Class IV Jan. 5th AND TROPICAL TUNE UP TRIP JAN. 12TH-20TH

This post is a melange of photos from our last 2 trips. One was a Class IV trip, and the other was a Class II/III Tropical Tune Up. Both trip were awesome and included a nice mixture of boating everyday and getting a little culture in the evenings. The photos are in no particular or logical order, so just sit back and enjoy the chaos:) Nothing like a little meat on a stick to make a man really happy.

People are often under the misconception that Ecuador only has Class IV and up rivers. It has a reputation for its steep and continuous creeks, but people often overlook the abundance of wonderful Class II and Class III runs. During our Tropical Tune Up trip, we paddled
7 days, 5 different rivers, 7 different runs! Besides all that, we visited San Rafael Falls, played with Monkeys in Puerto Misahualli, soaked in the hot springs on our way back to Quito, and took a tour of Old Town Quito after dinner. Talk about a ¨do it all¨kind of vacation! Ah, we love our new Sprinter...Small World knows how to kayak in style.Ah, we also really love our lodge. This porch is the perfect place to watch the sunset and all the amazing hummingbirds that accompany it. And the best part is that we are about to go inside and enjoy one of Lili´s many outstanding meals.

Another sunset from the lodge

Jarret hiking up a side canyon of the Jatunyacu River near Tena. Coming from near Edmonton, those Tena temps must have been a nice change. Darcy and Steiner unloading kayaks for a run down the Salado River.

Laura found some helpers while getting ready to put in on the Jatunyacu.
Mike basking in the sun. Mike didn´t know how to roll before he came to Ecuador, but was ripping up the Jatunyacu by day 5 in country. Nice work!

Jarret, enjoying a little fresh water spring.

Tony trying to stay in Don´s wave on the Lower Quijos. Despite looking menacingly munchy, this wave was, in fact, annoying flushy!

Laani catching the wave on a beautifully executed carved turn.

Bryan ripping it up.

Steve enjoying a small side waterfull deep in the canyon of the Lower Quijos

The crew enjoying one of many of the Quijos´s tight basalt canyons. This one is on El Chaco Canyon. Ed, of Cody Wyoming showing us how it´s done at the lunch wave on El Chaco Canyon.

And, kayaking is only 1 of Ed´s many talents...

Tony getting after it as always. This guy has only been paddling 3 years, and he impressed us all with his willingness (and ability) to surf the biggest of waves and holes. Keep after it Tony!

Don Beveridge--Superstar! (sorry Bill, he took your boat, and your title). Ed in the maw at the bottom of El Torro rapid on the Quijos. This rapid has slight changes in it this year, the most notable being the much larger size of the holes/waves at the bottom of the rapid.

The veiw from Puerto Mishualli. This is at the confluence of the Lower Mishualli and the Jatunyacu. From here, it´s over 1,200 miles to the Amazon, and the gradient measures in at right around 1 foot per mile. Time to take out!

There are normally fun and friendly (often overly friendly) monkeys to watch at Puerto Mishualli.

Mike must have something good in his pocket.

This woman is engaged in a very serious game of keep away with her ice cream cone and the monkey.

Steiner opted to just sit in the peanut gallery and watch the monkey madness go down.

And there was a birthday party. Lili loves throwing birthday parties for Larry in November, we´ll, now it was her turn to have everyone watching her blindly swing a bat around at mini mouse...Poor mini!

But Lili skillfully took her down without doing any serious damage, and mini got a big huge in the end.

And, it turns out, Old Town is a beautiful place at night.

PARTING SHOT

Ok, Ok, I know these two were the parting shot last week, but this one was just too good to pass up. Besides, we miss our Bellingham Buddies, and this is the perfect thing to remember them by.