So onwards to Tena. Sadly contrary to popular belief (Andy Steeds) Tena is not the place where sanitary towels were invented, nor is it the dwelling of a huge ´Tena Lady´who roams around endulging in various extreme sports despite it being the time of the month. It is in fact a sprawling town on the edge of the Amazon, home to some of South Americas best white water rafting. We promptly booked ourselves on to a trip with local rafting company ´The River People´which is run by an Irish family who moved out to Ecuador 16 years ago. We were hoping to tackle a class 4 river as both Sadie and I had rafted before and found class 3 a bit tame. Unfortunately the class 4 was a bit out of our price range so we settled for class 3+ on the Rio Napo. This turned out to be perfect.

We set off at about 8.30 riding in the back of a pick up to our launch site, where we pumped up our mighty raft that was to carry us the 36km downriver. In order to get the most out of the experience we ensconced ourselves at the front of the raft and set off with the other raft already riding some wave trains and the safety kayak bringing up the rear. We tackled rapids, stopped off to swim in crystal clear streams, tackled more rapids, swam through the rapids, stopped for lunch then started all over again. All this was done under a cloudless sky and surrounded by jungle. Two points of note were the amazing fall, subsequent rescue of a girl in our boat who came a cropper when we were trying to surf a large standing wave. Instead of ´balling up´and being spat out by the water she ended up in a kind of washing machine, being swirled round, dunked before emerging in the same place on the surface to start the whole cycle again. Eventually she hitched a ride out on a kayak and was deposited back in our boat alot wetter and whiter than she had been a few minutes before. Second point was our spectacular 360 degree wheelie thing we did with the boat. With our guide standing on the back he lifted the front of the boat up (with everyone crammed at the back) and Sadie and i paddled in opposite directions leading to a quite impressive trick and dunking of all involved. Sadly at 4.30 we reached our destination and were met with a bucket of ice cold beers...all in all a great day.
Over the next few days we did a afew excursions most notably to the river port of Misuaii which used to be the ´gateway to the amazon´ but is apparently now the main stop for cocaine that is brought down through the jungle from Colombia. No wonder the monkeys in the main square were so hyper. We also had a little overnight trip into the jungle, which was quite an experience in more ways than one. Firstly we trekked 2 hours into a gorge where our reward was a swim in clear river up to a waterfall. After our dip we thought we would return the way we had come...oh no we went canyoning, without any safety equipment at all, save for a small girl holding onto a rope which wasn´t particularly reassuring. After slipping and sliding our way down the canyon we came to divide in the river, and our route. You could either follow the river underground by shimmying down a wooden pole with notches cut into it, or jump 10 metres into a pool. We chose to jump. I followed Sadies well executed leap with a run and drop. I emerged to an open mouthed group who thought i had hit the rocks beneath, such was quality of my jump. With adrenaline coursing through our veins we yomped back to the truck with only one incident of note, when the small local girl fell head first into the river and became wedged.
It was now time for our night in the jungle. Our lodge was located in an area of virgin rainforest, we sat looking out over the treetops and talked with our guide in broken spanish before heading to bed. I was just doing my teeth when i heard a loud shout from the bedroom and Sadie came rushing in...´theres a huge hairy spider on the wall´she shouted. Óh really´i replied thinking that this was obviously an exaggeration. I walked into the bedroom to tackle the creature and was confronted by a fully grown, hairy, tarantula. The guide was fetched, a stick was found and the huge arachnid was dispatched to the jungle. Finally we were able to settle down to a night of no sleep and constant fear for our lives. The following morning we trekked back spying some monkeys on the way and headed back to Banos the following day for our next adventure...the Quilatoa Loop.