Tena - Rafting - June 3

During the night on Saturday, it poured a heavy, consistent, rain-forest rain for about 6 hours. However, when we got up on Sunday morning to leave at 7 am for Tena, the rain had stopped. I should also mention, that just before we left Shangrila, Duncan, yes the same guy who broke his arm, was bitten by a scorpion. The locals sucked out the sting, and put antibiotics on it and apart from a very sore hand (the opposite one from the broken hand) - he was fine. We were going rafting on the Upper Napo River known locally as the Jatunyacu - or Big Water in Quichua (http://www.riosecuador.com/html/rafting.html). We had been told that the water in the river would be warmer after the rain. Huh, don´t believe it! We have never been rafting before and this Level III experience was terrific fun. Ray and I went in separate boats, Ray with the guys and one girl, and me with a mixture, about 6 or 7 in each boat and a guide. I have to compliment the Ecuadorian guides in all of our activities. They have been safety conscious, fun, strong, good looking and charismatic. The ride was a perfect combination of fast rapids, quiet river, and gorgeous jungle scenery. We went through the rapids, up over rocks, round rocks into the dead spot where you thought you would never escape from, body surfed in the water through some of the safer rapids, swam in the river and floated, fast, down stream. At one point we all squeezed up as tightly as we could in the back of the boat so that when we took the rapids, the front was high in the air. Great fun. Then we all stood around the sides of the rubber boat holding hands and leaning backwards until the guide let go of our hands and we all fell in. We stopped for lunch on a wide beach and played with some of the indegenous children. After we had finished eating, the guides called to the kids and about 15 little, brown, lithe, bodies ran across the beach and finished off the left overs from our meal. I am sure we would all have eaten a little less if we had known! We had one other stop for a mud facial. We swam up a small tributary coming into the larger river and the guides covered our faces with browny-green, and yellow mud. This was supposed to remove all the wrinkles - so beware, we are coming home younger looking!

The trip took us 25 km down the river to the outskirts of Tena, where we boarded a bus and drove into Tena City to stay the night at the Travellers Lodge Hostal, another perfectly acceptable accommodation.

This was definitely one of the fun activities on the trip.