Rio Pastaza Kicked My Ass!

Have you ever had an experience where due to an over-abundance of rules and procedures, you found yourself thinking, ¨Man, they have taken all the fun out of it!¨? That would be the exact opposite of doing anything in Ecuador! :) Instead you find yourself wondering, ¨Should we be doing this? Is this safe? Am I going to die?¨ Those are phrases that have crossed my mind more than once over the last two days in Baños. (Yea, sorry mom. The good news. I´m sitting here writing you all now!)

Yesterday I awoke to a rainy, cold day. Because I´m friggn´nuts, I was they only person in our group to sign up for a mountain biking excursion before the white-water rafting trip. And then Braden felt bad for me and joined in (thank God!). So we show up and it is the most unorganized thing you´ve ever seen. The guy ¨fitting¨ us for bikes (i.e. pulling out any old POS from the back and having you ride around on it to make sure the wheels don´t fall off) was so high he asked me about five times if I needed a bike. I was then further discouraged when I realized that no one at the agency knew what was going on and it looked like we wouldn´t in fact be meeting up with our friends like we had anticipated. Twenty more minutes of mass confusion and we´re off. I´m wearing a damp bathinng suit, shorts, sandals, and a rain coat. After 20 minutes of flying down the huge hills going out of Baños (note: we are in the middle of the Andes!) I couldn´t be more wet, cold, dirty and annoyed. I have dirt flying all over my face. I look ridiculous. I can´t feel my toes...and that´s when I started to laugh. It was just so damn absurd that I had to let go off all rational thinking and just enjoy the experience...which I´m glad I did. And I made some new friends from the UK and France while I was at it. We biked for about an hour and a half and, to my surprise, DID meet up with all our friends on a giant open bus.

And that´s when the real fun started. So when I say ¨white-water rafting¨, what comes to mind? For me it´s getting into a giant raft with friends, everyone looking quite silly in their life jackets, and screaming as cold rushes of water splash into the boat. And in the end you have a bit of sunburn, you´re tired, and they company you went with sells you a picture worth $1 for $20. I´ve only done it once before in Aspen and it was a good experience - exillerating but safe. Ok, again, that would be the exact opposite of white-water rafting in Ecuador :) Do you see the trend here? Twenty-three individuals (the majority of which have never been rafting) are packed like sardines into 3 small rafts. Our boat was meant to hold 6 people and we had 8 plus a guide squeezed in the back. But not to worry, we were only attempting Class 4 rapids and all the safety instructions were really clear - ¨when you get tossed, don´t go down the river head first or you´ll ring your bell on giant rocks¨. Sooooo....we start off and hit the biggest friggn´rapids I´ve ever seen. And because we have no idea what we´re doing...we capsize immediately! I don´t remember going over but I distincting remember the long seconds that I spent squirming under the water feeling the rapids and other bodies rush over and around me. After what seemed like forever I came up to the surface and opended my eyes to see the stiching on the bottom sides of the raft. One quick gasp for air and I pushed myself from under the raft. Total chaos. Grabbing the rope on the side of the boat and then counting 1...2...3...as one of my boatmates pulled me by my vest into the raft....Ahhh, I´m alive.

As it turned out, we weren´t the only boat that flipped (2 of the 3 went over) and some people were so freaked out that they couldn´t/wouldn´t continue. In all, I think we lost about 8 people (to exhaustion and fear) over the course of our approx 3 hour trip down the Rio Pesada. At two points we arrived at Class 6 rapids, had to get out of the boats and walk along rocks as our guides brought the boats around by rope. It was pretty crazy and VERY tiring, especially after my biking warm-up. But it was very fun and rewarding in the end. The day ended with a good meal in Puyo (a nearby town) and a long freezing bus ride home listening to soft rock hits. Everyone was screaming Bryan Adams lyrics at the top of their lungs!

I won´t bore you with much more about today, but many of the girls went horseback riding. I enjoyed it because I love horses and the ride provided nice views of the gorgeous mountains that surround the town and the Volcano - Volcan Tungurahua. It erupted in August of 2006 and wiped out 58 houses on the side of the mountain where the lava came down. We passed the spot during our ride up to the horses. I was the only one that wanted to gallop, and apparently mi caballo, Frijol (means ¨bean...and come to think of it, he was quite gassy :)) liked it too. Many of the others weren´t keen on galloping as it was either their first time, or they were doctors that had treated too many patients that had fallen from horses. Oh, do I even have to mention that the horseback riding agency didn´t have helmets as promised when we signed up? I swear, safety is an unknown concept ´round these parts! But I guess that´s part of the experience, and I´ll be sure to ask more specific questions in the future!

Tonight I think a group of us are going to go out and get a taste of the nightlife for the first time, and then tomorrow we´re off to Cuenca (8 hour bus ride). I´ll work on getting some photos up soon! Hasta pronto, Cara