Wow. It's been nearly a month since I last posted and it's been a pretty hectic last few weeks. Ecuador did not quite go to plan... If you want a day-by-day account of the trip, Witty wrote a pretty detailed one here:
https://scientistinsitu.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/ecuador-kayaking-day-1/
We arrived at stupid o'clock in the morning and got a taxi to Baeza, around 2hrs from the capital. Baeza is a kayakers heaven, so close to world-class whitewater, cheap food and accommodation and lots of other paddlers around. It's a largely unspoilt area of the country, a very small town nestled in the steamy jungle. The first three days of paddling were absolutely amazing! Some of the most continuous and best-quality whitewater I've ever seen was on the agenda. I was on the top of my game, nailing the lines, super confident.
On day 3 of paddling, we were on a section called the "Cheesehouse" section, guidebook says IV+/V at medium levels and V/V+ at high. Ecuador water levels are a bit strange, it's kinda hard to gauge what level they're at, or at least kinda difficult to quantify it. The river was highish and we were bouncing our way down having a generally great morning. There were some harder rapids which I'd felt really good on and we arrived at a rapid called "Piggly Wiggly" (yeah, I know...). None of us could really see the rapid but it all looked fairly straightforward. Alex and Phil decided to portage and Alex had a quick look at the rapid to make sure it was more or less what we expected. Good to go. This was the first rapid of the trip that I went into without feeling 100% confident of a line. I'd formed an initial plan, then backed out and decided to follow another line just before I got on. Now sat on the river, I buckled up and dropped into the rapid. I was slightly surprised to see a big diagonal instead of a hole, but charged forwards anyway, got caught a little bit sideways and flipped. This is where my day took a turn for the worst...
I try to roll on one side and my paddle hits a rock, right shoulder gone. When I say gone I mean half-dislocated (subluxation for the jargon-lovers), out of the socket and immobile but not entirely hanging out. Fine. Try to roll on the other side of course, nope. Left shoulder gone. Adrenaline now kicking in I rolled up and made my way to an eddy at the bottom of the rapid, not in pain but definitely uncomfortable. I give the signal that I need help to Alex, and Witty styles the rapid. At this point I'm in quite a lot of discomfort and want to get my shoulders back in ASAP. I grab a rock on the wall and manage to pull my left shoulder back in, with a couple of attempts I got the right one in too. Witty helps me ferry across in my boat to the other side where there was a beach. I pop a few ibuprofen and show Witty that I've got full range of movement again. "Look Witty, I popped my shoulders back in! I can move the AGHHHHHHH *!@!**"
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| This is the general style of rivers in Baeza |
Trying to show Witty that my shoulders were back in their sockets I fully dislocated my left shoulder. Yes, I know... What an idiot. I talk Witty and Alex though relocating in and we all breath a bit of a sigh of relief as it pops back in. 5 minutes, 3 dislocations and 3 relocations. Time to get off the river and get some X-rays. We walked out of the river and got taken by a local in his van to the hostel where I then made my way to A+E. Now I've had some time to reflect
on the incident, it's kind of weird to write about it. It was probably a combination of being a little bit reckless and really unlucky, I could have flipped a million times in that rapid and not dislocated anything, capsizes happen all the time. But now with a 6 month recovery period ahead, perhaps the extra 10 minutes scouting would've avoided it. Oh well, not much I can do to change it now. I really appreciate having Phil, Alex and Witty there, they're definitely one of the strongest crews I've boated with and the atmosphere on the river is always great. Sorry for putting you all in a difficult situation, but realistically, if I was ever gonna have a dislocation, you're the guys I'd want there to deal with the fallout!
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| What an idiot... |
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| The Dream Team |
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| Don't look too happy to be paddling without me do they... |
The rest of my trip was still good fun. Obviously, bitter-sweet seeing the others getting some amazing sections done without me. I went exploring in the jungle and town a lot, we looked around the capital city for a day, I spent a lot of time socialising with the other kayakers and practising my Spanish. Funnily, due to my strange accent and darker skin, all the Ecuadorians thought I was Chilean!
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| Hot springs in Papullacta. |
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| No bottle of tequila should be this big... |
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| Sketchy hitch hiking experience |
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| La Cascada de San Rafael |
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| A lot of my time was spent like this. |
I got back to Pucón to continue my job as a kayak coach and guide. Yup, complicated... My boss was amazing about the whole thing. and in the last 10 days I've taught 5 full day kayak schools in Spanish. One of the work experience students would paddle me around in a tandem kayak, so I didn't have to use my arms, and I would coach from the front of the boat. It wasn't an ideal position but it was great to be back on a river so soon and doing what I enjoy.
Today I left Pucón for good and have started a long journey to Torres del Paine. I had an awesome season overall, and it definitely won't be my last season guiding in Pucon! Thanks to all the team at Kayak Chile for putting up with me and making the season great. I'm currently in Loncoche, waiting for a bus to Santiago (10hr buses suck). Then we'll fly to Punta Arenas and work our way down to the national park, spending a few weeks trekking before I have to be a proper adult and start teaching English again. I'm not sure how good internet access will be down there, and the truth is I want to disconnect for a while. So I'll speak to you all soon. Till Mid-March. Shahid.
On day 3 of paddling, we were on a section called the "Cheesehouse" section, guidebook says IV+/V at medium levels and V/V+ at high. Ecuador water levels are a bit strange, it's kinda hard to gauge what level they're at, or at least kinda difficult to quantify it. The river was highish and we were bouncing our way down having a generally great morning. There were some harder rapids which I'd felt really good on and we arrived at a rapid called "Piggly Wiggly" (yeah, I know...). None of us could really see the rapid but it all looked fairly straightforward. Alex and Phil decided to portage and Alex had a quick look at the rapid to make sure it was more or less what we expected. Good to go. This was the first rapid of the trip that I went into without feeling 100% confident of a line. I'd formed an initial plan, then backed out and decided to follow another line just before I got on. Now sat on the river, I buckled up and dropped into the rapid. I was slightly surprised to see a big diagonal instead of a hole, but charged forwards anyway, got caught a little bit sideways and flipped. This is where my day took a turn for the worst...
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