Surviving inside a whale: Kayaker's shocking experience in Strait of Magellan. ‘I closed my eyes, and…’
Adrián briefly wondered if he could survive inside the whale “like Pinocchio,” but before he could dwell on the thought, the massive creature spat him out.
The first thing 23-year-old kayaker Adrián Simancas noticed after being briefly swallowed by a humpback whale was the slimy texture around him.
“I spent a second realising I was inside the mouth of something, that maybe it had eaten me, that it could have been an orca or a sea monster,” Simancas told BBC Mundo.
For a brief moment, Adrián even wondered if he could survive inside the whale “like Pinocchio” – but before he could think further, the massive creature spat him out.
Adrián had been kayaking with his father, Dall, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan on Saturday when a humpback whale suddenly surfaced and engulfed him along with his bright yellow kayak. The shocking moment lasted only a few seconds before the whale released him.
Dall, who was just metres away, captured the dramatic scene on video while urging his son to stay calm. “Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying just after Adrián was freed from the whale’s mouth.
Adrián Simancas reveals what he saw inside the whale’s mouth
Adrián described the shocking moment to the BBC, recalling how he suddenly found himself inside the whale’s mouth. "I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I realised I was inside the whale's mouth," he said.
He remembered the eerie sensation of being surrounded by darkness. "I felt a slimy texture brush my face," he recalled, adding that all he could see was dark blue and white.
At that moment, he feared the worst.
"I wondered what I could do if it had swallowed me since I could no longer fight to stop it," he said."I had to think about what to do next." However, within moments, he sensed that he was moving upward.
"I was a little afraid of whether I would be able to hold my breath because I didn't know how deep I was, and I felt like it took me a long time to come up," he said.
"I went up for two seconds, and finally I got to the surface and realised that it hadn't eaten me."
Adrian's father ‘was worried for a second’
From a nearby kayak, Adrián's father, Dall Simancas, watched in shock. The two had just crossed Eagle Bay, located down the coast from Punta Arenas – Chile’s southernmost city – when he suddenly heard a loud crash behind him.
"When I turned around, I didn't see Adrián," he recalled."I was worried for a second, until I saw him coming up out of the sea," the 49-year-old said.
He then noticed something large in the water. “Then I saw something, a body, which I immediately interpreted as most likely being a whale because of its size.”
Dall had mounted a camera on the back of his kayak to capture the rising waves, which ended up recording his son's extraordinary ordeal.
Upon reviewing the footage, Adrián—who moved with his father from Venezuela to Chile seven years ago in search of a better quality of life—was stunned by the whale's sheer size, according to BBC Mundo.
“I hadn't seen the moment when the back appears, and the fin is visible. I didn't see it, I heard it. That made me nervous,” he admitted.
“But later, with the video, I realised that it actually appeared before me in such a huge size that perhaps if I had seen it, it would have scared me even more,” Dall said.
For Adrián, the encounter was more than just a survival story—he saw it as a life-altering moment. The "unique" experience in one of the world’s most extreme locations had "invited me to reflect on what I could have done better up until that point, and on the ways I can take advantage of the experience and appreciate it as well," he added.
A wildlife expert explains how Adrián was able to escape
A wildlife expert explained the simple reason why the kayaker was able to escape so quickly. Humpback whales have narrow throats, "about the size of a household pipe," which are only suited for swallowing small fish and shrimp, Brazilian conservationist Roched Jacobson Seba told the BBC.
"They physically cannot swallow large objects like kayaks, tyres, or even big fish like tuna," he said.
"Ultimately, the whale spit out the kayak because it was physically impossible to swallow."
According to Seba, the humpback whale likely engulfed Adrián by accident. "The whale was likely feeding on a school of fish when it unintentionally scooped up the kayak along with its meal."When whales surface too quickly while feeding, they can accidentally hit or engulf objects in their path."
He also emphasised that the incident serves as "an important reminder" to avoid using paddleboards, surfboards, or other silent vessels in areas where whales are present. He added that boats used for whale watching and research should always keep their engines running, as the noise helps whales detect them.
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