Whitewater

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Ten years after my first rafting experience in Albury, New South Wales, I Finally got to go whitewater rafting once again. And it was great! All the thrills that I expected and much more...

Tena is Ecuador's whitewater capital and the river that we rafted in, Rio Misahualli, was used to practice for the World Championships in Baeza (2005 I think). Tena is north of Puyo, where I volunteered at the Santa Martha rehabilitation centre and seemed further into the jungle than I was before. It's such a great feeling as you are heading up, feeling the warmth and seeing forest for miles around...

I did a Class 4 day trip and apparently the river was now only half or three quarters its actual volume, so I can't even imagine rafting in full swell, that would just be crazy...! It was FULL ON whitewater and we were on the river for about 4 hours. However within the first quarter, two of the six people fell out of the boat (it was 3 but one got back in), one of them being yours truly.

We were wedged on a rock at a sharp angle and as my side of the raft tilted into the water I could feel myself being pushed further in by the rapids. I had my feet in stirrups, but it felt like I was going to go under at any moment so I pulled my feet out. While it seems like a silly thing to do, the girl on the opposite side to me apparently did the same thing as she too thought the raft was going to capsize. It was probably something instinctual and of course once I took my feet out of the stirrups, it was mighty hard to grab onto the boat again.... so off I went.

It was pretty scary as I went underwater for a few seconds, and couldn´t see anything but white (funny that). I had no idea how deep I was, so I just flapped my arms in order to push myself upwards, which worked. Phew! The kayak came to 'save me' and the guide told me to grab on to it, but of course they had failed to tell us Where to grab on (metal handles on the back and front of the kayak, which I could I not see from my vantage point) so I grabbed onto the skirt, trying not to do so too forcefully for fear of tipping him over, and of course got swept away again. The second time was also unsuccessful and I found out later that I had, indeed tipped him over!

I decided that I would try the other side of the river, having unsuccesfully been able to grab onto anything, but queried my decision as I was swept down the Middle of the river....! But luckily instinct prevailed and I managed to grab on to a rock (but what an awkward position..!) and hung on for dear fucking life.... The raft made it to where I was and my guide asked me to jump in. As you can imagine I flatly refused. He can come and get ME thank you very much!!

Apparently I went about 50 to 100 metres down the river... I´m perfectly fine, just a bruise and a little scratch on my knee. Someone was defintely looking out for me.....

After that, rafting was not quite so much fun. I was nervous, not excited, but eventually this wore off. There were still other close calls, like when the raft was nearly at 90 degrees, the guide bouncing on top of it so we could get unstuck, and me at the bottom with a very large boulder behind me. That was scary! Towards the end though, we started working really well as a group and negotiated rapids like pros, lol!

It was a Fantastic experience despite everything, am really glad I got to go!! Unfortunately we didn't get to take any photos which is a shame, but with the ride we had it was near impossible. The group of people I went with were just great. Lunch was excellent (you know how important that is) even though it was pouring with rain while we ate. All in all another fabulous day in Ecuador. 😊

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Photos

Our Guide
Turns out that while he is a professional rafter, this was only the second time he had handled 'clients' .... Oh mi Dios!

Hmm..
3 people fell out of the raft, but this bottle managed to stay in the entire trip (though it Was touch and go for a while)

What a trip!
Unloading the jeep. This guy will send me photos taken on the trip (he had a waterproof bag and a smaller camera), but only at the end of the year for some reason...

My little boo boo
Not bad considering the story my first ever rafting instructor told us about a girl who fell out of the boat, got sucked Under a boulder by some freak current and never made it out. Brrr...!