Wednesday

This morning, we had pancakes again for breakfast! After getting ready to go white water rafting, we met everyone to walk to the rafting place in town. Once we got there, we loaded up two big vans and one taxi, and then we drove to Rio Jatunyacu, about 45 minutes away.

At the river, they distributed life vests and helmets and explained to us what to do in certain situations. They called them "what ifs" ;). We did a Class 3 rapid, and the cool part is that the river is interspersed between rapids and pools of water, so you get a little time between each rapid.
Finally, we walked down to the loading area of the river, and after waiting a little bit, we loaded the boats. There were a few other people that also were part of our group that we didn't know, so altogether we had 3 boats full of people! Plus, there were 2 ducky boats, which were inflatable kayaks that rode along with us for safety.

Once we were all in our boats, we learned how to row, depending on what the guide would direct us to do. After that, we were off! I think some of us were nervous, but most of the ones who had done it before really weren't. We rode for about 45 minutes, and then they let people get out to float down the river a little bit, until we reached a small beach area. We played around there for about 10 minutes, and then we continued riding down stream.

Around 1:15, we stopped at a bigger beach, where we ate lunch. There were tortillas and a pretty nice assortment of fillings too! There was ground beef, beans, rice, cold slaw, cheese, homemade sour cream, a veggie mixture, hot sauce, guacamole, chips, pineapple, and a few other things, plus drinks and chocolate cake! It was all prepared by one of the guides too, who I think may own the rafting business or at least has a high position in it. I didn't really eat much of it since I still wasn't feeling great, but everyone else really seemed to enjoy it! They gave a few of the leftovers to some of the dogs roaming around, because they were extremely emaciated. ): The rest of the unfinished food was left for the children who live in the village of the island.

After lunch, we continued floating down the river. We saw a few natives on the waterline with machines that sift out gold from the river, which was pretty interesting. The rapids seemed to get more and more crazy the farther we went. For the most part, not many people fell out, but a few did. There were also some games we played that made it easier to fall in. Towards the end of the ride, the sun started to come out a little more; I was really glad, because the water was SOO cold! It came from runoff of the snow on mountains, so it's understandable.

We also had a little time at the end to mess around with the other boats. We went after each other trying to splash one another, and sometimes the guides would playfully hook their oars onto people's life jackets to pull them in. At one point, the people on another raft tried to get onto our raft to knock us all off, but our guide jumped to the front and pushed them off first before they could get any of us. We played around like this for awhile, and then we finished up with rafting. We drove back to the raft shop in Tena around 4:00 and walked back to our hotel.

We washed up and got ready for dinner so that we could leave at 5:30 for the restaurant. The boys and Molly walked a little bit early, and the rest of us eventually caught a cab that took us to Chuquito's, the restaurant. We also invited Jeremy and his wife Jennifer to eat with us. The restaurant was REALLY nice! They had tablecloths, cloth seat coverings with ribbon, set tables, cloth napkins, and even glasses for drinks! It also had a beautiful view, AND the food was all really good! Plus, even for a nice restaurant, it really wasn't very pricy.

Martin, Daniel, Alex, and Molly got their food early, because the boys were going to play soccer again at 7, and Molly went to Zumba. Mr. Hart tagged along with Molly, and even he thought it was a pretty intense workout! Whenever Olivia, my dad, and I were walking back from the restaurant, it started pouring down rain on us! We were thankfully able to catch a cab at least.

Also, I found out a little more about the soccer the boys have played. The field is apparently really nice; it has turf and four goals, with nets! When they got to the game tonight, the Ecuadorians divided the boys up amongst the other players for teams. Then, one of the players yelled something, and everyone ran to the goalposts. Since the boys didn't realize what was going on, they just stood in the middle of the soccer field. Then the other players started laughing and yelling "Gringos!" Apparently, whoever is last to make it to the goal has to be the goalie first, and whichever team is first gets the ball first. Either way, they boys had fun! When they finished, they walked back in the pouring rain for at least 15-20 minutes!

Olivia and I walked up to the orphanage when we returned from dinner, but the kids were in bed. Mrs. Witges checked out some of the ears of the children of the long-term volunteers. Also, Carlos was finally released from the hospital and came home today!! And, three of the kids (one boy and two girls) came from the jungle to the orphanage tonight for at least a couple of days. Tomorrow, half of us are going to dig the well, and the other half of us are going to help out at the orphanage, especially with the new kids! Hopefully tomorrow's well-digging goes a little smoother than it did the other day! :)

Night!
-Kaitlyn

P.s. On last night's post, I couldn't remember the name of the type of bar we needed, and so I skipped over it in my post, anticipating to go back and fill it in. I totally forgot to ask what it was called, and I just now realized I never finished it.. It should be fixed now though! The word I was looking for was rebar, FYI :)