Adrián Simancas, swallowed by a humpback whale in Chile: ‘When I was inside it, I remembered Pinocchio’
The first thing Adrián Simancas Jaimes, a 24-year-old computer technician, felt before being swallowed by a humpback whale while he was canoeing with his father, Meydell, was a hard blow to his back, which knocked him off his inflatable kayak. He was then swallowed. He was inside a slimy cavity, he heard strange noises, he felt a strong suction, and he could not figure out what was happening until he was violently expelled. Back on the surface, he discovered that he had been in the entrails of the cetacean and his experience — which was recorded and broadcast on Wednesday — went viral on social media. “When I was inside it, I remembered Pinocchio, who was also swallowed by one,” he says, laughing in a telephone conversation.