The Ecua-season begins

I've been here in Ecuador for almost a month and Don for two weeks and we just finished our first trip. Before the trip we were doing all the usual stuff like visiting local buddies, stocking the bar at Cabanas Tres Rios, volunteering to help with the first river festival of the season on the Rio Quijos but primarily we were doing our best to get on all the rivers we guide. It isn't as easy as it sounds since there are over twenty runs split between the Quijos and Napo valleys. But by combining two or three runs each day and some judicious splitting of territory we got down most of them. That is one of my favorite things about coming down here; paddling familiar rivers that have changed enough to keep you on your toes. Good news on the runs, the rapids are either the same or better at the flows I saw them at. Supprisingly the most changes happen on the Quijos just below our lodge.
Our first trip was a great one with eight guests split between kayakers and rafters. They were from Colorado, Utah and Washington and we had almost perfect water levels to get on a real mix of runs. A couple days of tecnical rivers, one big water run and the rest were on fun drop pool rivers. I have to admit that both Don and I were a tad bit rusty in the raft resulting in a few swims, but the river was kind to us and we didn't flip.
The raft looking small on the Lower Jondachi





Sunset at happy-hour