Imagine living out that part of the Pinocchio movie that terrified us all as children—the part where a massive whale swallows Geppetto, Pinocchio’s creator and “father.” This actually happened to a kayaker off the coast of Chili, except this time, the whale swallowed the son as the father looked on in horror.
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Adrián Simancas was sea kayaking when suddenly a humpback whale lunged for some krill and managed to also trap Adrián in its massive mouth. Dell Simancas, Adrián’s father, had a camera on his kayak nearby, which captured the whole scene. Based on his news interview, it seems as though Dell wasn’t actually looking when the whale lunged, but he turned around shortly afterward and didn’t see his son or his son’s kayak for a brief, terrifying moment until they both resurfaced.
It appears the whale spat Adrián and his kayak out after a few seconds, and the man was miraculously unharmed. Adrián told reporters that for a second, he thought he would die. After he surfaced, he was scared that the whale would lunge again and that the same ordeal would happen to his father. Thankfully, it didn’t. The whale probably disliked the experience as much as the kayaker did.
Watch a whale briefly swallow a kayaker here: