“I think we have a problem.” That’s what Richard Laver uttered last Saturday from the interior of l’Avenc de na Coloms, an almost inaccessible natural area in Sant Antoni on Ibiza’s north coast, an elusive but more difficult natural area. , To leave. The narrator of these events is Ryan Hattaway. He’s doing English. Him and Laver Two Americans rescued twice on the same day by Ibiza firefighters They said they contacted Diario de Ibiza of the Prensa Ibérica group to tell their story after reading the media.
“we are the two survivorsHattaway, a filmmaker, arrived in Ibiza a few days ago. save Documentary about his partner LaverHe described it as the deadliest case in United States air history, in which 273 passengers survived and American Airlines flight AA191 en route Chicago-Los Angeles in May 1979 killed 273 passengers.
The idea was to “record some footage of their lifestyle” with attractive landscapes and beautiful surroundings. Laver was already on the island with his wife and daughter.
a simple route
During these days in Ibiza, they wanted to do leisure activities. “We’re both in shape, we play sports, we do yoga, and I’m also my ‘personal trainer,’” Hattaway explains. And they decided to hire the services of a guide to perform some of them. hiking trail in nature pitius
As this flashback begins, two Americans speak at the same time and the truth of this unexpected story begins. At the recommendation of the guide, Hattaway and Laver, 42 and 50, respectively, set off for l’Avenc de na Coloms, known as L’Avenc de na Coloms, with his wife, 59, and the latter’s 26-year-old daughter. Cueva de la Luz and one of the hardest to reach places your island. This is despite the rapid increase in popularity of social networks in recent years and therefore attracting many curious and impromptu hikers.
Saturday, August 19th. It’s 11:30 a.m. when the fourth heat wave of summer hits over 40 degrees. The surface starts to get complicated when the four hikers under the guidance of the guide are in the middle of the route, and Laver’s wife and daughter decide to turn back as they cannot continue the hike. “We googled it before we started walking and it didn’t look complicated.but when we started, there was a moment when they were afraid”, Hattaway explains ( meters deep), where the light plays with the glimmer of the sea and the architecture of the rocks.
red flags
All this can be seen from a height of twenty meters separating the floor from the floor of the cave. The guide encourages Laver to dive, according to the Americans, this was the “second red flag (distress sign)” the so-called professional had raised in them. The first was that he only brought a small bottle of water for himself. “When we asked him how difficult it was to get out of the water, he said it was easy.This can be done in two ways, climbing the rope (nearly vertical seven meters long) or a few seconds of freediving,” Hattaway continues.Laver pigeon, followed by pilot pigeon, a little scared.. I stayed upstairs just in case, and after twenty minutes I realized they couldn’t go outThen his partner said: “I think we have a problem.”
Eventually the guide managed to get out of the sea and when he got to the top he tried to throw his water bottle and shoes to climb the tourist inside the cave. above. But it failed and the bottle and shoes fell to the bottom of the sea. “Then he went to ask for help, we were getting thirsty, it was 14:00 and we made the calculation. Waiting four hours until the fire brigade came to call and they came to rescue Laver.“Before we left, the guide repeated that they had brought him a helicopter filled with cold water, otherwise we would have been dehydrated,” Hattaway recalled.
first recovery
The Consell Firefighters’ Vertical Rescue Group helped the tourist get into the car by descending with four soldiers and a rope system to one of the blackest spots of such rescue operations in the summer. Three hour operation. “We started walking back while the fire brigades were finishing the work of collecting materials. That’s when we realized that; the guide had disappeared“My wife and daughter, who were worried about us, gave her water to fetch us and we never saw her,” the American adds.
They learned this later. But at that moment they realized too late that they had taken the wrong route and were lost, there was no more fire brigade.. “It was a complicated and confusing path, we strayed a bit because we didn’t remember and suddenly we got blocked next to a cliff.” event. As if that wasn’t enough, the two hikers began to suffer. dehydration symptoms After being without water for almost ten hours, it was made worse by the intense summer heat and tremendous physical exertion.
dead end abyss
“We knew we couldn’t drink, we knew we didn’t have the energy to go back and it was getting dark ahead of us. we only saw a 400 meter high cliff, impossible to jump without dying in this attempt‘, explains the tourist. ‘At that moment we looked around and decided to stand on the edge of the cliff, where someone could see us before it got dark, because if we didn’t think we wouldn’t survive. We saw a few cacti nearby, and Richard decided to split one in two to see if we could find something with a little sage, a little bit of ooze,” she continues. We started to pray thinking we were going to die.I saw that I had 6% battery left [en el móvil]I tried to ask for help but there was no coverage, it was impossible”.
At that moment they began to descend towards the sea with what little strength they had left, shouting: “Help, nine one one (911), no water. I didn’t know if I spoke English or English anymore. I didn’t know if I was speaking in Spanish.” In the end, Hattaway takes the initiative in the story so as not to overlap with his adventure partner. Both speak English with a strong North American accent. “We saw people on the beach but they didn’t listen to us.“, mint.
The two tourists are strategically placed on the edge of the cliff rising above Cala d’Albarca, on the beach of Sant Antoni. A child noticed their presence, but the passing of a boat that eventually passed in front of their location gave them hope and alerted the emergency services. “we saw your light firefighters while they were looking for us from afar, they had gone to the wrong place and were beating the next mountain.“They both remember. During this time they were lit from the auxiliary boat. During six hours until the helicopter found them. They even screamed despair with the crew. “If we’re alive, it’s because of him first and foremost,” says Hattaway, “before we go, we want to thank him and find him so we can get something for him and the other man who helped us.”
second recovery
Upon the notification, firefighters went to the scene with a light vehicle belonging to the rescue group and eight firefighters. Unable to find the tourists at 9:30 p.m., the Dog Rescue Unit (with three firefighters) and the Special Drone Group (with three firefighters) joined the device. After beating the area for hours and thinking someone had a broken leg, they managed to find them. Toward morning, around one.
The first thing they did was give them some. water, in small doses. Laver’s reaction was to vomit from thirst. They emphasize that one of the firefighters warned them just before starting the vertical ascent from the cliff: “This is one of the hardest things you will ever do in life, but you will do it.“.
This second rescue ended at five in the morning when the tourists were finally out of danger thanks to the fire brigade, which put an end to their adventure. “They are the true heroes of this story,” says Hattaway. “We thought we wouldn’t be able to live -The American repeats-, we lost 15 ‘pounds’ (almost seven kilos), and as for the guide, my wife texted him that her husband nearly died that night”.
The guide did not respond until noon on Tuesday, when he expressed his satisfaction to read that they were both safe. According to the WhatsApp message, he wishes you “a happy rest of your vacation” and wishes you “to have fun with your conscience and without any more unexpected problems”.