Open Season.......

The only way that i like to cap off a seventeen hour drive through the desert is with a good ole fashion water fight. Upon arriving in Lima this afternoon we had no problem finding a few eager soles. GianMarco´s Son greeted us with a waterballon at the front door. And by the time we reached his brother's house the gloves were off. Mind you, this was not a battle but war. And these kids were in their element. Their Tactics were sharp and their attitude relentless.

So Where to Begin. About a week ago we arrived in Mancora, Peru. Planning to Meet GianMarco and head south to Lima. The Beach was perfect, and we were easily stalled for a week. Mancora is one of the most popular surf spots in Peru, and draws quite a crowd. One of Gian´s friends, who owns a hotel/tour company had been wanting to explore a river north of Manacora that flows out of Ecuador. We had a rough idea where the put-in was and a bad map. So by our best guess, the road was about four hours and the river about 50km. After a usual late start, we arrived at a millitary check-point at about 1a.m. in Ecuador. We let our selves in and decided to camp. the local officer later found us and explained that he would have another local officer help us find the river in the morning.
That evening, we assumed we were about a half an hour to the put in. So the next morning, after a few hours negotiating our way down the trail, we began to get suspicious. The local officer that met us was an interesting character to be mild, and by the end of the day was more of a burdern than a blessing. After picking him up, instead of taking us directly to the river, we seemed to run a series of errands for him. But not before we stopped by his house to pick up his pet monkey, which his insisted on bringing with us. After stopping at several of his relatives houses we began to get a bit frustrated and were eager to find the river. The driving the second day, was much more demanding than the previous and was certainly our Land Cruiser. GianMarco´s driving was impressive, though he almost lost his cruiser in a river crossing on the way back. He teetered on the edge of stalling for TEN MINUTES before the car bacfired and cleared the exhaust. We eventually made it to the river after spending 4.5 hours rallying through this unique arid jungle. The river that we were trying to find was supposed to be pretty mellow, but it had only been run once and that was fifteen years ago. so really, we knew very little. Looking at the map there appeared to be one major gorge and a long paddle out. Due to our late start, we planned to spend the night out and packed accordingly. Once on the river, the walls boxed in very quickly which created a very dramatic long gorge. The rapids were mellow, but walled in rapids that go around corners are always a bit intimidating. It didn't help that at the first rapid a ten foot long crocodile scurried off a small beach into the water. We had no idea that crocodiles were in the area, and after that point we became very suspicious of big eddies with nice beachs. We ate lunch on a tall rock outcropping, assuming that a defendable elevated position was much more ideal than a beach surrounded by tall grass. The river was beautiful, and one of the most unique enviroments i have ever been in. It appeared very arid but was covered with trees that looked more similar to a cactus. The river was also filled with herrons, parrots, giant iguanas, and of coarse crocodiles. It turned out that the map we had was totally off, and were able to paddle to the nearest town in just over four hours, as opposed to the marathon we were expecting. We even beat our shuttle vehicle, and after hearing there stories of getting out of the frontier. I think they might have had the bigger adventure......

PICTURES(Top-Bottom): Water War, Rob making a late advance.Desert sunrise, Peru. Rob, Scouting for Crocs. Our trusty guide, curtousy of the Ecuadorian Millitary. GianMarco, Getting into it.