Ecuador – take two…

One of our goals this year is to kayak as much as possible, both for progression (for me) and fun (for everyone)! Being in southern Florida for December and January we realized that we were closer than we ever would be to Ecuador (a 4 hour flight vs 30 hours of travel) and jumped on the idea of a new year paddling adventure with the crew from Endless Adventure International, whom we played with last January on our first trip to Ecuador.

Hunter decided to stay in Florida to get to spend some independent time with his Grandparents so this was also our first kidless trip. Always good to double check that we still like to hang out with each other!

Ecuador kayaking is a mix of creeking and mid-sized big volume rivers, both of which are development areas for me and old hand for Tim. It’s all about the BOOF to make the most of the features…

We were in Ecuador for 11 days and paddled 9 days in a row throughout the Quijos corridor and Tena area. We covered off most of the sections of the Quijos River (Bridge one to the Dam), the Cosanga River, the Upper Misahualli, the lower Jondachi River, the Hollin River and the Jatunyacu River. YES we were tired kids by the end!

One of the coolest experiences was getting to the put in on the lower section of the Jondachi River. You drive through the small community of Mondayaku and there is a flurry of people that leap onto the truck looking for work as porters. For $5.00 someone will carry your boat the 20 minutes down a muddy animal track to the river – best $5.00 ever spent! The Jondachi is located outside Tena, which is on the edge of the Amazon Jungle. It’s class III/IV and amazingly scenic.

The other really fun experience was hanging out with the local kids that were out playing in the rivers. Some days they happened to be on a beach during a section and many times they were at the take outs. The happily fling themselves into the water and swim out to grab onto your boat and then ride around.

Last year when we paddled in Ecuador Tim ended up hitting up hitting his head on a misplaced rock when upside down and perforated his ear drum. With that in mind, we both got new full face helmets last summer and this was our first experience wearing them. Based on the scratches they both received, it turns out they were good purchases!

Many thanks go out to the Endless Adventures team (Chris, Andrea, Seth, Ursual & Wilo) for another great visit. We definitely recommend Ecuador as a place to visit – beautiful scenery, amazing people and what feels like endless rivers to explore and paddle!

Travel Note: Ecuador has amazing diversity. Our first trip touched a bit more on non-paddling things and we strongly recommend Ecuador as a family friendly destination – great infrastructure, very clean, friendly people and enough to keep you busy for at least a month between the Amazon, the Andes, the Beach and the Galapagos.