Yea, Though I Raft Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Will Fear No Evil...

On Monday, the 7th, we stumbled out of our deep slumbers early, not eager to leave the comforts of our beds, yet still filled with excitement for what lay ahead. We decided we wanted to change hostels because we found this nice one, Casa Real, closer to the hot springs on the other side of town that offered a balcony with a hammock. We were told that we had to be at the location where we arranged for our rafting trip at 10 to 9 am. So, we had to hike all out things over to the other hostel before then and grab breakfast while we were at it. We dropped our stuff off at Casa Real at 8:09 ish and we decided we had enough time to go to Casa Hood for breakfast, you know its not like 40 minutes isn't enough time to grab a pancake and run.

We arrived at Casa Hood and the place was relatively empty except for a few people and an older gentleman who was seated behind the table Becky and I choose to sit at. We placed our orders rather quickly, but like most places in Latin America, service is... quite slow. So we sit and wait. One of the street vendors who sells little paintings came into the restaurant trying to sell his stuff. The funny thing about South and Central America is that these people have a tendency of shoving the things in your face and slightly begging you to buy their things. I swear they always approach the gringos because they think we have all the money. It gets annoying though, oh after the thousandth time it happens, or maybe the third time in one meal. Anyways, the older man who was sitting behind us was naive enough to attempt and buy one of the pieces.

"Whats it cost?" growled what sounded like a grumpy old man now.
"20 dollars," replied the younger street vendor."What!" contested the old man, "I´m not paying twenty Da*n dollars for that! You´re ridiculous!"

I nearly coughed up my morning cup of coffee hearing him reply in such a manner. One it was unexpected and two, the tone of his voice was awfully rude. The look on Becky´s face was priceless too; like a look of shock mixed with non-belief of what just happened. This whole time i thought wow, that's a really grumpy old man and a rude one too, no wonder why everyone hates Americans. It was now 8:36 and still no sign of our pancakes! I was beginning to worry because i didn't want to miss our trip, and since we had already paid for half of it to hold our spots, i didn't want to lose that money either. Finally our pancakes came out around 8:44 and wow did we inhale them. I received mine before Becky did and so i got up to pay the bill while she was still eating. We literally finished eating in like 3 minutes. We jumped up and used the bathrooms and ran out of there.

Out on the street i asked Becky what was up with the guy who sat behind us. She explained how the guy bought the box the vendor was selling for $20. I then realized that the look on her face was dis-belief that the guy actually paid that much. In honesty, the box was only worth like $5 maximum. That guy got ripped off, kind of deserves it i guess. He kept saying that 20 dollars was too much and in the end he bought it for that much.

We walked over to the building where we booked our trip and the lady there lead us all the way back across town, nearly to our new hostel, to where all the equipment and their main office was. There were two other people there when we got there, a younger black man and his girlfriend who was white. She was from Denmark and he was living there, but not from there. Two other people arrived, a tall, older black man in his late 40´s i would have guessed, and his girlfriend too. He was loud and obnoxious and of course, American. From Miami to be exact, but his girlfriend was from Colombia i think, and they both are living there currently. Another guy showed up who looked a lot younger than the rest, maybe 20-23. He looked like he was of European descent or Europe for that matter. Its funny because when traveling you run into and meet the most diverse people ever, and half the time it doesn't cross your mind that if someone is white, they might not be from the States. He was French, name Florence and turned out to be 27! Becky and I couldn't believe it. Two other girls arrived who were from Britain named Torah and Emily. It was one worldly group i´d say.

We waited around till about 9:50 and finally piled into the Chiva, a big truck with no sides to it and about 6 rows of benches in the wood cabin thing that was put on the back. We started driving out the same road we went on with José the previous day, you know, the one that went along the edge of the mountains and looked like it could give way at any time. Yeah, that one. Talk about fun.

We arrived at the site called San Francisco, were we were going to launch the rafts. We all got suited up with our gear, life vests, helmets, wetsuits, and all. We were then given a 20 minute presentation on safety and all the command that we were going to hear while rafting. Ive been through it before and so it was slightly boring, but its always good to have a refresher. We started carrying the rafts down to the river bank, an old rusty cable suspension bridge that looked like it was abandoned stretched over head giving a eerie, "you´re in the wild away from civilization" feel to it all. From here the river looked massive, the water racing over the rocks and forcing its way, every which way around any obstacle that would come before it. I was really excited because the river looked like it was fun, and I also wanted Becky to enjoy it too.

We pushed the blue raft along the rocky beach and into the river, each one of us hopping in while William, our guide, held onto the end. Williams leg dug deep into the sand near the rivers edge as he pushed off from shore; all of us leaving the safety of solid ground behind while the raft began to drift with the current. We paddled our way over to the north bank where a waterfall was cascading down the rocky cliff above. William told us to hope on out and we all did. The raft was beached on some rocks in front of the waterfall, so that it wouldn't go anywhere and we walked over the rocks, each one slipping and falling over the little hidden depths between the rocks under the water. We were able to stand underneath and feel the full power of water pounding down on our bodies. Leaning my back against the black rock wall from which the icy cold water fell, and feeling the water push the rocks and sand out from under my feet. Sinking slowly and feeling the cold emotionless forces of nature and their brute strength force me down was actually, diminishing, showing me my weakness and human condition. It was a simple reminder that I'm not in control of the many forces around me..

We hopped back into the raft after a minute or so and continued down the river. Over a few rapids here, around a big rock there. It was all pretty exciting. Then... the real rapids came. I guess i should have assumed it would have been an insane ride when we were back in the office and decided to do the Bigger and Faster part of the river, which would be more fun but take less time, however, i don't think i could have been prepared for what was to come. William pulled the rafts over to the south bank of the river and got out to make sure that the rapids down the river weren't too big and dangerous because it had been raining the previous days. While he was gone i was taking in the beautiful environment around us. Rafting in between these towering peaks of green, through the forests of South America along the edge of the Amazon, there is nothing better. It started to lightly rain as i mentioned that it was kind of nerve racking that William had to check to make sure the rapids were safe. He returned to the raft and explained how he needed our help with these rapids and how our raft could basically be pulled underneath them in a heartbeat if we get stuck in one of the holes. You can imagine the feeling i had as we pushed off the bank and back into the river...

"Forward my friends," yelled William, "Forward faster, Faster, FASTER!!"

Our raft was thrown over the rapids like the floaty toy it was compared to the river. Rising 5 feet into the air over a "big wave," water splashing my face and eyes, i paddled as fast as i could, paddle barely touching the water due to the front of the raft being raised high into the air. CRASH, water flowed into the front of the raft as the front as the front went underneath a rapid, the strength of the water pulling it under. Another wave flowed over the side of the raft that Becky was on! "FASTER," yelled William over the drowning sound of the raging rapids around us. It was exhilarating and fun, and then, it got worse. The raft was turned perpendicular, more or less, with the rapids and i felt my side fall from under me. The raft nearly turned on its side going over a rapid, it literally felt like the raft folded in half, both Becky and the other guy fell onto the left side of the raft and I was in the water holding onto the raft with only my left foot underneath the strap on the floor. The water flowing over my head and whipping everything around, the force of the raft resurfacing pulled me back into my seat, but i feared the worst. I thought that our guide was gone, i could sense that someone was missing out of the raft. I whirled my head around to see the Danish girl gone, in the river behind us about 30 feet. Thinking about rescuing her instead of paddling i stopped and turned to watch her, I'm sure everyone was doing the same. "Keep Going!" William yelled, "Forward please, forward!" I turned and paddled forward while he threw out the safety rope and pulled her back to the raft. She got back in but it wasn't over yet. Over rapids, around holes, and dodging rocks we went for about 15 more minutes before we had a break.

We paddled to the south side of the bank where a tributary joined our river. We were able to get out and wade in the water up the tributary. There was a bridge that we all jumped off of underneath and then a little further up a large rock and some other little rapids where the whole group went and stood in the middle and took a photo. We each floated down the tributary from that rock and then started to return to the rafts when, a problem came up. Something was wrong with the van, where all of our stuff was. Only the guides went up the it at first and theories on what happened started from the British girls that maybe someone stole all of our stuff while we were playing in the river, because there were a few people and cars on and around the bridge at that time. It thankfully wasn't that, they only locked the keys in the Chiva! We sat around for about 30 minutes trying to break into the car and no one was able to do it. The whole time the guy from Miami is talking his mouth off and mis-translating what the guides are saying. Basically, he was annoying as explosive diarrhea ready to run down your legs and up your back unexpectedly, however, given the choice, id choose the diarrhea over another rafting trip with him. A part of me didn't want to return to the rafts, in honesty, i was tired and scared of the next leg. Seriously, this river was INSANE and there were constant rapids meaning you were almost always working. The next leg of the river was by far, i think, the most aggressive and with the largest rapids i have ever seen. We were almost paddling the entire time and when William yelled out to paddle faster my strenght only gave out on me. These rapids though, i kid you not, were at least 10 feet tall. The raft went over the crest of one wave, peaking and then hurtling down to the trough of another. Before me was a wall of water that appeared like it was going to engulf the raft. It didn't however and we were thrown into the air and over the waves again. These were seriously class 4.5 rapids.

After all those rapids we paddled up to another river that fed into ours and we were able to put our raft into a little pocket where the water was still in between the two rivers and just sit. We could see up one river and up the other and the forests around. There is supposedly over 150 different types of orchids in those forests. We finished our trip a little more down the river by climbing up a little waterfall and pulling the raft up with us. About half way up there was a pool of water and it was a perfect lagoon to take a little rest in. The water was nice an there was sand not rocks, however there were little rocks that got stuck in my Keens. We carried the rafts on our heads, through the forest up this hill and i slipped and then breathed in a bug or something. It sucked.

Once at the top we waited for the Chiva and the annoying Miami guy just had to open his mouth. "Those rapids were nothing, maybe a class 3, Ive done bigger..." By now i think that everyone was getting annoyed of him. We all hopped into the Chiva when it came and it started to pour down rain, it was pretty cool because it was like a rain forest rain, not like a Mexican rain storm. We arrived back at a restaurant we stopped at to get the rafts on our way out for some lunch. The funny thing was the french guy, and two Brits, sat with Becky and I at one end of this long table, and the annoying Miami guy was at the other far end. He even mentioned during lunch about the distance and sarcastically asked if we didn't like him... there was an awkward silence after that, we all just kind of looked at him and then continued eating... He also made one other comment that was just... really out there. He raised his voice and said, "All we´re missing is Jesus." That one caused a little confusion...

Anyways, over all it was a great day and very interesting. I really enjoyed it and Becky liked it too, even though when the rafted folded in half and we lost that other girl, Becky fell onto the other girl´s paddle and bruised up her leg. We took it easy the rest of the day, and the next day, and the rest of the week for that matter. We came back to Quito on Wed and stayed until Sat. We went to Otavalo on Saturday and ill post about that later. That's all for now folks.