Imagine getting swallowed whole by a humpback whale—and living to tell the tale.
Such was the case for Adrián Simancas, a kayaker who was out on the water in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse with his dad when he almost met his untimely fate.
Apparently, a humpback whale quite literally took him by surprise when it surfaced from the water and engulfed him and his kayak in their entirety, The Associated Press reported. Though it only took him beneath the water for a moment, that was a moment too long for his comfort—or really anyone’s.
That must have been the scariest few seconds of his life.
“I thought I was dead,” Simancas told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
His father, who witnessed the entire ordeal, was trying to remain calm as he watched his son nearly become whale food. He happened to catch the scene on video.
Humpback Whale Swallows Kayaker Whole, Then Spits Him Out Like Bad Sushi
“Stay calm, stay calm,” Simancas’s dad said to him after he miraculously surfaced, free of the whale’s grip.
Naturally, Simancas was panicked as he recovered from the incident. He told The Associated Press that the true “terror” set in after he was released by the creature.
I can imagine it takes some time to process being in the mouth of a humpback whale, so I can’t really blame him.
“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia,” Simancas explained.
With so many fears plaguing his mind, it’s a miracle he was able to get himself to safety in such a fragile state. But thankfully, the father-son duo made it back to shore unharmed.
I’m happy for them, but you will never catch me kayaking off the Bahía El Águila.
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