4/11/2024 0 Comments Getting stuck in quicksandSource: RNLI For more information go to: Do not go into the water yourself – many people drown trying to save others. If you have something that floats or they can hold on to, throw it to them. Keep calm and call for help or swim for safety if you are able.Ĭall 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard. Relax, float on your back to catch your breath and try to grab something that will help you float. Have someone keep an eye on you from the beach, and make sure they have a means of calling for help if something goes wrong. The British sea is cold, so take time to get used to the temperature. Make sure you know your limits – remember, swimming in the sea is very different to swimming in a pool. Visit beaches with lifeguards and swim between the red and yellow flagsģ. Go with friends and look out for one another, and always have your phone on you at the beach.Ģ. Remember it is easy to get into trouble in the waterīe aware of the dangers and do not take risks. How you choose to react can determine if you make it out alive or not.1. We either react from a place of fear in uncomfortable situations, or we react from a place of love. I learned that life is rarely what you expect it to be, and that rolling with the punches is part of living a full life. I practiced resilience, calm under pressure and I succeeded in a situation that posed a very real threat. I built my confidence in myself by showcasing these skills. When I got stuck in a lagoon, I learned that the best experience is sometimes gained out in the very real world. It’s fantastical and terrifying and seems removed from the “real world”. Life experience.” How Do We Translate Life Into Work? I later tell my parents, and my dad says, “ did you know that because of the altitude and climate of the Atacama Desert, lagoons have high deposits of salt? Apparently, the salt sometimes crystallizes and conserves the water underneath the surface.” When I return, caked in mud with one sock on, we have no trouble communicating. All Spanish sounds different to me than Argentinian Spanish and we’ve been fighting the uphill battle of dialects all week. My Airbnb host and I have limited communication in Spanish. I wiggle my feet out and flee overtop of the delicate cracked mud, one sock on, one forever in a lagoon with my shoes. I quickly realize I will not escape this situation with my shoes on. Water is gurgling around my ankles as I frantically try to pick my feet up out of what I’ve discovered is quicksand. I want to eat dulce de leche one last time. Wait, am I sinking? Oh my god, I can’t move! When did I go from standing on mud to being ankle-deep in it? I just want to be with my loved ones. I grimace and keep walking. Any sign of water is good. Lost in thought, I suddenly notice the ground feels squishy. Surely, this cracked mud is just another layer of shoreline before I reach what may be an unconventional body of water to swim in. That, I tell myself, is what I came for. It is covered in desert dust after I decided to drive on unpaved terrain simply to reach this lagoon the map told me was….here. I’ve walked for 30 minutes from my rental car. What lies past the shoreline looks like … cracked mud? What do I know?įinally I reach a shoreline of sorts. Then again, I’ve never seen a desert lagoon. The brown desert meeting the horizon looks nothing like water. It’s known for lagoons and flamingoes in lagoons and geysers and its’ Mars-like terrain. The blue circle smiles up at me, promising water. The Atacama Desert is known for the stark beauty I’m observing as I trudge towards what the map on my phone promises me is a lagoon. I wouldn’t have known if my dad hadn’t texted me to say, “ how do you feel?” prompting confusion. I slept on the dizzyingly long bus ride from San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina to San Pedro de Atacama, so I didn’t even notice the steep increase in altitude to 8,000 ft. The sun is setting over the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is the driest desert in the entire world if you exclude the arctic deserts.
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