¡¡Adelante, Atrás, Adentro, Alto!!

These were the words ringing in our ears throughout our entire rafting excursion on Río Verde, near Baños, Ecuador (translation: Forward, Backward, Inside, Stop!!).

Katie and I had been to Baños before, but we had not taken advantage of the many touristy excursions the town offers (I guess that depends on if you count our shocking "en chiva" experience--see older post) . But this time we were ready for an adventure, so we signed up to go rafting.

We were a little unsure of what our day on Río Verde was to hold, because immediately upon arriving at the tour ageny at 9am in the morning, we were rushed to "sign our lives away" before jumping into a lime green, rickety, 80s style-van, with mildewy red-carpeted interior. Oh yes, and it was started with a screwdriver instead of the more traditional method of key in ignition.

We arrived on the banks of Río Verde and were given our equipment for the trip--an already moist wetsuit and a pair of Keds-like sneakers for water shoes. After wiggling into the wetsuit, we were given our helmets and lifevests and told to stand behind a line to await instruction from our guide. Our rafting team was made up of Katie, Hannah, I, and three Ecuadoran tourists, all slightly nervous for what was to come.

Our guide immediately jumped into do´s and dont´s, what to do when a fellow paddler falls out of the boat, or even when the boat flips over, which he claimed had happened. Keep in mind, the entire speech was in Spanish so we were trying to catch each and every detail. The true test of our Spanish abilities, however, were following commands from the guide. When we heard "¡Adelante!" we paddled forward, "¡Atrás!" we paddled backwards, "¡Adentro!" we quickly sat in the boat, and "¡Alto!" we stopped what we were doing. It got really confusing when he told one side to do one thing, the other side was supposed to do the opposite. Additionally, the fact that all of the commands started with an "A" was a horrible coincidence, we thought.

We had to carry the heavy heavy boat on our heads to the water, careful not to twist our ankles on the rocks in our Ecuadoran-style water shoes. The river was low, so we spent the beginning of our journey trying to get over rocks, which basically meant the guide was outside the boat pushing us and yelling commands. Our reactions to these commands became quicker and quicker with the help of the pressure of the situation. For some reason, however, the most important command, "¡Adentro!" was always the most inaudible less then seconds before we hit the biggest waves. I made sure to repeat everything to Hannah and Katie who were leading us in the front.

The end came sooner than we wanted. The last stretches had gorgeous views of the forest and mountains (almost the Amazon Rainforest), and we ended our tour with a quick dip in the río.

On our way back to Baños, I gazed at the green mountains and steep cliffs while Hannah and Katie talked with one of our guides, yet another extremely friendly Ecuadoran. He offered us free rafting trips when we come back to Ecuador. They were told to walk the streets of Baños yelling his name, and he would come running.




Tonight we will spend 11 hours on a bus on our way to the Amazon to live in an indigenous community for four days. I guess there have been dolphin sightings in the river--I have already gotten my hopes up.

P.S. When we were in Cuenca last week we saw the President of Ecuador! We were eating our eggs and toast at our usual breakfast joint when the waitress yelled from outside that President Correa was driving down the street. We ran outside in just enough time to wave to him--there was definitely seconds of eye contact. We felt famous.