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Quito (EFE) .- The Ecuadorian Sara Palacios swam for thirteen hours in a row to cross the Cbad de la Mancha known in athletes as on "Everest de las aguas" on a journey of 42 kilometers, in which he left tears of despair mingled with others of joy and satisfaction.
It was eleven o'clock on the night of July 11 when Palacios, 32, left the coasts of England with an eye on those of France to meet the first stage of the project "Open Waters, Seven Seas", with which he seeks to overcome their own limits and motivate people to approach nature.
Although there are 33 kilometers in a straight line of the Channel, Palacios had to swim 42 (due to tidal drag) with a few stops – the longest of 2 minutes – to hydrate or eat carbohydrates in gel.
"There was no attack of sharks or anything (…) I was bitten by jellyfish" he tells to Efe when he says that for thirteen hours he did not come out of the water,
The channel of La Mancha is the busiest channel in the world. On the way, he saw several cargo and tourism boats, among other things, but the closest was to his parents and husband, as well as a project judge approved by World Open Water Swimming Association .
The rules of the voyage forbade him to approach the boat or to be stopped, so that the hydration (at a certain temperature) and the food came to him in baskets tied to ropes .
But from this boat not only food for her body, but for the soul with messages that her father wrote in a blackboard: "Value", "Confidence", "This We are proud," " We support you, "she reads between bracing and bracing.
His father also made drawings that represented his family, graphics that made him cry, but also gave him the courage to travel. she was disappointed, although she never thought of leaving because "it was not an option," she says.
The table also included informative data: the time, the distance needed to reach the coast. It was a little frustrating "to see that even though he was swimming and swimming, the goal was still far away," he remembers.
With water in the four cardinal directions and the lips cracked with salt, Palacios thought "in many things and in" to deceive tiredness: he sang for hours the chorus of a song that he does not even remember now, he was thinking about his daughter Manuela, 8 years, and he imagined his grandmother in his distant Ecuador, "he says. Cooked ":" As I'm a cook, I also love to cook, I start to remember the recipe and in my head I start to prepare the dish, "says Palacio aware that mental games are strategies to avoid thoughts of cold, tiredness and animals. Block, summarizes.
But, in parallel, his brain was alert on where he was, the time and the rhythm of swimming. "This concentration is not lost," says Palacios with an easy word and a generous smile.
1.65 meters tall and 68 kilos, Palacios learned to swim at age six and at eight he has already participated in children's tournaments, which happened to miners and then to the master category, which was taken jointly by Brazil, Cuba, Switzerland, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
Now, with the Channel in the drawer of the challenges faced, it is preparing to cross in 2019 the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Europe and Africa, and the Catalina Cbad, between the 39, Catalina Island and California.
The project "Seven Seas" which culminated 6 people in the world and inspired by the challenge of "Seven Summits" for climbers, it will take until 2021 to cross Cook Strait, New Zealand, and Tsugaru Channel, between Honshu and Hokkaido Islands, Japan
In addition, the Northern Channel, between Northern Ireland and Scotland has, and the Molakai Channel, between the Oahu and Molakai Islands in Hawaii, an adventure for which it calculates will require about $ 60,000 in total while it will invest 12,000 to become the first Ecuador to cross the Handle. [19659003] "I am still tired, I have pain (in arms and back) but it is normal" says shortly before diving into a pool at Quito with the agility of a fish in the water and the illusion of having challenges to overcome because he admits that he has no challenges in his wallet, he loses concentration. EFE (I)
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