By Eli Ortiz and Levi Paskett
After a surprisingly delicious meal of hand crafted pizzas, we embarked on our journey to the Jordan River. The bus ride was a new experience. It was run-down, reeked of mold and there was asbestos on the walls; it reminded us to be thankful of our clean bus. After a short bus ride we arrived. Four to a boat, two paddles, and you were sent off. In our group we had two of our friends and Leor, who is our energetic and crafty counselor from Berkeley that always makes us have a fun time. The boat that was next to us for a bit had Amit, our crazy but hilarious counselor, who you could hear from a mile way. In the beginning we were in the front of the fleet of boats battling it out with Amit’s boat. As water flew across the river, “use your paddle,” “jump on the boat,” “oh no my hat,” and “stop splashing me” were just a few of the things our two groups were shouting. With the chaos and the river’s current, we managed to crash into every tree. After around 20 minutes we decided to take things slow, and we just drifted down the river, letting all the boats pass us. We began to take in the scenery, noticing new plants and wildlife. We viewed fish flashing in the water, birds, turtles, freshwater crabs and a few frogs. It was a nice break from the intense and action packed days that we had the days before. In the deeper water we would jump off the raft and float alongside the boat, climbing back on when we reached the shallow gravel. We started first and ended near last, but we made the most out of the experience and we unanimously viewed it as one of our favorite days.
