Here is a man who came back after an almost-death experience—one that saw him briefly swallowed by a humpback whale. Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan when the unimaginable happened. As they navigated the waters, a massive humpback whale suddenly surfaced and engulfed Adrián and his bright yellow kayak for a few terrifying seconds before releasing him unharmed.
Dell, who was just meters away, witnessed the shocking moment and managed to capture it on video. Despite the chaos, he remained calm and called out to his son, urging him to stay composed. Moments later, Adrián was freed from the whale’s mouth, escaping the ordeal without injury. The incredible footage quickly went viral, leaving viewers stunned by the rare and dramatic encounter.
Now the survivor himself has come on camera to explain his side of the story and what it was like inside a whale’s mouth and come back from the mouth of death, quite literally. On being asked by the CNN anchor, “Can you tell me what happened?” Adrián replies that they were at Bahía El Águila when he suddenly felt “like a wave struck me from behind”.
He said, “But it was very, very heavy to be anything like that.”So when I turned around, I, I saw some blue dark colors and white flash right through my face, and I fel a slimy texture in my cheek.” What happened next is everyone’s worst nightmare. Adrián recounts that he, “a slimy texture in my cheek. And then it shut down on me and took me underwater. I closed my eyes because I thought that something would crash into.”
By God’s grace, however, he was not bitten by the shark’s teeth. He added, “I didn’t feel it like a crash. It was like getting hit by a wave. He explains his feeling, “Yeah, the, hurricane of water that forms below when you’re at the beach. And it was like one second, of that strange feeling where I thought the, I was already eaten by some kind of giant fish.”
But suddenly he was pulled out of his reverie as he felt the weight of his water vest that was pulling him up. Within two seconds he realized that he was on the surface of the water. But at that time too, Adrian knew that the danger was not over and the whale could at any time attack again and this time he didn’t know if his father would also be in danger.
But it seems that the whale was just curious and meant no harm to the humans. On being asked by the anchor if he realized the gravity of the situation in those moments where he was. Adriane says that he knew that he was in someone’s mouth, but didn’t know it was a whale. Surprisingly those 10 seconds were the thoughts of life and danger and his father, Adriane was also thinking about Pinocchio and Geppetto.
The Strait of Magellan, situated approximately 1,600 miles south of Chile’s capital, Santiago, is a renowned attraction in Chilean Patagonia, drawing adventure seekers from around the world. Its cold, unpredictable waters make it a demanding route for sailors, swimmers, and explorers who take on the challenge of crossing it in various ways.
Even during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, the region experiences brisk temperatures, with lows dipping to 39 degrees Fahrenheit and highs seldom rising above 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Although whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters, the number of whale fatalities due to collisions with cargo ships has risen in recent years. Additionally, strandings have become a recurring issue over the past decade.
