Paddling in Ecuador

Day 1 (Sunday, Dec 27th) : Paddled the "Lodge Run" on the Quijos. 2+ hours on the water, Class III run with biggish water.

Day 2 (Monday, Dec. 28th): Sat the day out! Too tired and sick, it´s all that getting soaked in the rain in Mindo ...

Day 3 (Tuesday, Dec. 29th): Paddled the Upper Misahualli. 2+ hours on the water, Class III, maybe Class III+ creeking. An easier version of E2P on the SF-Yuba. Fun, but a little low

Day4 (Wednesday, Dec. 30th): Paddled the lower Jondachi. 5+ hours on the water. Class III, maybe Class III+ with a couple of Class IV wanna-be´s. The first half was creeking and the second half, after the confluence with the Hollins was biggish water. Beautiful rain forest paddle. Tedious amount of flat water and Class II wanna-be whitewater. A painful slippery 30 minute hike in. Luckily we had local porters to carry the kayaks. The humiliation is that I swam in the creeking section when I was doing a second run on a rapid with a nice boof. Got flipped and missed my first roll and washed up on the rocks and punched! UGH! UGH! UGH! Will not recommend this run....

Day 5 (Thursday, Dec. 31st): Paddled the best whitewater ever. The Piatua! 6.5 miles of wonderful very very very busy Class IV whitewater. The best comparison is that it is a longer, more continuous, steeper (110ft /mile as opposed to 65ft/mile) version of E2P on the SF-Yuba. Another way of looking at it is that this is a 6.5 mile version of the Upper Kyburz run on the SF-American.

And oh, by the way, after acing all the hard rapids and doing really really well and being happy with myself and my lines all day long, I fucked up on Class III boogie water I was leading on and swam!

Day 6 (Friday, Jan 1st): Paddled the Upper Misahualli again. To make it more interesting, we put in about a mile upstream. However what made it REALLY interesting was that I am badly badly badly hung over! YUCKS! I swear never to drink even a beer near a river again! This time we started about 1-2 miles further upstream. Even thought the water was lower it was still a fantastic Class III+ creeking run....

Day 7 (Saturday, Jan 2nd): Last day of paddling in Ecuador. Paddled the Lower El Chaco canyon on the Quijos down to the confluence with the Oayachi. Class III biggish water. Nice easy finish. I am quite ready to head home and back to the "real world"

Some pictures