CANYONING SHE SCREAMED INTO MY GOOD EAR!!!!
I didn't know what that was until we started planning this trip, but basically you get to wear wet suits so I was sold. The location of this alleged canyon was about an hour north in the Alto Rocca region, and our appointment time was 2 pm. This afforded us the morning to lounge a bit, and make our way up leisurely...and I think you can guess what that means.
20 minutes north of town I saw a sign for a vineyard, Domaine Torracia, that guidebooks claimed basically created Corsica's wine tourism industry. Who are we to refuse. When we pulled in, Liza asked in French if they spoke English or Italian. The woman screamed "Sara!!" and a nice middle aged woman appeared. She said, "English?" and Liza said, "If you can." Sara said "Yeah, I'm American."
Boom.
Sara was the wife of the owner/founder's son. She was a bit all over the place, but totally awesome and really gave us the down and dirty on Corsican wine and the industry and the history and the wine culture here. Turns out those books were right. I gave her my card and told her to email me and I'd come back for the harvest. Sorry, Natty G!!
Thirty mins later we were back in the mountains at Canyon Forest Adventures. Just as we were pulling in, a bloated, miserable young couple, the Browns, stole our parking spot. I hate them. We suited up and then drove a bit deeper into the canyon before meeting up with our guide, the flying squirrel.
There were 11 of us total: the miserable Browns and all their beige glory; the Parisians, who were lovely and spoke some English; and the Go-Bros, a group of brosephs ala France who were having the best time of their life.
I was a little worried about how safe this whole thing would be given the safety instructions were given in French. But the flying squirrel had spent some time in the US, and between that and the universal language of mime, we was all good.
So canyoning is hiking through a river and over waterfalls. Sometimes you jump off a rock into a pool. Sometimes you slide down a rock slide. In Corsica, you do not rapel, which disappointed Liza greatly since that was her fave part of canyoning in Italy where apparently you aint cool unless you canyon. The hike to the water was about 20 mins, and then the adventure itself was about 2 hours. It was the epitome of fear factoring since there really isn't any other way to get from A to B without jumping/sliding/swimming/climbing. The Go-Bros had a Go-Pro camera with them and we asked if they would take video and photos of us as well. Really hoping we get to see that footage because I could tell I looked extremely graceful (and I'd just said to Liza the day before that my Olympic sport would be diving)
Though the water slides were the most terrifying, I think both of our favorite obstacle was the last one. At the top of the fall, the Go-Bros held up a plastic sheet to block the flow of water. Once there was enough water piled up, they released it creating a super charged flow (like the first day of your period). Then the flying squirrel quickly grabbed us as fast as possible and pushed us down the fall -- head first. After an initial slide, the water launches you in the air and we were told to throw our arms out wide and sail through the air until we splashed down...and then to swim like hell. Lined up waiting for our turn, I had some very healthy chats with Jesus. But I'm alive and writing this so all good
Once done we waited out a mountain rainstorm with some beers, reliving another totally awesome day in the bag. We both marveled at how just the previous day we'd been on a boat on some beautiful remote sandy beaches, and then a day later in wet suits in the mountains. Again -- A+ for Corsica
We were super late getting back to PV for dinner, and the thought of climbing the hill into town made me want to throw up, so instead we opted for dinner on the pier. This could have gone horribly wrong, as a lot of those places looked extremely touristy and extremely expensive. But we hit the gold mine. We split some oysters from our favorite Etang to start (Best ever moment is Liza asking the guy in French where the oysters were from...We are classy hoes). For our mains we shared a steak in Roquefort sauce with some frites, and beef carpaccio that was prepared for us table side, formed into the shape of Corsica. Liza confirmed villages in Africa could eat from the amount on that plate for a week. It's basically all we talked about for the rest of our time here (except for getting more info on which Pink songs she'd be performing at her wedding).
We finally...FINALLY...finished Bridesmaids and a bottle of vin back at the hotel.
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