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Kayak School

Hard to believe it's been a week since Dustin and I were in Tena for our three-day kayak school with Rios Ecuador. We had a great experience, improving on our skills as well as having a blast. Photos are in the gallery. Saturday morning we went over on the bus and met our guide. That day we did the upper Rio Napo, also called the Jatunyacu. A class III section with big waves. I think I flipped eight times, and rolled back up every time. Dustin didn't go over as many times as I did. Sunday and Monday we did the same section on the Rio Misahualli, a class III introduction to creeking. Sunday I flipped about eight times, but Monday did much better. Dustin swam in one of the last rapids on Saturday, and banged his knee. Then, after getting back in the boat, he flipped on the very next rapid and clanged his head very hard. We only noticed today that he actually cracked the edge of his helmet. That experience made him a bit nervous as he repeated the same section on Monday, but he did fine, with Tarquino, our instructor, helping him through those rapids. Guess that all sounds a bit scary, flipping over in rapids, but we're enjoying the learning process. Even though I can roll when I need to, the goal is not to flip over so much. We came home late Monday afternoon, very tired.