My time in Tena was for my water quality internship. I was to collect samples from the Tacayacu River of water and algae. Tena is a same town that is the “entrance to the Amazon” it used to be the place to start rainforest tours, but now they are mostly booked in Quito. The main tourist attraction is now white water sports. This is how Matt (or locally known as Mateo) came to Tena. Matt has since started the Ecuadorian River Institution to help protect rivers from unnecessary pollution, mining, and hydroelectric. He has recently joined up with the aquatic biology department at USFQ, which is how I got involved. I stayed in an apartment above Matt that he kept for volunteers and storage. He also works with the local high school and Japanese volunteer, Chu, on water quality monitoring procedures. The first day Matt took me, Chu, and Fernanda (the Lab assistant from USFQ) on a short tour of the nearby rivers and gave us some background about the issues involved with their protection. Then we continued the tour on the Tena River in duckies (inflatable kayaks.) The next 2 days we spent in the field collecting data.
It rained both days but we were still able to collect all the data we needed. We collected water and algae samples that you later be anaylized, by me, in the lab in Quito. We also collected some macroinvertebrates. It was fairly straight forward and easy. I was supposed to leave the Friday the 17th, but the USFQ wasn’t going to be open so we would have nowhere to store the samples. So Fernanda decided I would come on Tuesday instead. This was fine by me because it gave me time to do dome more exploring of the rivers. I wanted to do a rafting trip and Matt set me up with a company he knew called River People, owned by an Irish family, luckily they were looking for some more people to do a 2 day trip. I was hesitant at first because of the cost, but in the end decided if money was too trivial of a thing to stop me from this great opportunity. So, Saturday I got up and packed for my white water adventure. The plan was to run the Upper Hollin and Jondachi. The Hollin is a very technical river that is only run a couple times a year, so I was very excited. Unfortunately, the water was too high to raft it safely so instead we put in higher up on the Jondachi, part of the river that had never been rafted before, only kayaked. Our group consisted of 8 people, 6 in the raft and 2 safety kayaks. (Note: I need to learn how to kayak ASAP.) The level of the Jondachi was much more favorable so we eat a little lunch and put in. The rapids were very technical and our guide, Tim, and the kayakers, Victor and Hary, had to scout each one before the raft could run it.
In one rapid our plan didn’t quite work out and we got wrapped around a rock and couldn’t get out of it so me and the 2 other tourists had to get out of the raft to lighten it enough so get unstuck. The evacuation went smoothly and soon we were on our way again. There was a small rapid that we all had to get out of the boat and the guides pulled the raft trough because there was a drop that we couldn’t navigate. Around 4 we found a suitable campsite, an abandoned shack in the rainforest. We set our clothes out to dry and set up the tents. While some of the crew started dinner the rest us us went down to the river and attempted to start a fire on the small beach. This proved very difficult, since we only had wet wood. But after about 3 hours it was finally a decent campfire. It poured all night and the next morning we woke up to a raging Jondachi.
The water had risen about 2 meters, a dangerous level, and had turned to a milky brown color. The guides decided we had to wait to see if the river would go down, before breakfast the river went down about 10 cm. After breakfast Victor checked the level, and it has risen again. It must have rained in the highlands as well as around the river, because although the rain had stop where we were the river was still pulsing. To kill some more time we went to a cave across the river. The cave is a common visit for people rafting the Jondachi and lead to a 8 m cliff perfect to jump off. I like jumping off high things, but it always takes me a little while to get the courage up. Luckily there was one person who took even longer than me so I wasn’t the last to jump. We went back to camp and the river had gone down almost a half meter so we had a little snack and started up again. The rapids were intense and the water was moving so fast the breaks between rapids were pretty much nonexistent. Our crew was doing great, until we fit this hug wave. Usually you have to worry about getting wrapped on a rock, but in this high of water you have to worry about getting flipped by a wave. The wave didn’t flip us but 4 of the 6 people fell out, including me. We all quickly and successfully got back in and found an eddy to rest and catch our breath. Soon we reached where the Hollin and Jondachi join. The Hollin had gone up since yesterday and was a monster. 
It was a dark chocolate milk color and the waves were enormous, which means there were holes the size of houses that would suck you in with no difficulty or hesitation. We found what was left of the shore and set up for lunch. Our guide sent out a distress call to his office, which means it is high water and they should send more food because we would need to stay the night. After lunch they made the decision to run the rest of the river, so we went up one guy to tell the bus to meet us at the take out. The one with this job happened to be our strongest paddler in the raft. We rearranged setting to try to make the sides as even as possible and started the uncertain journey down the Jondachi-Hollin. Around the corner was a bridge about 2 meters above the current water level that had been taken out, yesterday must have been incredibly intense, thank god we did not try to run the Upper Hollin (good call Tim!) The largest rapid is called the Wafflemaker. Our guides scouted the rapid and Tim returned after about 30 minutes with the news that we could have to portage around it. The kayakers and Tim would run it with the raft. He sad there was about a 90% chance of flipping and he didn’t want to take that risk with us in the boat (one of the paddlers was not feeling well and could certainly not handle swimming the rapid.) We trekked around a trail; ‘trail’ was not what I would exactly call it since we had to machete through for most of it. We got to the other side and waited for the raft to come through with Tim, Victor, and Hary. Luckily they made it through upright. We got back in the raft and the kayakers got back into their kayaks and continued onward. We reached the take out about an hour before sundown, perfect timing, but our bus was not there. There was obviously some miss communication, but about 45 later the bus showed up. We packed up and headed home. This was definitely the most exciting, and at times frightening, rafting experience I have ever had and I loved every minute of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment