Paddling through choppy waters under cloudy skies, Adrián Simancas and his father were packrafting only a few yards from each other when something huge lunged, mouth open, from the waves below.
A humpback whale appeared to gulp Mr. Simancas down, then rolled over into the waters of Chilean Patagonia.
Moments later, Mr. Simancas bobbed back up to the surface, followed by his kayak-sized vessel. The dark curve of the whale’s back briefly emerged behind them, then sank out of sight.
Mr. Simancas’s father caught the whole thing on video.
“I felt something hit me from behind — all this happened in a second — something dark blue or white enveloped me, and a slimy texture brushed my face,” Mr. Simancas said in an interview on Thursday night. “Then it closed completely and I started to sink, and I just closed my eyes, expecting an impact. But instead I felt as if I was surrounded by water. I realized that I was in something’s mouth and I had been eaten.”
After a second or so, he said, “I began to feel the life jacket pulling me up and then suddenly I was out again.”
Mr. Simancas, 23, and his father, Dell, had been packrafting — they emphasized that they were using portable, inflatable craft and not kayaks — near the San Isidro Lighthouse and Bahía El Águila, a campground in Patagonia.
Article by:Source:
