‘Thought he’d swallowed me!’: whale gulps kayaker in Chile, spits him out
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) – A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker in southern Chile, before spitting him out unharmed, an amazing escape that was all captured on video.
Adrian Simancas was paddling off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas on Saturday when the giant baleen surged out of the water swallowing him and his yellow kayak whole.
Five seconds later a stunned Simancas bobbed to the surface, as the whale’s dorsal again emerged above the surface of the frigid gray water.
“I thought he’d swallowed me!” Simancas exclaimed.
The entire remarkable episode was caught on camera and posted on social media by his father, Dell Simancas, who can be heard shouting “Relax! Relax!” to his understandably unrelaxed son.
“Grab it, grab it” the father adds, instructing his son to keep a hold of the kayak to stay afloat.
“Relax, relax, I’m coming,” the father says. “Let’s go to shore.”
The video quickly went viral.
