Oh Yeah, the Kayaking Part

Now this is how to start a kayaking trip. We are the only gringos in a lovely hot springs resort atop some 11,000’ pass about an hour from Quito Ecuador. The water is ‘boil-your-back’ hot and the seven students are bonding with the instructors (Phil and Mary DeReimer of DeReimer Adventure Kayaking (www.adventurekayaking.com). We students are all wondering what a 7-day Class III/IV whitewater trip will include.

In some ways it’s odd to be joining a guided tour. Kayaking for me and my friends is usually a do-it-yourself affair, but I am thrilled, THRILLED to be guided around in this gorgeous, yet daunting country. With my three weeks of internet Spanish lessons I can barely buy a Coke! That is pathetic as this country runs on the good ol’ US dollar. You say “Una coca por favor” and they said, “una dollar…. Dude”! Actually they smile and are so polite. The country is clean and outside of Quito, safe. Stuff is cheap if you are willing to go a bit native, 70 cents an hour for internet, $1 for breakfast and $3 to ride the bus all afternoon in the mountains. But the scale and diversity of the country is amazing. Imagine finding the jungle, complete with howling monkeys and riotous-looking orchids, just 100 miles away from A-Basin! Of course, traveling that far in Ecuador is a two-day affair, but it is worth the journey!

When our trip finally begins, I am just happy to be with some other folks! I traveled alone through the volcano district around Quito looking for some mountain biking (which I found) and some views of the 20,000’ peaks, which I did not, due to low clouds. But I was also kinda lonely and a bit scared as everyone keep saying, “Be Safe, Be Careful” and well, Quito looks like an city under siege to some degree. All shops and inns are protected by armored bars and locked gates. Solo gringo girls like me are warned to not wander around at night alone – that kinda crimps my style.

Am looking forward to the food on the tour. I figured out breakfast though I will learn soon how to say scrambled (eggs). But dinner is another matter. In a daring (stupid?) moment I downed an Ecuadorian shish-kabob off the street and was in heaven. Yum! My biking guide, a local guy (educated at Tulane), about flipped and scolded me for being reckless.

So I am happy when we arrive at our farm-house home base and get served a wonderful dinner family style. We find some volcanoes peeking over the clouds in this gorgeous fertile river valley located at 6,000’. We get in kayaks and do a section of the Rio Quijos. The gateway to this run features walls formed of arhcing columnar basalt, Lava Falls style. So pretty. Rapids come a little more often and on number three I ask myself Is this Class III?? We banged into a small eddy after some miracle move that involved a 180° around some rock/pillow thingey, and I worry about making the ferry across a strong jet of water. I paddle WAY, WAY up the eddy to get a better run at this ferry and peel out. I make the line just fine and am kinda snoozing through the bottom of the rapid when I see another student rolling his way down the rapid, never quite coming up. But he ain’t swimming either and I wake up and give him a bow rescue! Duh. Way to hang in there! The rest of the run is truly Class III/III+ and Phil and Mary do a great job of ‘splaining the rapid and the lines.

For the next day we head towards the hot, stinking jungle and they take away my playboat. Waaaa? I’ve been in an EZ and feel kinda hobbled by the larger volume Piranha and pout until we hit the creek. I tumble through a bit of a drop and am glad to have some extra volume and a tail that will not stick. This creek, the Upper Misahualli supposedly drops 100’ per mile and is a beauty! Very narrow and lined with black granite boulders. We running a section that is manageable for our group (though Dereimers do offer trips that are IV- and up to IV +). Because these rivers are rain-fed and Ecuador wrote the book on microclimates, the conditions can go from “What fun!” to OMIGOD overnight. Or over lunch! We’ll get to run this creek again and it will have dropped from about 600cfs to 400cfs, making it much slower, but more of a workout. I am impressed with how the Dereimers stage these drops to get some newer boaters down this run safely. Nobody is in over their heads and everyone comes away with a big ego boost – now that’s teaching! As this stretch gets easier, my Ecuadorian big brother Steve and I get kicked loose to lead the drops on our own. Like most girl paddlers I usually follow some guy and seldom lead a drop. My home boys have tried to break me of this by forcing me to lead, but mostly I think they do it to watch me pick wild lines and laugh at the carnage. Ecu-bro Steve and I stay out of most trouble until the last day when I find some ledge hole for some acrobatics!!!