in the Northern part of the country to a place called 28 charcos which, translated, means puddles or waterfalls. It was a great hike through the waterfalls and bepebbled river bottoms. We wore tennis shoes without socks and bathing suits. Parts of the hike were dry and at other parts were deep water that you had to swim through. The idea was that you'd hike all the way to the uppermost fall and then cliff jump and or slide down the natural water slides.
They call it nature's best kept secret. It really was an amazing place. We were having a ball! We had this guide that we called Tarzan because he'd just grab a vine and swing around the jungle like Tarzan. He was very short but super strong and would help pull us up the different cliffs along the way. Some points were so steep that we used rope ladders. Most tourists only hiked up the first 16 or so "charcos" but we were led all the way to the top. In researching this place, I see it's now called 27 charcos. It makes sense to me now why they no longer allow anyone up to the 28th one. In fact, I wasn't even sure we'd make it all the way up there. We got to what we thought was the top and all of the sudden our guide takes off hiking off the path. He led us up to the top of this cliff and dared us to jump off.
There was no way I wanted to jump off. It was about a 70 foot drop from what I remember. There was only about a 10 foot in diameter hole to jump in and there were rock ledges all the way around. The trick to doing this cliff jump was to step out, not to jump or you'd hit rock on the other side. A few in our group went and I was trying to get up the courage to go for it. I said a little prayer and then the unthinkable happened. I slipped. I was falling straight for the rock cliff, not into the deep center. I was so afraid that I'd land on the rocks. Somehow, I landed in some water, but it wasn't the deepest part. It was probably only about 10 feet deep where I landed. I landed hard. And it hurt! I totally blacked out under water and I know I heard screaming on my way down. As I floated up to the surface, I came out of the blackness. I couldn't feel anything below my waist and I was afraid I'd broken my neck or something.
As I started to figure out what had happened, I gained back some of the feeling. I had a lot of pain in my ankle. I thought for sure it was broken. The main problem with my injuries was that I was at the very highest of the waterfalls and had the entire hike down ahead of me. Our guide literally carried me down on his back most of the way back. At the point where we had climbed up the rope was the hardest. It was a sheer cliff and I had to maneuver my way down without the use of one of my legs. It was pretty hard but I managed. At one point, Tarzan slipped with me on his back and landed on top of me. After that, I figured I could make it the rest of the way on my own.
My best friend Cathy, who was with me, started breaking out in some strange rash on the way down and was having a major allergic reaction. I had a broken ankle, and her dad had missing bags that we had to retrieve at the airport. It was a long night.
Four days later I had to carry home all of my luggage (I think I had like four heavy bags) with a swollen ankle and a hurt back. I went to the doctor after I got back to the states and had a sprained ankle (it did get better the next day so I knew it wasn't broken) and a compressed vertebra. I had to see the chiropractor the entire summer before I finally felt better.
Before I jumped I told Cathy that she'd better take a picture to prove I'd had the guts to jump. I've never seen it but I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
A few things I noted about the video.
1. everyone is wearing life jackets and helmets. No such thing when I went
2. everyone has a guide- we had to specially request one
3. there were only 27 charcos, when we went there were 28
4. there are now railings and guards and there wasn't anything like that when I went 4:52
Thanks YouTube for keeping the memory alive!
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