Submitted by Pat

One of the benefits of the cliff dwellings is a little green bucket under each of the beds. The perfect potty for nighttime pees. So much easier, and safer, than wandering through camp trying to remember the way to the real toilets. So it was quite humorous to watch folks head down the path from the cliff dwellings to the toilets carrying their little green buckets by the handles. As usual I was the first person up and happy to get the first cup of coffee. Breakfast consisted of huevos rancheros, bacon, these orange scone things (yum!), and fresh fruit. No juice - orange or otherwise. I was really missing my morning juice.

We hiked back to the bus and were driven 40 minutes to the put in. On a trailer behind the bus was a catamaran. At the put in, Aaron handed out helmets, wet suits, and life jackets. He gave us his standard safety lecture - how to use a paddle, what to do if you fell out of the kayak, what to do if you fell out of the raft, how to avoid sweepers and strainers (trees or branches overhanging the water or actually in the water), when to swim with our head downstream and when to just float with our feet downstream. Peter, one of the Chilean guides, took the catamaran and the rest of us grabbed a single inflatable kayak. We were to do a two hour kayak on the Rio Epsolon, one of the feeder tributaries of the Fu.

After the aggressive paddling we had to do with the two-man inflatable kayaks on the Lakes, these little single seaters responded to the slightest touch so it was like learning to paddle all over again. Once I figured out how to stop going in circles, I made headway. The weather was perfect, although too hot for us in wet suits and paddle jackets. The roughest water we paddled through was maybe Class 2+. Maybe half an hour into the paddle, we came through a little raid that swept us in a tight left turn and the current wanted to push us off to the right toward a mass of low hanging tree branches.

As I came around the bend, I saw Don had gotten too close to the branches and almost in slow motion I saw him try and maintain his balance. Nancy was also over there and Aaron yelled to her to hold out her paddle to Don, but before he could reach out and grab it he was swept into the water and Nancy found herself in some trouble. She was able to get herself out while Aaron, in a kayak, went to Don who was struggling and unable to get back into his kayak. Don doesn't like deep water and he was reminded of that in no uncertain terms. He was hyperventilating by the time he was able to crawl back onto his kayak. Aaron stayed with him until he was ok, but the whole thing shook me. I know that kind of fear and even though I wasn't the one who went in I couldn't shake my own sense of foreboding. I just knew that if I didn't actually try and get back on the kayak like Aaron had shown us I wouldn't be able to relax, so I asked if I could bail out and get back on and he said yes.

It felt great to hit the water and cool off and it was harder than I expected to grab onto the stern of the kayak and hoist my body high enough to get enough purchase so I could climb forward to the seat. Having done that, having broken through the fear, I felt so much better and enjoyed the rest of the paddle, including seeing Cormorants, a couple of Kingfishers with crests extended, some Buff Neck Ibis, and a weasel (bison) crawling along the banks of the river.

We pulled out and drove to the raft put in where we ate lunch. Aaron talked to us about the flip test - all of us were to stand on one side of the raft while Aaron used a rope tied to a carabineer attached to the opposite side to pull the raft over with the bottom up. That was harder than it sounded as we all tried to stand on the end of the raft and get enough weight and momentum to be able to properly flip the raft. Just as I felt the balance start to shift toward a terminal fall, Aaron yelled and Frank leaped forward back into the boat. The rest of us, except Frank and Aaron toppled backward into the water. Immediately the current started to take us down river while Frank and Aaron flipped the boat by themselves. By the time it was over, we were well away from the raft and had to swim upstream to get to it. The combination of the paddle jacket, helmet, life jacket, wet suit, paddle, and river shoes made it difficult to make headway. I finally reached the end of the raft and someone grabbed the shoulders of my life jacket and hauled me onto the boat like I was a dead fish. I proceeded to haul others up until we were all on the raft. Then we tipped it back upright again and proceeded to get everyone back in. Not much fun, I can tell you. But we all made it.

Nancy and I were in the front of the boat, the least stable and most exciting part of the raft. We paddled downriver to a series of rocks where Aaron told us to get off, jump into the water, and swim downstream to the raft. I went first and by the time I got to the raft, I was breathing heavily and done with swimming. Aaron hauled me onto the raft and I turned around to haul in the next person until we were all back on board. All that was good enough to get everyone the magic ok to run the Class V rapids. We did a few smaller rapids and reached the take out point where we all helped haul the raft up the bank and onto a trailer for the bus ride back to camp. Dinner was fish, salad, smashed potatoes, and dessert.