A rare and crazy incident occurred last Saturday in Chilean Patagonia when a whale swallowed a kayaker for a few seconds before releasing him unharmed shortly after. The event, which was captured on video, quickly went viral.
Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Del, in Bahía El Águila, in the Strait of Magellan. Suddenly, a whale surfaced and swallowed Adrián along with his yellow kayak for a few seconds before “spitting” him out alive.
Del, who was just a few meters away, captured the scene on camera while trying to calm his son. “Calm down, calm down,” he can be heard saying in the video as Adrián is released from the whale’s mouth.
“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told the Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me,” he said, describing the terror he experienced in those few seconds. He explained that the real fear came after resurfacing when he worried the massive whale might harm his father.
Despite the terrifying ordeal, Del remained focused, recording the incident and reassuring his son while also dealing with his own anxiety.
“When I came to the surface and started floating, I was scared something might happen to my father—that we wouldn’t make it to shore in time or that I’d get hypothermia,” Adrián said.
After a few seconds in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak. Despite the shock, the two made it back to shore unharmed.
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