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Kayaking the Rio Misahualli

Saturday Dustin and I made a trip over to Tena again. It started off a bit iffy though. We left the house at 6 AM as usual, with Ellyn driving us to the bus station in the truck. As soon as we pulled in, I noticed that our usual Flota Pelileo bus wasn't in the terminal, and wondered what was up with that. I walked into the terminal and next strange thing was that about half the ticket counters were closed. The San Franciso counter was open, and the man behind the window told me there was a paro, or strike in Ambato. Basically, that means the local folk are upset about something, and to make their statement, they block the main roads--burning tires, logs, rocks, tacks--anything to try and bring things to a halt. Do it for a day or two, and it's an inconvenience. Do it for much longer, and it has a major impact on much of the country. Fortunately things have been rather stable the past couple years, and we haven't seen many strikes.

At any rate, the San Francisco guy also told me that if we went across town, we could catch a San Francisco bus heading through Puyo for Tena, but that wouldn't be going through the terminal. And, we'd have to hurry, as it was supposed to leave Puyo at 6:30 AM, less than ten minutes away. We made it to the corner across town, parked, and I got out to see if anyone standing there could tell me if the bus had already passed. Guess not, 'cause here it comes! As it pulled up, I asked the controlador, or conductor, if they'd throw the kayaks on top. They already had some things up there, but sure, they had room. I sent Dustin into the bus to look for a couple seats, and then passed the kayaks up onto the roof. A couple minutes later they were tied down, and I climbed down to find Dustin still standing there with the gear bag, telling me the bus was full. Well, there's no such thing as a full bus in Ecuador, so I grabbed the bag and jumped on. We sat on the padded engine cover at the front of the bus, with our bag behind us, and it wasn't too bad. Well, wasn't good either, as we usually doze on the bus when we go somewhere that early on a Saturday morning. No matter, 'cause after about ten miles there are some free seats, and we take them.

Two hours later we arrive in Tena (that's a forty-five mile trip) and get the kayaks off the bus roof. A quick call on the cell phone, and Oswaldo, a taxi driver from Tena, met us at the bus station and we headed off for Archidona, and the put in. Oswaldo agreed to meet us at the take out two and a half hours later, and then we were off. This was our third time down this stretch, and I wasn't nearly as nervous as the last time. We had a great time on the river, and none of the rapids gave us any trouble. We didn't just go straight down the river, but worked on rolls, paddle strokes, and eddying in and out. Dustin wasn't too sure about his roll at first, and when he tried to practice in a rapid, he ended up swimming. So that was a bit discouraging for him. Later we stopped for some PBJs and apples, and then worked on rolls. I reminded him to really work on flicking his hips, and then he had his roll back. He was happy about that, and so was I. We got to the last rapid, and Dustin told me to go first. He had flipped in that rapid last time, and rolled right back up. So now he wants me to go first. I was fine, 'til the last rock, which I managed to hit. Instead of leaning into the rock, and getting pushed around it, I leaned away from the rock. Half a second later I was upside down. My first attempt to get back up wasn't successful, but on the second try I popped back up--my first combat roll! That was a great way to end the day.

Oswaldo met us right at the arranged time, and we headed back into Tena, to get a burger at Cositas Ricas. Once again, my wonderful ordering skills were in the spotlight. I tried to order one hamburger and one order of fries, which we were going to split. When the order came out, there were two burgers, and one order of fries. Oh well, I was hungry, and they are good burgers, so we enjoyed.

We found out earlier in the morning that there were two buses heading in the direction of Shell that afternoon. One at 2 PM and one at 5 PM. Our hope was to make the 2 PM bus, and we were right on time. We grabbed another taxi at 1:30 PM and went to the bus station. I groaned the minute I saw the Expresso Baños bus at the station--no roof rack! Every time we head home from Tena, the controlador wants to put the boats in the compartments under the bus. That works fine for smaller play boats, but our kayaks are too long, and they always go on the roof. I really didn't want to wait three hours to try and get the boats on the 5 PM bus. Fortunately they managed to fit Dustin's kayak in a lower compartment on the side of the bus, but mine wouldn't fit. To my surprise, they said they'd put my kayak inside the bus! Sure enough, they put it right up front, one end resting on the two front seats, and the other end by the driver. It was a huge bus, bigger than we normally ride, and there was still plenty of room for people to get in and out. They charged me an extra three bucks to put the boat inside, but that was fine with me. Better that than a three hour wait.

The drive home from Tena is always longer, and a couple times the
bus stopped to get news from other bus drivers about the road blockages near Ambato. Later we moved my kayak to the aisle, and it really was a great ride home. As we always do after kayaking, we arrived home tired, but very satisfied.

Another Day In Shell

I woke up several times during the night to the sound of steady rain. I haven't been sleeping all that well lately. Don't know if it's time to flip the mattress, or what. When I woke up, it was still raining. Solid overcast, and rain. Not a good thing, because the Quito plane was to leave muy temprano with a DAC inspector, as Dan and Dave were to do check rides. Also scheduled for the day was a flight to bring five of the MAF high school students down from Quito. A number of years back, some MAF pilot came up with a little saying, that if it rains before seven, it'll be done by eleven. If it rains after seven, it'll rain all day. Of course that doesn't always hold true, but today it did, and by about 9:30 AM or so, the plane from Quito landed with the DAC inspector. The way it turned out, only Dan did the check ride, and Dave will take his later. He's on vacation this week anyhow, so I'm sure he didn't mind. By early afternoon, it was a beautiful day--sun, blue sky, clouds, nice temps, and Dan had passed his check ride. A great day in Shell. By 5 PM Dustin and I were headed up to the swimming hole on the Alpayacu with our kayaks, for a little relaxation. As we pulled into the driveway a little after 6 PM, the thunder and lightning were rolling in. The variety of weather during this day was quite interesting!

I started my day looking at an old PC from up in the attic. I was looking for something I could install SuSE linux on and play a bit with dynamic DNS, as I need to learn a bit about that so I can use that to remote admin the SuSE box in the Quito office. That turned out to be a dead end, so I gutted the machine of useful things, like HDD, CD-ROM, RAM, NIC, and video card, and tossed the case with motherboard and power supply back in the attic. Not sure what I'll use it for, but one never can tell in Shell. That project then got put on hold when Fred came in with his notebook. He was not able to start it up, so I told him I'd work on it. More by happen chance than anything, I got it started, and he was able to back up photos and a few other things. Then we re-booted and went at it again. Turns out that there were some problems with the RAM memory modules and the sockets. By moving them, and starting with one at a time, we found a combination worked. Next, I got a PCMCIA network card installed in Miriam's old Toshiba notebook. Her newer laptop is acting up, so she's going to use her old one for a bit to do e-mail. After lunch I made a visit up to Rick and Sharon's to help them with a few computer questions. The first one related to our MAF e-mail service, and then I helped with several other questions they had. By the end of the afternoon I was back at my desk, installing SuSE linux on a different machine, and running an incremental backup on the server.

After dinner Taylor wanted to play some basketball, so we walked over to the school, turned on the lights, and played on the cancha. After a while we were joined by Luke, who is over at the house tonight with a sleepover with Taylor.

More Fuel

We received a load of 2000 gallons of fuel today, bringing us to a total close to 3500 gallons in our tanks. That's still below where we normally are, but will keep us flying for at least a couple weeks.

And One More

Steve took off around the middle of the afternoon, and is due back at 17:06 with a snake bite victim. It's days like this when I'm thankful the weather is good, and someone can get right out to pick the patient up. It's really disheartening to know that someone is out there, waiting and needing medical attention, and we can't get off the ground for weather reasons.

Four Away

An unusual day here. Weather is great, five pilots available to fly, and four planes ready to go. All View image">four planes were out this morning, and by 2 PM they're all back. And, the weather is still great. The only plane left in the hangar was HC-BQV, which is still not ready to fly.

What's The Weather?

We went from a rainy, cloudy day, to a sunny, hot day. You never can tell around here what the weather will be like for the day. I chuckle, 'cause Ellyn gets out of bed, looks out the window, and decides what she will wear based on what she sees. She'll even change if the weather changes. Me, I never think about the weather, but just get dressed. It rains most days, it's sunny most days. The temp during the day is always between 70º and 80º. You can't get much more consistent than that. That said, we are going into our fifth year of a Christmas season without snow. That's fine, and it's the way we both grew up. But, my boys didn't, and since I've taught them how to ski, we all miss doing that in the winter when we get back to the States someday.

Contract Needed

This update from our Quito office manager:
We have been working since March to sign a new contract with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health. It looks like the final issues were worked out this week and we should have a signed contract within the month. The problem is that without a signed contract they say they can't pay us for the flights we've done since June (the old contract expired in May) which total to over $58K. Needless to say that makes cash flow really tight. And, even with the signed contract, their budget for our flights ran out in May so they aren't sure where they'll get the money to pay us once the contract is signed.

Weird Weather

We continue to have daily, and sometimes multiple-daily, electrical storms. Even though we're using surge suppressors, I still unplug things during the worst of it. The surge suppressors that we can buy here are not rated to a very high number of Joules (for what that is worth), so I don't trust them very much. Once again, I found a bad wireless access point in my attic on Wednesday morning, and once again, it was the LAN port that was bad. No other equipment connected to the system was bad, just that. I think I won't buy that brand wireless access points next time I make a purchase. So, I put a spare in place, and that's my last one. Next time one goes out, not sure what we'll do. Budget is so tight right now. A check from the Ministry of Public Health would help a lot, as they need to pay us quite a bit for our recent Air Ambulance flying. Seems like they are always so late with their payments.

Then yesterday I found that Elsa's computer, which I also now use for radio e-mail, was dead. Not sure when that happened, but I discovered it on Wednesday AM. I initially noticed it wasn't running on Tuesday night when I was shutting things down during an electrical storm, but didn't think too much of it. But then, it wouldn't boot up yesterday, so I started investigating. At first I thought it was the power supply (I wish--cheaper), but it turned out to be the motherboard. So I added that board to my stack of toasted motherboards, and installed my last spare. I'll have to work on getting a couple more spares on the shelf. At any rate, the Turners out in Makuma have radio e-mail again, and I'm sure they are pleased about that.

Today has started off cool and rainy. I hope it stays that way, and that afternoon heat won't bring an electrical storm.

Goodbye Panchito

This evening we went to a new-ish restaurant-recreation place, Isla del Sol. The occasion was Panchito's retirement dinner. Panchito has finished twenty-eight years of service with Alas de Socorro, as MAF is known here in Ecuador. Ellyn spent quite a bit of time planning, and paying attention to details. But, as usual, there were the unexpected hiccups. When we arrived Ellyn started to put some floral arrangements on the biggest table. The waiter politely told us that table was for another party. Surprise, because Ellyn had specifically booked the whole place. After some rearranging of tables, we had a seating arrangement worked out that accomodated everyone. But, before long it started raining, and we could hardly hear each other as the rain pelted the tin roof, which was only separated from us by a layer of bamboo. But, despite that, we all had a great time, and the food was delicious. After dinner we had desert, and then a time of sharing stories about Panchito, and presented a few gifts to him. It wasn't until the very end that the second party arrived (noisily, I might add), so the timing was perfect. Panchito was a diligent worker, who did everything, even the most menial tasks, with a smile on his face. His smile is something that everyone notices and remembers. We will miss his laugh echoing through the hangar. Panchito is very short (that's him on the far right), and because of his size he has been ribbed and teased without mercy. Through the years he has pumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel into the planes, and helped buckle in thousands of passengers. Although I've never witnessed it, Dave told us tonight how Panchito would share about the Lord as he helped people in and out of the plane. Panchito will be missed by all of the guys at the hangar.

A Little Fuel

I had heard on Wednesday that we were to get 2000 gallons of avgas on Thursday. But, as you come to expect around here, it didn't happen. The truck did show up today, and we received 2000 gallons. That's a start, but we need more, and soon. We were completely shut down on Wednesday, with no flights going on. When I was up at the south repeater site yesterday, I heard someone in the jungle talking to the runway doctor at our hangar. They were asking for an emergency flight for someone, and she was explaining that MAF couldn't fly, as they had no fuel. That's hard to hear. Please pray that the avgas supply situation in Ecuador will improve quickly.

Day Hike

I'm back from the repeater trip yesterday, and things went well. At the last minute Fred and Dave asked Dale if he thought he could fly the plane out himself. That was fine with Dale, so after he ran home to get some shoes (flying in jungle boots doesn't quite work) we lifted off at 8 AM. The weather was great, and by 8:30 AM the plane was pushed off the side of the runway in Visui, and we were on our way. One of the guys there asked if we wanted a companion, and Dale said he'd pass. Since Dale made multiple trip up there in June and July, and even one a week earlier, that was fine with me. I, on the other hand, hadn't been up there for over two years, so I was sure I couldn't find the trail on the lower sections of the hike. In the end, we did back-track after our first ten minutes of walking, because Dale wasn't convinced we had gone the right way. Turns out we had taken the right trail after all, and we were off, back up the same section.

I really didn't need that extra walking, and we didn't start out very slowly either. I have not done a very good job of keeping myself in shape the past three months, so when Dale asked if I would go with him, I was a little unsure about my ability to keep up with him. I knew I could make it, but I wanted to do more than just survive on a hike like that. So, I just plugged away, and didn't panic if he got around the corner and out of site. In the end we topped out together. The hike seemed a bit shorter than the first time I did it, which was fine with me. I suppose we had been hiking for about three and a half hours.

Our work at the top was uneventful. Dale changed a solar charge controller, and I took measurements of the roof. We need to replace some of the roofing material, as well as add an extension to the east side, and the measurements will help us with the planning. Nothing unusual to report about the top, but the sweat bees that covered us. They weren't at all aggressive, but just annoying, as they flew all around and landed on us--yes, we were extremely sweaty.

After less than two hours, we were on our way down. And, five liters of water later, we were back at the plane. Yes, that's how much I carried, and how much I drank. I was tired enough that I fell twice near the bottom, when I slipped on mud. Normally I can catch myself, but yesterday I was pooped. We gave our extra cookies and crackers, as well as empty water bottles, to a few of the kids who were hanging out near the plane. And then we were off, bouncing down the grass strip, one of the bounces throwing us into the air for our flight home.

Flying Weather

The weather looks good, and I think the chances are high that we'll fly to Visui this morning.

Off To Visui

It looks like Dale and I will be heading off to the south repeater tomorrow. He was up there just last week, and has determined that he needs to replace a panel that has to do with the battery charging system. Today he went up to the north repeater site to get one a spare panel. The north repeater is much easier to get to. In order to reach the south repeater, we'll fly to Visui, then hike for three or four hours to reach the summit of a peak on a nearby range. We'll go if the weather is good in the morning, and we'll make it back home if the weather is good in the afternoon. If we don't get a flight out of there, we'll likely walk a couple hours by flashlight to reach Makuma, where we can stay with one of the missionary families there.

In other news, we are supposed to get a shipment of avgas in the morning--2000 gallons. We'll have to wait and see if it actually happens. We also received the motor for HC-BQV today. It's finally returned from the US, where it was inspected after the landing accident at Kuakash earlier this year.

Presidential Survivor

President Lucio Gutierrez has survived an impeachment drive.

No Fuel, No Flights, No Money

I'm still here, and no, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Can't say I've been so busy that I haven't had time to let you know what's going on. In reality, I just haven't been motivated. Sorry 'bout that. Here's a quick update on what is going on here, and then I'm off to get fresh drinking water for the MAF staff.

You might remember a post from October 19 where I described our avgas situation. Well, it hasn't gotten any better since then. The second deliver of 4000 gallons never arrived. As of yesterday afternoon we were down to 600 gallons. It's so bad that no other operators are able to fly out of Shell either, as none of them have fuel. Actually, Friday we loaned twenty gallons to the military so they could fly their Cessna 206 up to Quito.

Apparently there is a tanker ship steaming towards Ecuador with aviation gas, and it will arrive this week. I've heard varying reports, from as soon as Tuesday, to as late as Wednesday. Once the tanker arrives in Guayaquil, we'll need to wait until a load can be trucked up to us. The bad news is that the price is going up twenty cents a gallon, so we'll be paying $3.15 a gallon, plus transportation costs. Meanwhile, we are only flying emergency flights. In fact, Steve and Darryl just left for Quito with a patient. And, while we don't fly, we don't bring in any revenue, which hurts our financial situation here. That's not good, as we are already flying less hours than we had projected.