Day 7 Tena
Hola Amigos. Sometimes I feel like you … our loyal readers aren’t getting any love. We love you. And if you happen to be mortal enemies of either Nathan, Jennifer, or Mark well then we appreciate your loyal readerhood and hope that when we return we will be mortal enemies no more. We woke up at 6:30 to shower and get ready. Jennifer is going out in service. Nathan and I are going rafting/kayaking. Breakfast was amazing. Fruit crepe’s. Black tea, just like old times a spot of tea with a bit of milk and some sugar. Great way to start the day as a foreigner in a foreign land. After that Jennifer went on her way and we loaded up to head out to the river. The ride was bumpy as usual. We were jammed in the back of the land rover with a couple from Chicago, who were actually from the Czech Republic. They were pretty cool. A half an hour later we arrived at the start of our hike down to the river.
The hike down to the river is about 2 miles. It is all down hill. Mud and rocks are everywhere, my sandals
aren?t getting the job done so I go barefoot.
I?m pretty proud of myself for being able to do it I?m normally wear
shoes. However, I later pay dearly as my
feet are torn to shreds, cut and bruised all over! After we reach the river bank we head up to a
waterfall. The water is cool as it flows
over smooth river rock. We climb along the
bank and through the 5 foot deep stream until we reach the waterfall. It is about 30 feet high. Climbing through a cave about 50 yards we
come to a spot were water is also falling through a large hole at the top. Climbing up against the cool rushing water we
climb a ladder, a log with branches nailed to it about 15 feet up to the top of
the waterfall. It is from there that we
can jump, so we do! Nathan and I do it
twice it is a rush. Then we head back to
the rafts and get in for a trip downriver of about 40 kilometers. The first part is what they call
technical. More rocks and obtrusions to
avoid. The second leg is what they call
big volume, more water, bigger waves. It
is a beautiful trip down river as we are totally surrounded by high hills and
dense dense jungle. Butterflies and
birds swoop around and when we aren?t paddling or jumping out to cool off we
take in the scenery, quite spectacular.
Lunch around noon is delicious.
We stop where two rivers join for lunch.
Some beautiful butterflies land to take in the minerals from the
clay. After that we head downriver
again. After awhile I get a chance at
kayaking and kayak a bit until we reach the takeout. On the ride home we see a painting of a 50 foot tall indian man. Totally naked. Nudity is welcome in Ecuador I guess. Once home I change the lock on our door since it was broken. Then we clean up, change and head back to town to eat. Dinner is at “The Marquis” where the “maitre’d” actually speaks english fairly well. But he is all up in my personal space. He puts all of our napkins in our laps, arranges our silverware and glasses. Throughout our meal he continually comes and makes sure everything is arranged. It irritates me so I stack up all my glasses, juice glass first, then a napkin inside it, then the wine glass, then a knife and fork on top teeter tottering! It drives him crazy! It was pretty entertaining to me at least. Then I am attacked by a sloth. It is crawling along the ledge up above and I’m not cool with that so I move seats. Dinner was good, having a sloth overhead was not good for me. Everyone else liked it though. We walk home. Grab ice cream. Grab taxi. Grab pillow. The end.