Trevor Noah Instagram – Have you ever heard people say “My friends are ride or die!”? Well how many people actually get to test that?
This years annual friend vacation had brought us to Costa Rica and for the first time we’d be white water river rafting. The guide told us it had just rained so the rapids would be class 3 to 4, which really excited us because we didn’t know what that actually meant.
The first 20 minutes were easy – so easy we started chatting about which countries we’d want to river raft in next. Then the actual rapids began, and most of our conversation turned to sounds that only Africans would understand.
Each drop was steeper and scarier than the previous one and just when we thought we’d seen it all, our guide told us the next drop coming up was a rapid the locals nicknamed “Terminator” 😳
It started like every other rapid as you can tell from my smile, but soon the boat was almost vertical and then we were all smashed in the face by Mike Tyson in water form. I don’t really remember much except that one moment I was sitting in the boat and the next moment the boat was sitting on me.
The one thing no one can really prepare you for us what it feels like to get sucked into a rapid. Your life jacket is almost as useless as a seatbelt in a plane crash because the rapid is so powerful it keeps sucking you back underneath like a giant water vacuum recirculating your body over and over. Up is down and down is up and all your ancestors voices are clearer than you’ve ever heard them.
I popped up first and grabbed onto the raft for dear life. Sizwe popped up second and like any good friend pulled himself up by pulling me back under the water. After what felt like an eternity Anele and her orange shoes finally resurfaced and all three of us were pulled to safety🙏🏽
In many ways that river rafting experience was a perfect metaphor for life- You can’t always choose how crazy the river of life might get, but what you can always choose is the people in your life who you’ll ride those rapids with. And if you choose wisely, even a capsized boat can turn into the greatest adventure. ❤️
#Friendship #RiverRafting #CostaRica #PuraVida #LifeFlashingBeforeMyEyes #thankyoujesus Guanacaste, Costa Rica | Posted on 10/Jan/2023 23:36:03