Water Gypsy: The wonderful land of Intag

Moving on and up to better things, we finally made our way out to the wonderful land of Intag. Luckily our friend Gus from Orion hooked us up with his friend Edmundo who lives in the area. We couldn´t have asked for a more perfect connection, Edmundo is a very special individual with a spark in his eyes - working hard as the unofficial mayor of the village to protect their heritage and the phenomenal environment around them. His plate is full with many projects, but he was able to find time over the weekend to be a wonderful host - showing us around and letting us stay with his family.

Right away we were taken to scope out the river..... some parts they have gone down & others they were considering. Most of the rivers were really more suitable for kayaking, but when the water is high enough they are ´doable´ for rafting with a little bumping along:) It felt great to be back by the river again, talking ´shop´ about different river runs and checking out the gear. They eagerly had us go into their warehouse and go over all of their rafting gear, from boats to throwbags and everything in between. To our surprise, the actually had some pretty good gear - aside from the ´water-ski vests´ they had for the guest pfds. We also discussed how useful a bowline is, why footcups are almost better than sliced bread and the skills that we believe every guide should have. The happy ending to our meeting was rolling up a raft and tossing it in the back of the truck!

On the way back to Edmundo´s house, we decided to see if the road was open to get up onto a Plateau with sweeping views of all of Intag. The top of the Plateau was inhabited by indigenous people over 3000 years ago and is a very holy site to the people of the area. There are several large man made pyramids or tombs, and they have recovered many different artifacts from the land. There is a small museum there, showing some of the items recovered - cooking pots, lots of stone tools, ceremonial items - most of which were recovered by the family that lives up there now when they were plowing and cultivating the land. The road that goes up to the top was made by hand by the locals fairly recently, it is narrow, steep and rocky. It had been raining a lot and Edmundo wasn´t sure if we could make it, but ever the optimist, he decided to give it a try. We hadn´t gone far when we encountered a tree across the road, not wanting to turn back so soon, Ari and I jumped out of the car, and managed to carry the tree out of the road. Edmundo was amused. And so we continued on, Ari and I exchanging glances as the road got steeper and steeper, unsure of what we were getting ourselves into. Sure enough, just around the corner there was a huge boulder blocking our path, but we´d made it this far, and there was nowhere to turn around, so we jumped out of the truck again to go see what we could do. After much heaving and shoving we managed to get the boulder off the road and climbed back into the truck, covered in mud and grins! After this, Edmundo took to calling us Las Super Mujeres (Super Women).

Super Mujeres!!

Walking up one of the manmade pyramids


Lookin´cool with our tucked in pants.... this was right after a major episode of ants crawling up into our pants and having to drop drawers in the middle of the trail.

This sap is called ¨Blood of the dragon¨ and is supposed to cure everything from cancer to acne.... I guess most things that are good for us have a strong terrible taste - we didn´t go back for seconds:)

I suppose the day after I had spent half the night up being wrung out like a wet rag, until there was absolutely nothing left in my body, was as good a day as any to run the first river of our trip, the Christopamba. The Christopamba is a tributary of the Intag, the main river that runs through the valley. It is a small volume river that runs through the jungle - lots of rocks, low hanging branches and vines, and tight gorges. Edmundo was keen to have us evaluate the river to see if it was suitable for commercial rafting. I had been pretty sick the last few days, and hadn´t been able to eat much, but I wasn't going to miss it. We were going to go with a local guide, Sebastian, who had been down this section before, his little brother, Edmundo, and another volunteer we met there, Solome. As I mentioned, it had been raining a lot, and the little river was "muy torrentoso" as Edmundo kept mentioning. "Do you think it´s OK?" He kept asking, "Oh yes, muy bueno" Ari kept saying, with a big grin on her face. I was concentrating hard on not shitting my pants.

Edmundo-geared up and ready!

The climb down to the put-in

We tried to scout a little downstream of the put in, so we could get a sense of what exactly we were getting ourselves into, and were tickled to see continuous class IV rapids disappearing into the gorge beyond. We put-in in the middle of a rapid under a small bridge, and were off faster than a prom dress. It felt exhilarating to be on the river again, and I soon forgot about my condition as I focused on listening to, interpreting, and executing the guides commands. We were glad to be with a guide who knew the river, but less thrilled by all the rocks he kept driving us into. We had a little talk afterwards about the many benefits of the ferry angle, and about the need for the command "stop" to give your customers a chance to recover. Needless to say it was a very exciting experience, undoubtedly made more so by the fact that we never knew what was around the next corner.

The scariest part for me was at the end, when I was completely exhausted after paddling for over an hour straight, with no fuel in my body, and we stopped to scout the last and biggest rapid. Everything in the jungle is in various states of decay, and we were scrambling along the side of steep jungle walls, trying to find something in the slimy, poky fauna that might hold our weight, all the while traversing above this ferocious little beast of a rapid. I was shaking as I climbed, in my head thinking that if I fell into the water, there was no way I would make it. After the scout I took some time to gather my strength, said a little prayer, and climbed back into the boat, grateful to have Ari up there next to me. We yelled like wild banshees for a minute and then took off, and a before I knew it we were at the bottom, and the bottom of the boat was still beneath us. We both wish that we could have stayed and run the river again and again, but I was pooped (no pun intended?) and we called it a day, heading up to Edmundo´s farm to enjoy my first real meal in days. We were torn about leaving Intag all together, having made such wonderful friends and fallen in love with the wild beauty that surrounded us. Not to mention the easy access to boats and equipment. But we keep reminding ourselves that this is our "recon" trip, and that we are building connections for future adventures. Rafting is still in its infancy in Intag, so there is lots to do to help form and create a good boating community....maybe next year!?

On the first day as we were driving through the valley, Edmundo stopped and pointed up to the sky... at first we had no idea what he was talking about and couldn´t see a thing. But as we focused in a bit more, we could see the thin lines crossing the entire valley - a zipline! After a few ¨no way¨ & ¨holy crap¨ comments, we laughed a little nervously thinking that anyone who did that was a little crazy - considering it was the longest and highest zipline in the country. Turns out the zipline operators were Edmundo´s cousins so we took a pre-tour of the place. As we were treated to lemonade and coffee cocktails we couldn´t say no and eagerly agreed to meet them on Sunday.