Hi everyone! We just wanted to let you know that we survived our first white water rafting adventure. Here are some brief details from our trip. We left our hostel early in the morning and met up with our friends Steve (from Wales) and Danny (from the Galapagos) and headed to the rafting company´s shop. Here, we met the others who were to accompany us on the adventure: a dutch couple, a swiss girl, our guide Patolin, two safety kayakers (Ecuadorian brothers) and our driver.

The start of our adventure on the river was located 40 minutes east of Baños. We headed there in a van, raft and kayaks strapped to the roof, listening to bad ´80s and ´90s American rock. After 3 or 4 leaking tunnels through the mountains (which we attempted to drive with no headlights for a bit), we turned off the road, down a dirt path, and found the river. There, we lost our clothes and put on our wet suits. Maya looked fantastic... we have an excellent photo of her posing by the van that we will put up asap. Braden got the short end of the stick, getting only half a wetsuit and no undershirt. We doused ourselves with bug spray and then spent a half hour practicing maneuvers on the raft.

Into the water we go. Three of us on port, four on starboard, and the guide in the back. The first five minutes were going great... then we hit the first serious waves and Maya promptly fell out of the boat. In actuality, the Swiss girl sitting behind Maya fell out first, and in her effort to stay in the boat, dragged Maya into the water. Luckily, Maya was able to grab the chicken rope that goes around the raft and the guide pulled her in.... albiet ripping all her life jacket buckles in the process. Unfortunately... the Swiss girl was tossed clear of the raft, and into a river hole which is like a washing machine going round and round. One of the safety kayaks was at her side in seconds, but in her panic, she grabbed the side of the kayak, flipped it, and thus caused the kayaker to evacuate. The kayaker (Oscar) abandoned his kayak, letting it float away, and kept her afloat as they were both dragged about 100m downstream in the rapids. When the rapids subsided, the other kayak pulled both of them to shore. While the remaining kayak sped on downstream to retrieve the other kayak, we went to aid the Swiss girl. Needless to say, for the rest of our journey there was only six as she opted to spend the rest of the morning in the van.

Okay.... we should add for that international white water rafting standards, there are six levels. One being a simple float down a stream, six being waterfalls. Our river was classified as a 4/5 due to the numerous rocks, rapids, and river holes. At one point, we actually had to exit the raft and walked down stream as there was a class six waterfall which even our guide wouldnt do.

The rest of the trip was awesome, we almost tipped once, only losing Danny to the rapids (Braden pulled him back in). Braden went swimming in a smooth patch. Mayas teeth chattered most of the trip. The guide wanted to flip us for fun, Maya said no. After the trip, we went to a trout farm on the way home. Excellent lunch, a trout per person. Maya had eggs.

In the evening, we went with Steve, Danny and our guide Patolin, to Patolin´s sisters house to try a traditional Ecuadorian hot alcholic drink - passionfruit or blackberry juice and alcohol distilled from a sugar cane (similiar to rum we think). It was very good... one each was enough.

Off to do some Spanish homework. Tomorrow is our last day of classes for a while, and then in the afternoon we are heading south to Riobamba. Tonight, we are meeting the Dutch couple to try to catch some views of the erupting volcano (Don´t worry, the entire town had an evacuation drill today... so we know where to exit in an emergency. Although, Patolin, our guide, slept through the last eruption in 2006, waking to an empty town covered in ash. There are many sirens that go off, we are not sure how he slept through it.)

Must go... this is long.

Lots of love and hugs and kisses.

Maya and Braden.

P.S. Rorybear, I know you work a lot and all, but honestly, it takes 30 seconds to write us a quick note. Let´s try to step it up a bit eh. Same goes for all you others who are reading without messaging... Peter? Bradens Dad?

PPS. A quick thank you to all of you who helped us prepare for the trip. Peter and Lizzie, the camera is absolutely fantastic. Dad (Braden), I use the swiss army knife every day. Mom (Braden), the sewing kit has proven useful, I now have a Canadian flag on my bag. Mom and Dad (Mayas), Maya loves hogging the towels.... Erin, the spanish lessons were fantastic and well worth it, however, the puzzle set is still kicking our butts. More thank yous to everyone else as well.

Love again. Bye for now. Will write from Riobamba.