Tena

After leaving Santa Ana, I spent this weekend in Tena - a small jungle town and the whitewater capital of Ecuador (its sort of on the way back to Quito), with the hope of squeezing in a little bit of kayaking.

I organised a guide from the English (well, Irish)-run "River People" company, and today me and Alex did the Jatun Yacu river (grade III, more or less, and pretty much the only river in my ability level out here. Everything else is scary death grade IV and V creeking things). And it was very very awesome. Especially after I woke up after paddling straight into a very obvious hole. Big bouncy happy wave trains, warm weather, warm water, no swims, fantastic picnic lunch and jungle scenery, including mountains and volcanos. Perfect. Yay.

Just to make people jealous, here´s a description of the river:
"The Jatunyacu or "Upper Napo" is the last free-flowing, major tributary of the Amazon in Ecuador, and drains from the Volcano Cotopaxi and the rugged and pristine Llanganates National Park in the Andean Cordillera. The most popular section is from Cando to Puerto Napo, and can be broken down into shorter sections. At normal levels, the river is class III with a few mild class IV rapids. "Jatunyacu" means "big river" in the native Kichwa language and also means "big fun" for paddlers. There are lots of surf waves, great scenery and several Kichwa communities along the river."

Also went to the Tropical Park here (forgot the camera, grrr). I saw my first real-life ostrich, lots of monkeys and parrots which speak better Spanish than me.