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You are here: Home / Archives for jungle

Rio Jatunyacu, Take 2

July 30, 2009 By Danny

After our fun run down the river I was compeletly demoralized, not sure if I´d ever get in a kayak again since my skills had so completely failed me. Our raft-kayak guide Harry had been clear in telling me (thankfully, after the fact) that the boat I was in was simply horrible and that I should give it a try in different boat.

The next day Jill and I rented a boat, took a taxi (that´s how things work around here) to the river and jumped in to practice. I rolled upside down and came right back up. Easy as pie. Of course doing it in still water is easier than doing it in a rapid but I couldn´t even do that the day before. Clearly an improvement. We made plans to hit the river again the next morning…with other kayakers and no rafts.

The next day came around (so this is two days after the inital run down the river) and since Jill was up all night with a stomach bug she wasn´t able to join me. This left myself, Harry the guide, and another kayaker. The morning was a bit chilly made worse by the falling rain. The taxi took us to the river and once there, standing on the overlook, in the cold rain, I said that I thought the river looked much higher than it had before. Harry responded by telling me he´d never seen it this high in all the times he´d been on it.

I nearly shit my pants.

Somehow I mustered the intestinal fortitude to not turn back, to not get back in the taxi and just go back to the hotel and continue onto our next destination. Down to the river I went. Into the boat I went. Into the rapid I went. Recall that last time down the river I rolled twice in this first rapid – the first time I rolled back up (the only all day I did that the last time) and the second time was my first of 7 swims. This time I went in the rapid, and came out the other side without rolling and without swimming.

Made it though the second rapid just as easily as the first doing way better than I had two days prior. Almost having fun now I thought, almost. The third rapid was where things started to get hairy. A big big rock at the bottom of the rapid and I needed to get to the left of it. I tried but I didn´t get far enough left. I got caught in the wild water around the rock and went over. Tried a roll. Failed. Swam. Back on shore looking at the rock that had ruined my perfect beginning I felt stupid. The rock was at the end of the rapid. One more second and I would have been in smooth water. I could have rolled up but I panicked. Hopefully the day wouldn´t get any worse.

We floated past where we took our lunch break and where Jill nearly was killed by a poison dart frog. I thought of the kids playing by the river but was thankful we didn´t have to stop. The next rapid was my worst swim of the day the last time through and I didn´t want to dwell on it at all.
I entered the rapid. Darting around rocks and holes and going over big waves. Starting to have fun again. Made it through and floated over that long shallow space where I was dragged the last time. Haha, look whose floating today! Next up was the rock garden, the rapid that I swam through top to bottom last time. We started in and and I made it over the first few waves before getting clipped by something and going over. I knew I could do it and with all my strenght I forced a roll and came up…nice and easy. Woah, that felt good….and then it happened again, just as quickly…and just as quickly I was up again and through the rapid. Two combat rolls in the rock garden and I was 2 for 3 on the day. Things were looking up.

As it would go I would roll and come back up several more times throughout the day. Having fun and even starting to take a few chances. The rain continued to fall. The water stayed cold. Through it all though I warmed up and had fun. I realize now that my biggest mistake that first day was not checking out the boat first and there is no way I´ll do that again. I feel ready for the next river we find and am looking forward to stepping to the next level.

Filed Under: Ecuador, South America Tagged With: amazon, jungle, whitewater kayaking

An Ibuprofen kinda day…

July 29, 2009 By Danny

We came from Quito to Tena for the sole purpose of getting in some kayaking. Coming off the Andes into the Amazonian watershed we had been told by several people, including one person on Couchsurfing, that Tena was the place to go…it had rivers and actual locals who kayaked.

Before arriving in Tena I had only ever ejected from my kayak 3 times. The time first, another boat was on top of my paddle (we have photographic evidence) stopping my roll and the second second time was when we we stupidly went out to little falls on the Potomac while it was at flood stage and to this day we are still thankful we made it out alive. So really those two swims were more dumb luck than actual swims…

Imagine our surprise when on our first morning in Tena, as I was about to go out to one of the local outfitters to see about renting equipment, the owner of the hostel we were at come knocking at our door asking if we could be “safety boaters” for the day and follow a raft down the river. I point out that we’ve never done this river nor have any equipment with us (save for some very valuable noseplugs, thank you Ponch!) to which he offers to provide the equipment and says its OK that we’ve never done the river before. This marks our first day of “employment” since February…albeit a little bit sketchy.

After today my total number of “wet exits” from my boat stands at 10. Recall it was at 3 before the day began and that Jill and I were the “safety” boaters of the day.

With a few moments to ourselves before the raft is ready to depart, we practiced our rolling in the river. Jill came up no problem; I didn’t. Nothing. Not sure if the problem was with me, the paddle (which I initially blamed), or the boat (which I ultimately blamed), I was less than pleased with my chances for the day. I should also note that despite the fact we were kayaking in the headwaters of the Amazon River, these waters were glacier fed from the Andes and were quite cold…especially given that my cold water gear is safely stowed away in Pennsylvania.

We begin down the river. The water is pushy. The water is very pushy in every direction. The water is bigger, pushier and more chaotic and powerful than anything I’ve done yet. The river is a Class III river, and I’ve paddled Class IV but that was with my own gear, with the sun out, in far less pushy (more technical) water. Basically, I’ve done much more technical stuff, but this was something very different and something I just wasn’t prepared for.

We enter the first rapid. I see a large wave and somehow end up right in it. I flip over and manage to roll right back up. Fantastic I think, I came up and I wasn’t expecting it. I flew right into another large wave and, screaming obscenities, I survive…but as I’d just been under water I didn’t see the really big one coming up next. I went over. One roll attempt, two roll attempts, three roll attempts. My paddle is slicing right thorough the water as I’m trying to roll which means it’s not “catching” the water to roll me up to all that nice beautiful air just mere inches from my face. I panic. I eject, blaming the paddle. The water is cold but luckily this is big water so there aren’t many rocks to hit. I pull myself to shore where Jill and the raft are waiting for me.

I’m cold now, a bit shaky, but surprisingly OK for the length of the swim. I get back in and make it through the next rapid. Nothing major happens there but after the rapid Jill discovered a frog in her boat. I only mention this because seeing her scramble out of her boat at shore was rather hilarious. After that we had a couple more good runs of rapids and then a lunch break, where Jill fell out of her boat because the very poisonous Amazonian poison dart frog that was still in her boat was attacking her. We had just learned about the poisonous frogs in Quito and so this just had to be one of them. The local kids on shore got the frog out of the boat and made a new pet of him…not so poisonous after all.

The problem with lunch breaks when playing in cold water is that the water is always colder after eating. This means you’re a little bit less “responsive” to the challenges ahead. Almost immediately following lunch I flipped over again. Tried a roll, maybe two, who knows, and went for a swim again. This was a big rapid…not so much fun to be gasping for air while going through huge huge huge waves.. What made it worse was that between this rapid and the next one the river was very wide, very shallow, and very fast. This made it impossible for me to get to shore while being dragged along the bottom. Ow. Swam the next rapid from start to finish, as I’d not had an opportunity to get back into my boat. This rapid was called the Rock Garden. Ow. Made it through with Jill paddling beside me giving me support. Have I mentioned lately that I have an awesome wife? This swim, two rapids long, was at least a kilometer, maybe more. By this point the cold water and the rocks had both taken a pretty serious physical and mental toll.

I really don’t remember what caused the next swim…but swim I did. It was right after the previous swim through the rock garden. Generally once you start a day like this, it finishes like this. Somehow Jill ended up swimming too. I think because I was already in the water she panicked and missed her roll. Now we were both floating with not much time before the next rapid. The raft pulled us both in and got both of our boats onto the raft. While hanging onto the raft, about to be pulled in, we went over a rock, with me serving as the cushion between the the raft and the rock. Although this likely hurt, I was mostly too numb to notice. As I got pulled on board Jill was getting into her kayak and was launching off. As I was getting into my kayak the raft guide, Harry, said you have 30 seconds to get out before we enter the next rapid. He lied. I had more like 10. I was out in probably 12 but it was too late. I was going over again. This time though the raft had a bit of trouble (likely from being so close to the rapid with me and my boat still on board) so most everyone got to swim this time. Jill, the remaining safety boater (remember, we were working today) managed to tow one of the rafters back to the boat. We all take five after that.

My fifth swim occurred when I bumped into an upside down Jill. As she came up from being upside down I went over. I swam. While recovering from this one I started to shiver a lot. Too much time in very cold water. The next swim was when I bumped into right side up Jill. She goes over and I see her come up again as I go over. Since the water was smooth, and I still couldn’t roll, I decided to try to wait for her to come to get me since I saw her roll back up. I began counting slowly underwater. One, two, three, slow down, four, five; I made it to seven before ejecting. When I did finally eject I found that she was out of her boat as well (her second swim, my 6th) so I’m glad I didn’t push it to ten. That was all I was glad about. When recovering from this one I discovered that all the rafters thought my hands along the side of the boat (me calling for Jill to come and get me) was me drowning. They were quite freaked out. More fun.

After this we take a break to visit a small little Amazonian canyon. A nice break where Jill gives herself a mud facial. No picture of this because Jill had the camera and would not allow me to take a photo. Please post angry comments telling her that you want to see what she looks like with a mud facial. After this I swam once more. I didn’t even bother trying this time. My boat went over a rock and into a decent sized hole. I ejected and thankfully the raft came right over the top of the same rock to knock my boat out of the hole.

Not a banner day for me, that’s for sure. Hence, Ibuprofen was in the cards…mostly because of that really, really long swim with the really, really shallow water. The raft guide (who was actually the person from Couchsurfing who told us about Tena) told me that the problem was not my paddle, as I’d suspected, but probably the boat. He encouraged me to try it again in a different boat, not knowing if I’d be ready or willing, I pondered the idea…

Filed Under: Ecuador, South America Tagged With: amazon, jungle, whitewater kayaking

La Mosquitia- Part II

June 15, 2009 By Jillian

Fortunately years in the outdoors has taught me to always “be prepared”, so after the sea turtle encounter we set off into the jungle with more than enough food, our Steri-pen and what we thought would be enough 100% DEET to kill every mosquito in the area. Feeling like real adventurers for the first time on this trip, we motored up the Rio Platano. Not densely populated, but clearly inhabited, we were often greeted along the river banks with “Hola” and a wave, the children at least seemed excited to see us. As we journeyed further up the river, the shelters spread out significantly and it became clear that we were beyond the reach of the every day Western world. In our motorized dugout canoe we slowly moved upstream for almost five hours before reaching our jungle hospedaje.

Arriving at the hospedaje felt something like a national geographic documentary. As the canoe pulled up to the sandy bank the children ran down the hill to greet us. Quickly settling into our rooms and introducing ourselves to the extended family, we explored the village of Las Marias. Nestled in the jungle, the village is a cluster of about 500 families, many of whom are part of an eco-tourism cooperative. Formed more than a decade ago, the cooperative provides guides and tours of the Rio Platano Biosphere Area for visiting tourists. Organized so that the work is shared amongst the guides and boatmen, a saca guia (head guide) greets incoming tourists and provides an overview of the activities and tours available in the area. We were the only tourists at Las Marias at the time, so chatted with the saca guia and our hosts for a while before deciding on two day jungle hike to Pico Balitmore.

Setting out the next morning, the saca guia picked us up at our hospedaje to introduce us to our guides, Jose and Har. Indigenous men from the area, they showed us the way up Pico Baltimore through deep mud, jungle heat and humidity. Walking and chatting with the guides, we learned about their families, culture and their experience with tourists. Both of our guides had grown up as a part of the eco-tourism cooperative so their perspective on tourism was incredibly interesting. Well aware of the potential negative impacts of tourism, both men felt that the increase in tourism over the last several years had been good for the village and had provided many families with a decent income. Excited not only to be having the conversation in Spanish (thank you spanish teachers in xela!), but that we were in a place where our tourist dollars were making a palpable positive impact in the community I continued to press them on the subject and the impact of tourism development. Las Marias lack running water, electricity and communicates with other villages through two way radio. For the most part Jose and Har wanted basics that were currently unavailable, mainly medical care and a better education for their children. Aware of conveniences of the outside world, not just from tourists but also from family living outside of La Moskitia, Jose replied that they did not need electricity or kitchen appliances, what they needed was a cell phone tower to communicate with each other. Initially I scoffed at the idea that a cell phone town should take precedence over electricity or running water. I later came to realize that this was the true impact of tourism, that they should understand their own needs better. Jose did not want to change their way of life so much that it became like ours, he just wanted to be able to communicate better.

Trekking through the jungle was tough. It was hot, humid and extremely muddy. Although there was a faint path through the foliage, the jungle was dense and more often than not our guides macheted a path for us. I had to keep reminding myself that it was about the journey not the destination. Just before reaching our evening accommodations deep in the jungle, Jose stopped us silently in our tracks. Listening intently to the sounds of the jungle we heard a loud screech. White faced monkeys swung through the trees off to our left, screeching and playing. Reinvigorated, we continued on to the thatch roofed cabana where we promptly collapsed from the heat. Waking a few hours later we found dusk had descended and with it the onslaught of mosquitoes and other unidentifiable large jungle insects. Not to mention the 4 inch scorpion in the cabana….

Cooking dinner on an open fire, we shared our food with the guides, introducing them for the first time to chicken hot dogs. Without buns, veggies or even ketchup (everyone from Chicago is now cringing I know), the guides proclaimed the hot dogs “muy rico” (delicious) and encouraged us to save the rest for the following morning.

Hiking out the next day in a torrential downpour we pulled into the hospedaje wet, exhausted but very happy. Despite scorpions, spiders, and hundreds of mosquito bites it was an incredible cultural experience that I will never forget. As we motored downriver early the follow morning I felt protective over the people on the riverbanks silently hoping that sustainable tourism continues in this region, bringing prosperity without destroying their culture and way of life. Although we’ve been to a number of small communities on this trip, we haven’t been in a community on the edge of sustainable growth like this before. The ability of this community to band together and form a cooperative (with the help of a NGO) and continue to grow in such a way is a great template for other emerging tourist communities throughout the world. I hope as we continue to travel we find more of these unspoiled cultural gems.

Filed Under: Central America, Honduras, Trek Tagged With: culture, hiking, jungle, tours

La Moskitia Part I

June 11, 2009 By Danny

Although we had read about La Moskitia in our guidebook, we figured that without proper gear and equipment a trip into the “jungle” would be virtually impossible. Plus we figured it would make a great trip later in life, you know when we are just “vacationing.” All but giving up, we resigned ourselves to move on to Nicaragua. As luck would have it, we met an American in La Ceiba who had just come out of La Moskitia, doing the entire trip independently without a tour agency. Excited, we plugged him for details about cost and conditions and it soon became clear that not only was it completely do-able to see some of La Moskitia on our own, it was well within our budget.

La Moskitia is called the “Little Amazon” by some.  By others it is called jungle. Still by others, it is called home. Several indigenous groups, mainly Moskito and Pech, live in this foreboding wilderness where they still speak their native languages…and Spanish. Additionally, some archaeologists believe that the fabled lost city of the “White Maya” may be hidden within the region.

We began our trip into the jungle in a small city called Tocoa where we found a pickup truck (oh, there were many to choose from) that would take us ‘out there’. The ride in the back of this truck, jammed in with other people as well as essential supplies (mostly Coke & Pepsi products) for the villages we would pass along the way, was quite the adventure in itself. Once the paved road ended, the dust picked up and we found ourselves breathing dirt as we sped along. This didn’t last forever though as the dirt road quickly ended as well…meaning it was time for the beach. Speeding along the Caribbean shore at unknown speeds we’d feel the splash of the ocean and then lurch forward as the driver slammed on the brakes to avoid the incoming tide, a piece of drift wood, or the occasional horse. We sped along holding on for dear life for about an hour and a half as we stopped in several Garifuna villages dropping and picking up passengers and supplies. Finally, very much needing a beer to calm my nerves after the ride, we reached the extent of the “road” and hopped on a boat for the village of Plaplaya.

We chose to sleep in Plaplaya this first night because we’d read it was turtle nesting season and there would be the opportunity to search out nests or release baby leather back turtles into the sea. Upon reaching Plaplaya we learned that this was all there was to do there…with the exception of killing exceedingly large spiders so that Jill would finally allow me to go to sleep. We introduced ourselves to Ismael who was the local turtle researcher and agreed to meet up after dark for a search of nests.

We began our walk, which Ismael clearly thought would be a waste of time. After walking for about 3 minutes we were rewarded. No, we didn’t happen upon a nest, we happened upon the biggest turtle I’d ever seen in my entire life. The leather back was simply huge…way bigger than those so called giant tortoises that move two feet per year at the zoo. Probably about the size of a Manatee (don’t forget, we call those cows) so it was quite huge. When we arrived it had already dug the hole (about a meter deep) to drop its eggs, but no eggs yet. Watching its movements reminded me of Disney World where you watch the anamatrnoic machines on the rides, it was just completely alien.

Eventually her eggs began to drop and from behind her we were able to see them fall and accumulate. Ismael set to removing them from the nest in order to bring them to a breeding facility where they would be kept safe from other animals [and humans] who would otherwise make a tasty snack. Ismael let us touch the racquetball sized eggs which were surprisingly soft and dented easily; makes sense given how they all fall. He also let us touch the shell of the mother turtle which was unsurprisingly leathery. By the time she was finished she had dropped 99 eggs and one small golf ball bit of food for her young once they hatched.

With the sand flies wreaking havoc on our feet and the eggs needing to be brought back for protection we ultimately called it a night and headed in. All told our encounter lasted probably less than an hour but watching something so alien give birth was incredibly special.

Filed Under: Central America, Honduras Tagged With: animals, hiking, jungle, tours

La Moskitia Notice

June 8, 2009 By Jillian

Headed deep into the jungle of La Moskitia (of -movie- Mosquito Coast fame!) a few days ago (scheduled this post to upload) so we won’t be back for a few more days yet. Don’t worry, although the name implies its Mosquito heaven, the region is actually named after a local indigenous tribe, the Miskito. No electricity means no hope of Internet so we’ll post again when we return.

Filed Under: Central America, Honduras Tagged With: jungle, notice

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