Finding Consciousness

I have two knees!

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:31:00 +0000

I am finally done with the last knee surgery. 9 months after I tore my ACL, its finally over!

I was pretty nervous going into this surgery. It was the 3rd surgery on the same knee, and the 2nd one wasn't very easy, so I was fearing what it would be like when I woke up in the Post Op bed. And after about 2 days, it wasn't that bad.

This surgery was the 2nd half of my ACL revision surgeries. The first surgery was to fill in the tunnels with bone grafts and remove the torn ACL. This surgery was to re-drill the tunnels and repair the ACL using my hamstring tendon. So, I've already had this surgery... kinda in my first ACL reconstruction.

For the last 6 months, I've been rehabbing the knee from the last surgery. It took over a month to walk again, but then progressed quickly after that. In the last month and a half before this surgery, I was able to go riverboarding, so I did... quite a bit. I was at the gym, on the river or in the pool 6 days a week, which was awesome. The hardest part about it was that I didn't have an ACL, so I was really limited in the things I could do. After this surgery, the sky's the limit.

Surgery date: 6/25/09.... the day Michael Jackson died.
During surgery, Dr. Roberts put a drain in my knee so the excess swelling would drain out. The day after surgery, I had to go to Physical Therapy and get it removed. I met my awesome PTs Chris and Steve and did some quad sets and range of motion bending. In my first ACL surgery I was immobilized for 3 weeks, so to move it right after surgery was weird... but good.

I got my brace unlocked after one week, and another week later I got my stitches out. After the stitches were out and most of the steri strips gone, I could see and feel the full potential and range of motion of my knee.

All this time of course, looking hot and stylish in my sexy white compression stocking.

This pic is from my first shower, 3 days after surgery. I've still got Dr. Robert's initials on my leg. I have one new scar on my outer knee and the vertical scar on the middle of my knee is longer. All the other scars are old news, just pinker and fresher now. My knee was pretty swollen after surgery. It doesn't really look like a knee in this pic. I think this is the most swollen it's ever been. It might have been around the same size as it was when I injured it in September.

I had a little bit of compartment syndrome on my shin area, leaving it with pitting edema. It was pretty disgusting. Pitting edema is when you press on the swelling and it leaves an indent in the tissue. It's pretty much totally disgusting and extremely painful. I found these 2 pics entitled "fun with pitting edema" online. I did not have fun with pitting edema. To do what they're doing in the pics would be incredibly painful. *insert vomit noise*

The pitting edema went away within 2 weeks or so (thank God) and left a super awesome yellow bruise for a while.

The bruising wasn't as bad as the PTs said it would be. Just some deep bruising near where they took the hamstring tendon, and on the other side, where they put the large metal pin into my knee. Those points are still pretty tender to this day.

This is a pic of when I got my stitches out. I've got some awesome bruising around the scar where the pin went in. Good times.

I got the super awesome Game Ready machine again. I can not say enough good things about this machine. It pumps ice water and air into a sleeve around your knee. So it gives ice and compression at the same time. It is the nicest thing EVER after surgery or anytime I'm in any kind of pain. Instantly relieved. Right after surgery I was in it all day. Now I'm just in it once or twice a day whenever my knee is bugging.

So, things are on the up and up every day. I'm amazed at how more things are easier every day.
More super awesome updates to come.....

Knee Surgery

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:47:00 +0000

Knee Surgery #1 (which is really #2 in the grand scheme of things)
Let me start at the beginning and paint a picture....
Gauley Season 2008. I drove across the country with my friend Ted from Portland, OR to Fayetteville, WV. Good times. They had cancelled the training day on Thursday due to low water. The lake was low and so our releases were less than normal. I was on the Upper Gauley the first day of the season at about 2500 cfs... which could've been closer to 2300. Great day. Awesome crew. They had so much fun, they requested me for the next day on the Upper Gauley too.
With two great first days under my belt, I showed up to surf for work on the 3rd day. I got put on an 11:00 Lower Gauley trip. The trip was going great.... mellow Lower Gauley day. What more could I ask for?
After lunch, below Heavens Gates, above Stairsteps, is a rapid called BFR. We call it that because there's a Big F-ing Rock in the middle of the river. Class 3 rapid. It's called Picture Rock on the map. We entered the rapid on the right and the boat kicked hard to the left, ejecting half my boat out the left side and throwing the rest of us to the left side of the boat.
When I was tossed to the left, I put my foot out to catch myself.... but instead of catching myself, my foot wedged under the cross tube of the raft, between it and the floor, and my leg twisted.
Instantly I was floored by the pain. As I sat in the bottom of the boat, grabbing my knee, I knew something bad had happened. BUT... I didn't hear a pop. I couldn't help the people in the water, I couldn't talk, I just let them handle it on their own and paddle us to shore. My leg was immediately splinted, wrapped, and iced and I made the evacuation call about 5 minutes later. Not only was my day over, my season was over. 3 days into Gauley Season, I was done. Bummer. I couldn't be evacuated until Pure Screaming Hell, a bigger rapid about 4 miles downstream. That was the scary part. How do I guide a raft through rapids, without letting my knee move, or using those muscles? Very carefully. I had to run Upper Staircase, Lower Staircase, Roller coaster, Cliffside, Rattlesnake, and Roostertail as conservatively as possible. It worked out, and I was evac -ed above PSH.

I saw a doctor in Charleston 2 days later, who concluded that my ACL was torn again, and he ordered an MRI. About a week later, the MRI confirmed a torn ACL and deep bone bruising. The doctor suggested that I disregard another knee surgery, saying that I didn't need an ACL. I liked the idea of not having surgery again, but I was doubtful that I wouldn't need one.

And so began the trek back to Portland. Since I had such a nice group of friends and a job at my rafting company, I decided to come back to the White Salmon and deal with it amongst friends. I sent out emails to everyone asking for help finding an orthopedic surgeon, and help is what I got.

My friend Allen Roberts' dad is an orthopedic surgeon, perhaps the best in the Portland area. Allen told his dad about my situation, about the same time as he was pestered with emails and calls from other people about me. Dr. Roberts agreed to help me out. He suggested that I have 2 surgeries to fix my torn ACL. The first surgery would be to remove the hardware from my original ACL reconstruction. They would clean out the torn ACL, unscrew the screws, drill the tunnels slightly bigger, and then pack in bone grafts into the holes. Sounds like fun, right? The second surgery would be to replace the ACL, by redrilling the tunnels, and putting in a new ACL graft.

My first surgery was on 12/8/08. It went well. It felt like someone had cut me open, drilled and scraped into my bone, then pounded in some bone grafts. It pretty much feels exactly like it sounds.... painful. I left the hospital with this cool machine, the Game Ready. It is a sleeve that pumps in cold water, as well as fills up with air for ice and compression. It feels really good. I wish I had it for my first surgery.

My crazy machine

Every day is better than the last. I have greater range of motion, and can do things more easily as the days go by, so that's nice to see. I took my first shower yesterday, and it was awesome. I got to check out my stitches up close and survey the damage.

I basically only have 2 new scars. The one up on my quad is new, and the one below the big one is new. The big one is longer than it originally was, but that's no biggie.

More updates coming soon.

GORGE GAMES

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:33:00 +0000

This weekend was the Gorge Games. This is a nationally televised local event. It's an event that highlights all the sports that the Columbia River Gorge has to offer. It's sweet. People come from everywhere to compete in the Gorge Games event.

This years Gorge Games had riverboarding as one of the events. This was also the first nationally recognized riverboarding event. Usually there's riverboarding at whitewater events and adventure racing, not in a multiple sport competition. So... in short, it was a big deal for the sport of riverboarding.

I had started training before the Gorge Games, riverboarding the downriver section as fast as I could and getting out on the water as much as I could on my board.The weekend started off great. I was totally nervous and didn't sleep for the 2 nights before the competition. I showed up at the Extreme Downriver Race and there were lots of cameras and people. I met a bunch of riverboarders at the check in.... some that I had met before, but a lot that I didn't know. It was really cool to see that many riverboarders in one place.

The race started at 8 am. It started at the cliff jump below BZ Falls. I was in the first heat of people to jump off the rock and start racing. In heats of 3, we jumped off the cliff jump and were in the water racing. I jumped in with Dave, Docta P, and Kevin. As soon as I hit the water, I felt someone hit the water right behind me. It was crazy mass jumping off the sketchy cliff jump. I hate that jump. It freaks me out.

So, I took the lead at the bottom of Maytag and stayed in front of the pack until the Barge Wave. That's when Sean O'Shea totally passed me with his huge arms and legs just moving the water aside. No one had a chance against that guy. Ha ha. I held on to second for a while, until Alex Koutzoukis passed me in the flats. I stayed right behind Alex until the last stretch just above Husum, where I almost passed him, but ended up dropping the falls right behind him and finishing in 3rd.

Photo by Joel Policar

Kevin Yount came in 4th, but there was a considerable gap between us. River Dave came in 5th with Rochelle just behind him. Hell yeah. Two girls reprezentin! Docta P came in somewhere in the middle of the pack. My one goal of the Gorge Games was to beat Docta P. I thought that he was the one to beat. All the hype was on him, all the news articles, all the cameras were on him, and he was the favorite going into the Games. And I kicked his ass. Hell yeah.
Once the race was over, it was all hugs and high fives. Overall, I thought there was a great display of sportsmanship from most of the riverboarders. There was one poor sport in the bunch, but that didn't bring the rest of us down. Congrats to Sean O'Shea and Alex Koutzoukis on their 1st and 2nd place wins! They earned it!

The next race was at 3 pm and I spent the rest of the day still freaking out about more racing. The second event was the Timed Sprint. It started at the cliff jump at BZ and then ended in the last wave of Maytag Rapid (Top Drop). That frickin cliff jump got me so freaked out and so nervous that I actually think it made me race better. My first time was 2:18 and my second time was 2:16. My two times were overall faster than everyone's and I got 1st place in the Sprint event. Hell yeah. Congrats to Rory Camm for coming in 2nd, and Alex Koutzoukis for 3rd. Both those boys had times like 3/100ths of a second faster than me, but their other runs were slower times.
So, day 1 was over, and I had 3rd place in the Extreme Downriver Race, and 1st place in the Timed Sprint under my belt. It felt good. I've never been so sore in my life.... but it was a good sore, a rewarding pain. I spent Saturday laying low and preparing for Sunday's events.

Photo by Joel Policar

Sunday started out with the Surfing Event at Rattlesnake Rapid. Rattlesnake was stompy and not easy to surf. A bunch of boys from Idaho that competed at the PBR Whitewater event showed up and reprezented. I didn't even make it to the semi-finals. But I think I scored one point! Ha ha. It was fun. Levi Gallas totally laid it down and killed it. He came in 1st, followed by Morgan from Idaho, and Rory took 3rd with his crazy board throwing spin move. Good stuff.

The last event of the Gorge Games was the Boardercross Event. I had been... guess what... nervous! Since it was such a full contact mass start off that friggin cliff, I was all freaked out again. We ended up racing from the put- in right above Maytag Rapid, and then racing to an undetermined location. I was less nervous about the race now, but still freaking out. I was in the first heat with Kevin Yount and a guy named John. I came in 1st, but didn't see the finish line, and neither did Kevin. So, they changed the finish, and we had to re-race. Aaaah!

Ok, same thing, 10 minutes later. I came in 1st again and advanced to the Semi-finals. Next race... me, Rory, and Docta P. I was nervous. At the start I got clobbered by both of them, and started in the back. I almost passed Rory, but ran into him in Maytag and came in last. No finals for me. Props to Rochelle for coming in 2nd!! and Alex Koutzoukis came in 3rd. Docta P came in 1st, and in my mind, displayed the most poor sportsmanship I've ever seen. I think the P stands for Poor Sport. Boo.

I came in 2nd place overall. Alex Koutzoukis came in 1st, and Rory Camm came in 3rd. I think that's awesome. In a world full of dudes, it was nice to reprezent for the ladies and give those boys a run for their money. I hope my win is motivational for some more ladies to come out and compete next year.

All in all, I thought the weekend went awesome! It was a great display of riverboarders from all over. It was so nice to meet some of the people I've been hearing about for so long, like Alex and Levi. It was good to see Kevin and Dave again. I'm really glad to have met Rory and Rochelle and Sean and John... all the people I met this weekend. A big thanks to Josh Galt/Ice for organizing everything and making it happen so smoothly. I bet that was hard. Thanks to the Gorge Games for having a Riverboarding category. It was a great display of people doing what they love and getting to share it with each other and the world. Experiences of a lifetime packed into one weekend. Good times.

Dinner at the Tacqueria, clockwise;
Me, Dave Boucke, Josh Galt, Levi Gallas,
Rory Camm, Kevin Yount, Rochelle Parry,
Eric PetersonJohn Walker, Alex Koutzoukis

PBR Whitewater Event

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:24:00 +0000

I got to the surfing competition with my best friend Jenny, 2 hrs before it started on Friday and checked in. Turns out it was a junior freestyle comp with a junior boogie boarding comp in the middle of it... and I was not a junior.... but I competed anyways and made it to the semi finals but not the finals. All the 14 year olds schooled me with their light limber bodies.
Surfing the Gutter

So.. the wave that they had it on was the Gutter wave, which was pretty small and it was not easy to surf with the Ripboard. Ice showed up and lent me the new Carlson surfer to try.. which was easier to surf but hard to stay on. I lost anyways. Whatever. The whole thing was kind of dissappointing.

So after that, my friend Steve showed up and we went out to the Bladder Wave which was the bigger hole. It had a really big bladder in the middle of the river that they can inflate and change the shape of the wave. It was 9,000 or so cfs and the eddy lines around it were crazy. So I spent an hour and a half trying to get on the wave and getting my ass kicked in the eddy lines... couldn't stay on the wave for more than a few seconds... it was HARD WORK to catch that thing.

So, that night, we went to the party next to Otter Slide Rapid and hung out with all the kayakers and rafting teams. I saw a bunch of people that I knew from WV and met a bunch of new people. Good stuff.

The next day, Saturday, we got some breakfast and then headed to the Staircase section, where they were doing the raft and kayak races. I talked to the organizer dude and he wouldn't let me compete with the kayakers, but told me to just get out there and board and show people... so I did. My friend Steve and I did 2 laps on the Staircase section, at 7,000 cfs, each lap took us around 40 mins. So, we did our 2 laps right in the middle of the races, between rafting teams, keeping out of the way, with maximum people watching. It was sweet. Got the whole crowd cheering both times. The Staircase section of the S. Fork of the Payette was a super fun run. It was big, fun, and fast.

Hounds Tooth Rapid on the N. Fork

After the 2nd run, Steve, Jenny and I drove up to the N. Fork of the Payette to scout the lower 5 rapids. Some of them looked good to go, but a lot of it didn't. So, after that, I went back to the Bladder wave to try to get my ass kicked again... but was too tired and hungry to get out there... ended up getting some dinner, then heading to the festivities in the town of Crouch. I met a lot of people there and talked about riverboarding and about making it a real event in the PBR event next year. I thought I got a lot of respect from other people about my sport. I talked with a bunch of people about getting on the N. Fork lower 5 rapids the next day too.

Sunday, I got up and couldn't find anyone to go boating with. I went up to the N. Fork of the Payette to watch the kayak race. I watched the race and took some video... which was super entertaining, then headed to the put in for the Staircase section again. I saw a bunch of cool boaters that were hanging out the night before and went down the river with about 15 of em. They asked me all kinds of questions about riverboarding and Ripboards. I think it was an awesome way to get out there and get the thought of riverboarding in people's heads.
Everyone was impressed. Good stuff.

By then it was 2 pm and I had to go back to Boise and spend some time with my friend Jenny. I headed back to Boise feeling like I accomplished a lot for riverboarding this weekend. I had a lot of interest. A lot of people said they wanted to try, but then didn't... so I gave them a brochure to check out the website. I really feel like I did all I could to be a good riverboarding representative... and Ripboard representative. I think it turned out really well too.

So, from my perspective, the weekend went really well. I'm super stoked on the amount of people I met and talked about boarding with, and went riverboarding with. People are starting to take our sport more seriously and that's cool to see and make happen.

When I got back to Boise, I went on a really fun bike ride with Steve and Jenny on the Greenbelt, a long trail that goes all through Boise. Good times. We went to a Nature Preserve and had a great afternoon! YAY IDAHO!

Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge.... Team Wet Planet!

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:51:00 +0000

This year, I decided to start a Wet Planet team in the Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge. Our team is me, Todd Collins, Heather Herbeck, Andy Round, and Gynner Paris.
The Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge is a competition to see who can boat the most vertical feet in one month. It started on May 15th and goes till June 15th. The Vertical Challenge is also a competition to see who can get the most donations towards First Descents, a kayaking and outdoor experience camp for young adults with cancer. It's a pretty good cause, and it's a good motivator to get out on the river.
It's May 26th and Team Wet Planet is in 3rd place! We have 17,035 ft! Check out our standings at the Eddy Flower site.
http://www.eddyflower.com/VerticalStandings.aspx

For the next 2 weeks, I'm still accepting donations for the Challenge. First Descents is an awesome cause... and any donation would be greatly appreciated!
So, wish us luck in the next 2 weeks! We'll be vertin it up!!

Back home.... wherever that is...

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:42:00 +0000

Well, I made it home.....

I'm in upstate NY for the moment hanging out with the 'rents. I'm in Cobleskill, NY. It's pretty rural and really pretty. It was kind of a shock to go from 85 and sunny to 15 and snowy... but I'm managing. I like snow.
I got a job at a really cool ski, snowboard, and bike shop, Plaine and Son. I really like it. I even made me some cool friends here. Woo hoo.

It wasn't as much of a culture shock as I thought it would be, coming back to the US. I definately return home with a different perspective of life, and a greater sense of self. It's a cool feeling. I've been home for about a month now, and am still missing South America, of course. I don't think I'll ever stop missing it. It is a part of me, and a part of my life. I made a lot of awesome friends down there, and I also had the opportunity to get closer to some acquaintances. It's a really cool feeling running into people you know in other countries... even cooler to hang out with them and get to know them a little better!

So lately, I've just been working away and getting ready for the long haul back out to WA. I've planned stops in WV, CO, UT, and CA along the way. Gunna take about 2 weeks to get out there and have some fun all the way acrossed the country. Yeah baby.

Had plans to go to the bar the other night, but spent too much time in the frigid night with Nate and my mom, looking at the lunar eclipse. Ha ha, gave up and watched a movie. Got some cool shots of the eclipse. It was pretty sweet. Check it.

Mendoza

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:56:00 +0000

Mendoza... wow... good times!!

After leaving Futa, John Cornwell gave Jim and I a ride to Esquel, where we took the bus to Bariloche. Jim is my new travel buddy for the week. We were heading north at the same time. Worked out well.

Jim and I took the bus from Esquel to Bariloche, spent the night in Bariloche, then left the next day for Mendoza. It was an overnight bus, so we came prepared with valium I had leftover from Peru. The 17 hr. bus ride seemed like nothing.

Along the way, I won the Bus Bingo game and won a bottle of wine! Woo hoo! Ha ha.

We arrived in Mendoza at 10 am and found us a hostel to plop our crap in, then walked around town. We found the rafting companies that our friends worked at... but not our friends. I ended up going to the hospital and getting my brain checked out cuz I was having these crazy headaches over the last week or two. The test revealed............ nothing. Well, at least I don't have a brain tumor.

The next day, Coleman showed up at our hostel! YAY! We found out about a moonlight raft trip at Argentina Rafting, where my friend Sylvio works. We talked Coleman into coming with us. We left earlier than the party bus so we could hang out with our friends and secure a spot on the moonlight float. When we got there, no one we knew was there, but Argentina Rafting was super friendly and told us where to put our stuff and what was going on. We met a guy named Mario from Argentina, who works at Clear Creek Rafting in the summer and knows Wiese and Casey! Small world.

The party bus left at 8 or 9, We went to the put in to load boats and help them get ready. They had an 8 boat float. We also loaded Jim's shredder and my board. The people all showed up around 11 pm, and about an hour later we were ready for the rio.

There were 8 boats, 8 safety kayaks, a shredder, and me on my board. The moon was full and bright...... until we put on.... it went behind the clouds and never came back out. Darkness. Lots of darkness. Pitch black on a river I'd never seen before. The river has a lot of sediment in it, it's brown, so there's really no whitewater to key off of either. Just darkness. Woo hoo.

The run ended up being pretty mellow. I was just following the barely distinguishable rafts in front of me. I got chundered in a hole I didn't see. Ha ha. It was funny. The run ended at the lake with about 1 km of flat water.

Once everyone was all showered and changed, the party began. The band started at 3 am. They kicked ass! Everyone was dancing. Coleman, Jim and I were drinking beers. Good times. The band stopped playing at 6, when the bus left to take everyone back home. About another hour later, people started going to bed.

The next day, Jim and I took the shredder out with the commercial trip. We put in higher than we did for the moonlight run. We had SO MUCH FUN shredding!!! We were coming up on a rapid that they were taking pictures of, and Jim's all waving at the camera as we're heading into this pretty big hole. "Something big! Something big!" was all I could say before I fell out... ha ha.... then I got halfway back in and we hit another wave and I fell out again! Pretty hilarious.

It was a great last day on the river in South America!

Later that day, we got a ride back to Mendoza and I packed up all my crap because I was taking the bus to Santiago the next morning so I could catch my flight. We met up with some friends we made the day before at the midnight float, and Jim had a friend from Buff Joe's, Mike (five o), who came to hang out too. Small world. Mike was working at Argentina Rafting totally by coincidence and neither of them knew eachother was there until they ran into eachother. Coleman was a little punk and didn't show up to hang out.

We went to a bar called Moe's... like Moe from the Simpsons.... totally randomly awesome! It's like a tienda in the front, but a bar in the back... so you buy your beer at the tienda and then go in the back and drink it. What a concept!

So long Futa

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:29:00 +0000

The time has come for me to leave Futa. I've been here a month and a half.

I've met so many amazing people, and had so many great experiences, it makes it hard to say goodbye.

It was a good month for boarding down in Patagonia. I got to surf on the Espolon wave, I got to riverboard the Futaleufu 6 times at different flows, and I got a 1st descent of a riverboard on the Rio Azul!

And of course I'll miss my H20 Homies!
Thanks H20 Patagonia for the amazing experience! Love you guys!

I'm really gunna miss it here....

Espolon Event

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Pueblo Espolon.....

Today was a big event in the tiny town of Espolon to inform them about the proposed mines in their area and let them know what kind of an impact it would have on them, their town, their quality of life, and the lives of others in their watershed.
It was great. We took the ferry acrossed the Lago Espolon fully loaded with people and stuff. H20 took their trip up there to bike up to the event, then raft back down to the ferry.

The presentation was interesting. It was all in español, but I understood a lot of it. They showed a video about the mines in Esquel, Argentina and it´s impacts on that community. They talked about the road that they are building and it´s impacts, and it´s direct involvement with the mines. It was very informative for me, as well as the locals.

A lot of rafting companies represented as well. There were like 10 or more of us from H20, including Brian, the owner. There were about 8 from EX Chile, and about the same from Bio Bio. Brian came to reprezent for Earth River. It was a great turnout.

After the presentation, there was a big asado with 4 lambs and TONS of food. Our trip left to go rafting and I stayed for a little while to hang out at the asado. I left on the first ferry back, which takes about an hour to cross the lake.

It wa sa great day for everyone, gringos and locals. I rode my bike home from the lake, which is about 10 km... and kicked my ass, but in a good way. All in all, it was a great day for the community. I´m glad I could be a part.

Christmas and New Years in Patagonia

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:24:00 +0000

I have to say that I had the best Christmas ever in Futaleufu this year.

I found Jess, who works at Class VI, here rafting some and working with Mitch and other locals for her senior thesis on dams and mines on the Futa. I've been staying with her in town, with Umberto, who's a Chilean training with me, and Brian, who's from the US and works in Idaho. I've been hanging out with a pretty big crowd of people, some Canadians, Frenchies, Argentinians, only a few from the US, a Colombian, an Italian, and a bunch of Chilenos. There's like 15 or more of us. We've been hanging out since it's the holidays and not a lot of people are working.

So, Christmas Eve, we all planned to each make a dish from where we're from and have a pot luck, and then later go to a big Asado with people from all over town. Our "family" dinner was great. Jess and I made a cherry and apple cobbler together. Brian made a stew, Colo made some potato dish,and Josie made a pumpkin pie. Everyone else said they would make something, but ended up getting drunk instead... ha ha. They brought beer and liquor.. ha ha that
was their contribution.

We ate all together, then headed to the Casa Azul, the Futa Explore house to have an asado with 2 lambs and hang out with everyone. There was a 96 year old woman there partying with us. It was her 96th birthday on Xmas eve. Really cool lady. It turned into a huge party after a while, and we all rallied to the disco down the road. The disco is the shit. Always good times guaranteed at the Futa disco. Ha ha.

I remember the sun coming up as I walked home from the disco.... and Colo dropping the cobbler in the dirt ha ha.

Christmas day, we all got up and had leftovers for breakfast, then rallied to the Rio Espolon to a play wave with 3 kayaks and my board. We spent 7 hours there, playing around, drinking chicha, hanging out. Everyone tried kayaking and everyone tried riverboarding. It was a blast. The board was a hit.... as usual.

We cooked a bunch of hot dogs on a fire... it was great. It really reminded me of good times at Canyon Doors. We headed home around 7pm and had an awesome italian dinner made by the best Italian chef in Futa.. and then all passed out early.

We really have this tight international family here. I feel like Futa is home and I'm surrounded by family. I really am loving it here. Every day is better than the last.
So... I didn't have a horrible xmas all alone... as I had feared. I was surrounded by family and love, just like it should be.

New Years was a good one too....
I rowed the safety raft down the Rio Espolon all day, and then got a ride into town for the fiesta later that night.
I bought a bottle of White Horse Whiskey and it disappeared quickly... ha ha. There was definately an asado and a disco involved in the evening.
The next day, New Years day, we had a trip on the Rio Azul, and I was riverboarding along. I was drunk till about 2 pm when we put on... It was all I could do to keep from vomiting while puting my wetsuit on.. ha ha. But, made it through the day puke free and sobered up within the first 3 rapids. Ha ha. It was a pretty leisurely day, since everyone was pretty hung over. Good times. Pelado was in a ducky, Sarah was kayaking, Aren was kayaking, Mitch was rowing Brian and Henrick down, while they drank beers, and Hernan took a raft of people down. Really fun day.

Finger Update

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:08:00 +0000

The digit is doing well. The wound is finally closed and I am able to do stuff normally again. I still have no feeling in half of my finger, but the tip works, and the rest of it works, so I´m happy.

Lookin good.

I am happy with it´s progress. Tee hee.

Futa Life

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:16:00 +0000

Futaleufu...... it´s amazing here!

The town of Futaleufu is gorgeous. It´s a really tranquil, super calm place. Everyone and everything is really laid back. It´s in the middle of nowhere, which kind of slows down time.
There´s beautiful snow capped peaks in every direction.

I´m staying in the H20 Patagonia guide house, which is newly remodeled. It´s the nicest guide house I´ve ever seen. It´s one of the nicest places I´ve lived in! And who can beat the location!?

Out my livingroom window, I can see two different snowy peaks. It´s awesome!

The interior is great. They haven´t quite finished remodeling, but we´re finishing what they didn´t. It´s great little afternoon projects..... and excuses for drinking beer..... for me and my house-mates.

My roomies are this really cool couple from Switzerland. Mark and Fabi. They´re great. It´s just the three of us in the house, which is even more awesome. We have family meals together... hee hee... it´s great.

The Rio Futaleufu

I got on the river for the first time the day after I got here. It´s BIG. It´s low water right now... and it´s still BIG. Big, beautiful rapids. I´m really stoked to run it on my board.... but I feel like I should learn the lines a bit better to avoid a total ass kicking the first time. I´m really stoked to run Mundaca on my board. It´s one of the bigger rapids on the Bridge to Bridge section. I don´t have any pics of my own yet.... but they´re coming...

Lots of stuff to do
When I´m bored.... I can go on a bike ride. Which I usually do once a day. I tried to bike to Inferno Canyon the other day, but the rain beat me there, and I had to turn around in the downpour. I got some cool pics though.

It´s beautiful here, even when it´s raining.

I boarded the Rio Azul and got a 1st descent on a riverboard! It was pretty fun, class 3 stuff. The Azul has spectacular views of Tres Munjas, which is a pretty sweet mountain.

The put-in is beautiful too!

Yesterday, Fabi, Mark, Mitch and I went hiking up the little creek near H20 base to try to find access for canyoneering trips. Fabi and I split from them and hiked up to a waterfall higher up.

I´m loving it here! I´m planning on spending a month here, just training since there´s not really any work. I´m plenty happy training and chillin here in this amazing place!

Pucon

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:39:00 +0000

Pucon is a giant eddy. You end up in it, and it´s very hard to leave. You think you´re just about to break through the eddy line, and you get distracted, ending up right where you just were.
Pucon is awesome. There is so much to do here. There´s lakes, rivers, mountains, volcanos. It´s great. The town is great too. It´s just like Jackson Hole, or Aspen, or any other mountainy, outdoorsy, touristy town. Things are expensive, and there´s lots of tourists.

We met a cool dude named Rodrigo, who owns Kayak Pucon. Within seconds of meeting Rodrigo, we ran into LJ Groth and Todd Anderson. We work on the White Salmon with LJ, he works at All Star Rafting. Todd owns a kayaking company in Hood River. What a small world. Rodrigo´s parents own some cabañas just out of town where LJ and Todd were staying. They invited us to sleep on their floor that night. That was nice because I had just chopped my frickin finger off and was not in good shape.
The next day we got our own cabaña there. A nice 4 bedroom. We got a good deal from Rodrigo too.
The view from our cabin is awesome.

Our second night in Pucon, we had a Chilean barbecue. So... what you do is you buy as much meat as you think you could possibly eat and then some, and then you buy some bread and you make an ahí salsa.
I ate so much friggin meat I thougt I was gunna vomit, and then I ate more meat. Ha ha... It was so good though.
SO MUCH MEAT!!
Chillin before the bbq. Rodrigo and Emma talking to the Swiss dudes.

We followed up the bbq by playing Hot Shalaca with the coals. Good times.

Pucon is great. Great people. Great whitewater. Great scenery. I´m loving it.
We went with Ben, Scott and Andy on a couple of their runs. It was really cool. We hiked to a really waterfall, Salto Buey, while setting shuttle for them.

Pucon´s been great so far. Can´t wait to have more fun here.

Choppa Choppa Choppa

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:04:00 +0000

Well, my time came once again. Time to injure myself.... ha ha. This time it was a good one.

After we left Santiago, we went to Siete Tazas, a series of waterfalls halfway to Pucon. We camped there and the boys had an epic ascent from the valley above an unrunnable unportagable rapid. They had to hike back in the next morning to get their boats out, and it took quite a while. But they´re all ok, and everything´s good.
It was beautiful there.

We left Siete Tazas early to avoid paying the park fees, and were off to Pucon, with 7 people crammed into a pickup truck. With 7 people´s bags, 3 kayaks, and one riverboard all in the back. It was tight.

We stopped for lunch around 3... and filled up the truck at a gas station. We were making cheese and avocado sandwiches. I started cutting the paltas (avocados). To get the pits out, you hit them with the knife to sink it a bit, then twist and pull the pit out. I was working with Ben´s new Gerber Diesel (we´ve been talking about the Diesel and its superiority this whole trip) which is pretty much the sharpest thing I´ve ever seen. I hit the pit with the knife.... it went through the pit, through the palta, and through my finger.
It instantly started bleeding everywhere, and I knew it was pretty bad. I ran into the bathroom... for some reason my logic was to bleed in the sink... yelling "I just cut my finger really bad! It´s really bad!" all the way to the bathroom.
I got the bleeding to stop after like 5 minutes and Andy cleaned it and steri stripped it and we bandaged it up. Pucon was 3 hours away... so we went.
We got into Pucon around 6 and I immediately went to the emergency room with Emily. They took off the steri strips off and looked at it and took me into another room. They laid me down and put my hand on a metal table. They numbed it.... num num num.. ha ha. ... which hurt pretty bad. Once numbed.... num num num... ha ha... he opened it up and cleaned it. I couldn´t see what was going on really. He told Emily that I had cut an artery and that we should look. I looked up only to see blood spurting everywhere. Aaah. I laid back down.
The doctor stitched up the artery and realigned the nerve so that it could heal back together. Then he stitched the wound on the outside. 5 stitches. Not so bad.

10 days total. 5 days in the splint, then 5 more days till the stitches could come out. No getting it wet for 5 days. Bah. There went all my whitewater plans in Pucon.

So... 5 days later, I took it out of the splint and it looks pretty good. It feels relatively fine, besides the shooting nerve damage pain. That´s the worst part. It goes from weird tingly to shooting pain without notice. For the most part I have all my movement back, just some of it is excrutiatingly painful. Yay. Hopefully this will greatly improve every day.

Choppa choppa choppa. The finger will survive.

Rio Apurimac

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:30:00 +0000

The Rio Apurimac was by far my favorite river we ran in Peru.

We decided to do the Black Canyon section as well as the commercial section and went shopping for 6 days of food for the trip. We left Cusco around 2 or 3 pm, with 7 people, Andy, Emily, Ben, Scott, Me, Hootie, and Drew. We had one raft, with Drew, Emily and Hootie in it. I riverboarded, Ben, Scott and Andy kayaked.
We drove into the town of Naiwa. The drive was spectacular and we had an awesome sunset on the descent. It was dark when we got into the tiny town, and we were greeted by the entire town.... really wasted drunk. We lugged our gear through town and to the soccer field next to the school. We had a palta and pan dinner and went to bed.
Day 1:
We woke up in one of the most beautiful places. It must be awesome to live in Naiwa. It was a bit of a walk from the soccer field to the river, so it took us a while to rig and put on. We put on around 10:15. It wass a pool - drop river, with class 2-4 stuff throughout the day. The pools were long. The first day was really leisurely, stopping for lunch on a nice sandy beach, while a local watched from a rock above. We were on the water about 4 hours, then found a nice campsite. We made a fire and had rice n veggies for dinner and some delicious pudding for desert. Num num num.

Day 2: In a nutshell.....
Lots of flatwater. I started out riverboarding and got tows on the back of Andy´s kayak... which was really fun. I got in the raft after the SOOOOPA long pool.. I was over it. At lunch, everyone but Andy got in the raft and we towed the kayaks. There were some fun rapids, so we all got out and into our respective crafts for a while... then it got flat again and I got back into the raft and Andy came too. So everyone spent time in the raft on day 2. Ha ha. We found an awesome huge sandy beach camp... we were loving it!

Day 3:In a nutshell.....
I rode in the raft because all we could see was flat. It was pretty much flatwater all day so I was stoked on my decision. We reached the orange bridge around noon, which meant we were out of the Black Canyon and at the start of the commercial section. There was a little tienda at the top of the bridge, so we went up and got some arroz con huevos (eggs and rice) and bought some firewater... I think it was straight up alcohol... like rubbing alcohol.. ha ha. We bought some Coca Cola too... which is the most best tasting here.
We headed downstream like 20 more minutes and found a nice sandy beach on river right. We set up camp super early. We flipped over the raft and were doing otter slides.... super fun.

Around 10 pm, it started pouring rain and kept raining till 7 am. The river didn´t really come up at all though.

Day 4: Best Day Yet!!

We had a slow morning and put on around 9. It was a super cool, super chill trip. No expectations, no rush, nowhere to be. It was great. The vibe and the energy of everyone was just awesome!! It was a great escape from party central Cusco.

The river got more constricted, steeper, and there started to be huge granite boulders everywhere. The canyon changed from the black, conglomerate rock in the Black Canyon, to this beautiful, white granite cliffs and boulders. The rapids got progressively bigger until we reached the big one.

The water went along the right wall with some slots at the top, then into two big holes. The first, a huge diagonal hole, and the second one considerably bigger and stompier than the first. I started far right, working to the middle, hitting the first hole and going kinda deep. I resurfaced just in time to go into the big munchy one. I went deep. I was underwater for a few seconds... came up upside down and rolled back up. It was awesome!

Ben and Scott also got flipped in that hole. The raft styled it. We found out later that was the Portage rapid. Ha ha. So much for portaging it... huh. It was good to go.

Just below the portage rapid was another big one. It was a steep drop with just a HUGE hole in it. Everyone ran it and disappeared and then came up upside down. I ran it and was underwater for quite a bit of time.... about 8 seconds. The video´s funny.... all you see is me pop up at the bottom. Ha ha.

There was another rapid with a steep drop with a bunch of rocks in it. I dropped it and hit a rock with my left hip. I hovered on the rock just long enough to think to myself... "Am I body pinned?" which was pretty freaky. I kicked myself free. I got a really purty bruise and it was pretty tender for a day or two. That was my most freaky experience on my board.... maybe ever.

We got to another big rapid called Purgatory. It´s the one all the pictures of the Apurimac are of. It was all up on the left wall and there were some huge holes and pourovers. Andy got a little worked, which was entertaining because it´s so rare. At the bottom of the rapid, the river went through 2 small slots. Both about the width of a kayak. The raft had no way through. We had to portage it. It was quick and easy.

Another 1/4 mile downstream we found a great camp on the right, acrossed from a side creek with a beautiful canyon. We found a little cliff with some trees to chill out on and watch the sunset. It was awesome. The Apurimac is a beautiful river. I think it is my favorite just for it´s beauty. The white granite boulders are so amazing. The water is so clear you can see the bottom and every rock underwater.

Day 5: My parent´s Anniversary, 11-17
While we were rigging the boat and getting ready to put on, a commercial trip floated by. The guide came over to our beach and said hi, and that Gian Marco told him we would be there. Ha ha... small world. They kept going down river. We put on and had some pretty mellow rapids until we ran into those guys eating lunch. We stopped to say hi and get some beta about what was downstream. The nice guide gave us some paltas, naranjas, and platanos. We floated a little further downstream and ate all our yummy food we just recieved. ¨
"After lunch, the fun factor went to 10." - Baker. There was a rapid with a NICE 4 foot drop at the bottom and a few more class 3 rapids until we got to what looked like the place to scout the big one.
It was big. It was called Tooth Ache. It had a 5 foot boof at the top. The water all went into a rock on the left side, then into a huge hole, followed by a pourover, followed by another pourover. It was BIG and pushy. I walked it. They lined the raft. Only the kayakers ran it.
We started looking for camp after that, but we didn´t see a beach before the next rapid.
The next one was cool. It was called You First. All the water went into 2 huge boulders in the middle. There was a line to the left, squeezing between one of the middle rocks and a rock on the left shore. Everyone styled it. It was a sweet one.
Right after that we found a beach on the right. We ate well that night. We all sat and stared at the fire for a while and said what we were grateful for.... a Hootie original that I love.... it´s a great way to reflect on the wonderful trip we had. Yay.

Day 6: Andy´s Birthday!
We got up at 7... which was early for us on this trip.. and did yoga with Andy for about 45 min... until the bugs tore us up. We got out of camp early. We were trying to get to the take out before the commercial trip so we could be all packed and ready and try and catch a shuttle out with them.
The first big rapid we got to, the river split. We went right, which was shallow, but at the bottom, the 2nd half of the rapid was awesome. Steep with nice waves and holes.
Right after that was another big one. There was a steep line on the right with a big hole at the top and a huge pourover in the middle at the bottom. It was sweet!
From there, the rapids mellowed out. I started getting tows from Andy again in the flatwater, and then got in the raft for 30 mins till the take out. We got to the take out at the same time as the gear boat from the commercial trip. We unloaded and rolled the raft. The commercial trip said they had plenty of room for us on their bus... sweeeeet.... free shuttle.
We ate lunch there at the take out and then headed back to Cusco with the numpty´s on the bus.
They dropped us off right in front of Pierro´s house... he owns Terra Explorer Peru... where we rented the raft from... he´s also Gian Marco´s brother. Cool dude. Pierro wasn´t there... we were locked out... all our stuff was inside.... so we got a hostal acrossed the street and waited for him to come home. Ha ha. He didn´t come home till the next day. We returned the raft n gear and got all our stuff and hung out with Pierro the next day.

The Apurimac was AWESOME! I have some of my fondest Peru memories from the Apurimac. Chill vibes, great whitewater, awesome people, positive attitudes, everything made the trip magic. None of us wanted to leave once we got to the take out. Good times. Nothing but smiles from everyone all 6 days.

I love these pics of us all doing our own silly things and loving life!!

Drew Hootie ScottMe AndyBenEmily

Machu Picchu

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:39:00 +0000

Machu Picchu was AWESOME!!!!

We got up at 4 am to hike up there.,.. and ended up leaving at 4:40. The hike up was pretty long and pretty hard. Lots of stairs and lots of vertical. We got to the top at 6 am. It wasn´t open yet, so we waited till 6:30 and then went in.
We got grouped with all the kids on the other treks that we met on our jungle trek for our Machu Picchu tour. So that was cool we knew some people. Our tour guide was pretty funny. He kept talking smack about Japanese tourists and making us laugh.

When we got there, the clouds were really low, there were no tourists, and it was all surreal. It gave it this cool feeling. It was sweet.
We got through half the tour and got to the Waynapicchu trailhead. We broke off the tour and decided to hike up there because they only allow 400 people a day, and there was no one there yet.
The hike up to Waynapicchu was REALLY vigorous, but it was SO worth it. We hung out up at the ruins at the top for like an hour and a half. There was really not a lot of people up there, which made it a really cool experience.

We hiked back down and finished the rest of tour on our own. The Temple of the Condor was my favorite part, I think. It was just really cool and had these tunnels and secret passages in it. Sweet.

We spent about 5 hours there, then got hungry and needed to use the bathroom, so we began the hike back down to Aguas Calientes. We got there just in time to catch the train to Ollantaytambo, and then a bus back to Cusco.
Machu Picchu was a surreal experience. I´m glad I went, and I would go back in a heartbeat!!

Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:55:00 +0000

We decided to go on a 4 day jungle trek to get to Machu Picchu. We went to BioCustoms and haggled and got a trip for $160 US. So that was a pretty good deal. It was 1 day of mountain biking, and 2 days of hiking, then 1 day at Machu Picchu. Good stuff.

Day 1 toward Machu Picchu:

We met at the agency in the morning and got in a cab to go to the bus station. We got on a bus for 4 hours and headed into the jungle. At one point we were at 14,000 feet. It was a pretty cool ride.

We got off the bus and got our bikes. They didn´t have enough helmets for all of us... so Drew and our guide Gabriel went without one. The bike ride was just on this bumpy dirt road. I got 3 flat tires, Hootie had 1, and Drew had 1. Fun stuff. We´d just stop at a bike repair shop in the next tiny town we got to and fix it. Not a huge deal.

While we were riding by, all the kids would run out to say hi and give you a high five. The kids here are super cute.

We got to Santa Maria about dark (5:45) and found our hostal, showered and had a great dinner. It was the town´s anniversary so we went to this big fiesta and hung out for a while. Soaked up some local culture and some drunk guys breath. Good times. Ha ha.

Day 2 Toward Machu Picchu:

Coca leaves are God´s gift to man. It´s SO GOOD and SO GOOD for you. We suck on the leaves, and drink MAD maté de coca, and buy things with coca in it like candy and granola bars. There is a possibility that it´s addictive..... nah.

We started hiking next to the Rio Vilcanota. It´s a pretty cool river. We cut off onto a smaller trail and went STRAIGHT UP the mountain for a while until we connected with a piece of the inka trail.

We stopped at a hut with free bananas and cold drinks. We were hanging out with another trekking group and they were pretty cool. Some from Canada, some from Florida, some from Amsterdam. Good times. We also stopped for lunch with them in this really cool village with puppies and chicks and roosters and tons of fun animals. We lounged in hammocks for a while, then kept going.

The trail finally went down and we got to Aguas Terminales around 5. The 7 hours of hiking was worth it for these hot springs!!! They´re pretty much in the middle of nowhere.... which makes them cooler. It was 7 soles to get in... that´s less than 2 bucks. They were AWESOME. There was flowing water through all of them so they weren´t stagnant or anything. Perfect temperature, and a cold waterfall just in case you got too hot.

We hung out there for a few hours then got in a kombi and went to Santa Teresa where we stayed the night in a pretty ghetto hostal. Ha ha. I mean ghetto.... but the bed was cumfy and that´s all that matters.

We went to dinner with the 7 of us.. Me, Hootie, Drew, Brian, the two italians with us, Marco and Sara, and our guide Gabriel. Good times.

Day 3 toward Machu Picchu:
Best Day Yet. We got up early and got into a kombi and went to a really cool waterfall. I guess not many tourists go there, which was cool. Our guide Gabriel was good for stuff like that. We spent about an hour there and then headed out.

We stopped at another waterfall which was a diversion tunnel for a hydro plant. It was pretty cool too. We got to our lunch spot early and had a nice early lunch. We stopped at some old Inca ruins after lunch that were really cool. There was a sundial, and I guess there were only two or something... the one there.. and the one at Machu Picchu. It was cool, standing on the sundial, you could see Machu Picchu way up on the mountain far away.

From there on, we walked along the train tracks all the way to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu.

When we got to Aguas Calientes, we put our bags in our room and left for Putucusi, the peak acrossed from Machu Picchu so we could watch the sun set over the ruins. OH MY GOD! I haven´t done a hike that hard in a long time. It was straight up. Literally.

We climbed up ladders and steps to go straight up the mountain. Gabriel said it would take us at least an hour. We mobbed it in 45 minutes. Me, Brian and Gabriel were up at the top for about 45 minutes before Hootie, and the frenchies (the french couple Vincent and Lucy) got to the top. It was spectacular. We watched the sun go behind the clouds behind Machu Picchu. It was so cool.

The hike down was pretty sketchy in the half-dark. Ha ha. Hootie lost his wallet on the way down too... but that´s another story... a long one. ... On the way down we descended 2,000 feet in 20 minutes. Good stuff.
We went back to Aguas Calientes and had some pizza and Hootie, Brian and Gabriel went back to look for the wallet.. like I said... longer... different story.
We went to bed around 11.. without the wallet... and planned to get up at 4 am to hike to Machu Picchu.

Rio Cotahuasi

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:42:00 +0000

The Cotahuasi was EPIC!!!! It started out epic... and continued to be epic.. until it had an epic ending..... this one´s gunna be a long one...

We started out in the town of Cotahuasi and went on a day trip to the Upper Cotahuasi. We went to go to some hot springs while the kayakers went to go yakin. It was pretty big sievy class 5 stuff, so we dropped them off and watched from the road like 2,000 feet above the river. The first rapid, Brian swam and ended up hiking out this pretty agro hike to the bus again. We ended up watching them run the entire section from the road and not going to the hot springs because they wanted to overcharge us because we were gringos. We got pissed off and left.

We left Cotahuasi for the Cotahuasi river on the 22nd, I think. We hiked in with mules again, but this hike was much mellower than the Colca hike, and way less scenic. It was 16 km, I think. We did go by Sipia Falls though, which is a 400 ft. waterfall. That was pretty scenic. It was very desert-y and cactus-y. We got to the river and then ferried all our gear acrossed and spent the night.

We decided to have a layover day there so that the kayakers could run another section of the Cotahuasi that day.. and we hiked into the town nearby. It was really cool. We went to the school and hung out with the kids and Brian (Dos Metros) picked papayas out of tall trees for this dude. Good stuff. We also hiked up this cool flash flood run out that went straight up. There was a dead rattlesnake up there.. .kinda creepy.

Day 1.... crazy day number 1.
In one of the first rapids... Hootie lost an oar. Gone. We tried to get it out from some rocks but we couldn´t see it.. and then eventually gave up because we had to keep moving. So they paddle rafted from then on. In one of the next rapids, Hootie´s raft (Hootie, Sara, Emily) flipped and we lost some food. Gian Marco got all pissed and decided he should guide the raft, so he hopped in. They got through one rapid and then flipped. Gear was floating everywhere, people too. I was the gear fetching riverboarder for a bit.

After that, we got our shit together. The river was really low. It was steep, technical, and continuous. It was a challenge for sure. There are 2 rafts, one raft with 4 people, gear, and a kayak strapped on it, one gear raft, one ducky, one riverboarder, and 8 kayakers. It´s a lot of boats on a technical river. So we sent out 5 kayakers, and me riverboarding out front to scout and give signals, then 2 kayakers, 2 rafts and the ducky in the back all running together.
Drew was killing it on the oars. I ´can´t tell you how impressed we all were with his rowing ability. He´s styling everything.

We camped the first night at an inca ruin. It was sick. Took some cool photos I´ll put up on the blog when I can. There´s a lot of inca ruins on the Cotahuasi. There´s also some civilization unlike the Colca. It´s cool.

Day 2.... The wall.... not as agro as the 1st day....
We got a later start in the morning. Ben threw up and I had poop urgency. We got on the water and had some bigger rapids right away. We scouted probably 7 times today.
Around noon we hit the biggest and longest one, " The Wall". It was, long, technical, narrow, and BIG... and it was all against the left wall. Everyone styled it. We went down half way and set safety for the rafts, then ran the rest. No prob.All the rapids had some pretty fun moves to make in them... with big consequences. Lots of undercuts.. lots of sieves. We had a portage after lunch. They lined the rafts, the ducky and I walked it. It was gnarly.

DAY 3... one word... MARPA.
We left camp a little earlier in the morning. We didn´t make it to the camp we wanted to get to the night before, so we were trying to make up time and catch up a bit to where we should be...
There was some steep read and run stuff until we got to Marpa. This was the big one. We all got out and scouted it and it was longer and stouter with big hydraulics. There were moves you HAD to make.

The paddle raft went first and made it look easy. All the kayakers were placed along shore with throwropes near all the big hydraulics. Then Christina and Roberto went through. Next up was me. It went so well. Hit all the lines I wanted to and caught the eddy I needed to catch. Plan A.. sweet!

Next up was Drew in the oar rig. He dropped in and all I heard was whistles and people running upstream. He had pinned his boat in the top drop right above the rapid between a rock and the undercut wall. UNDER WATER. All the gear. This was around 10 am.

Then all the gear started slowly washing downstream... a barrell... a cooler.. a dry bag.... lots of gear and food running the gnar. All the kayakers ferried acrossed to river right and set up a z-drag. The boat didn´t budge. We snapped ropes, we snapped D-rings.. boat didn´t move. Around 2 pm we gave up... we decided to camp on shore next to the pinned boat.

They unloaded all that we hadn´t lost from the gear raft, while we unloaded all the stuff from the paddle raft and hiked around and up the rapid. While we were hiking, the boat came off. Amazingly, the boat was fine!

We were all run down and tired and had lost a lot of gear. We lost quite a bit of food, some of Gian Marco´s gear, Emily´s water filter, my spare flippers, the stern frame, raft repair kits, ah geez. It wasn´t looking so good for us.

We ate soggy pasta for dinner because that was all we had. It was a quiet night at camp. Drew kept apologizing even though he didn´t need to. Wasn´t his fault. Shit happens. The Cotahuasi was laying the smack down on us again. We have to get outta here in 2 days or else we run out of food.

Did I mention that Gian Marco had never seen it this low? So we didn´t know how long it would take to get out. Yee haw! Day 3.. Marpa... wha´d I tell ya.

DAY 4.... More big stuff... Less Drama...

Drew finally ran Marpa at the beginning of the day. Styled it. For some reason, Gian Marco decided to jump into Marpa and swim the last drop.. and I guess he hit his head in it.
All the biggest rapids were on day 4. We had Meter Canyon, a steep drop into a slot smaller than a raft, followed by a steep left to right drop. Then we had Centimeter canyon, which was one of the harder rapids. An S-turn move into the center drop with a giant wieve at the botton left and a tiny slot on the right with crazy boily water at the bottom. Had to roll off the wall at the bottom of that one. It was kinda gnarly. They lined the rafts.

We had another rapid called Orange Juice with 3 flakes at the top and a HUGE flake/ pourover tombstone at the bottom in the center. We all styled it, and they lined the rafts. There was another rapid called Highside for Your Life. There was a GIANT S-turn move with a giant hole above a big boulder. I went super deep in the hole and when I came up, all I heard was Scott yelling " That girl´s crazy!" It was a fun one.

There was one huge one that most people walked and they lined the rafts through, and Drew´s raft flipped while lining it. Only Jonathan, Scott, and Andy ran it. It wasn´t very fun looking.
The river changed character after that one and it widened out and got very shallow. Not fun for riverboarding.

DAY 5... The longest day yet....

We got up at 5:30 and were on the river by 6. I was pretty sick in the morning so I got into the gear raft and hung out with Drew for a bit. It was really shallow Class 2-3 stuff. The wind kicked in at 10:30 and life started to suck. The rapids got so shallow that we had to walk the rafts and we blew upstream all the time. They had these fish traps... without the traps in them so there were just large sticks blocking the channels. Good times avoiding those.

We ended up being on the river for 6 hours before we got to the takeout. When we got there Gian Marco hopped a ride into town to arrange a van to pick us up. The van came pretty quickly and we loaded up and went into town. We ate a real meal. Ahhhhhh. So good.. and Coca Cola too. Ahhh so good! The town was really cool. The town centro had a giant statue of a Camarone. They´re the shrimp you get out of the river and they´re gooooood. Everyone was drinking beer and hanging out in the town square and we were there chillin with them and all our gear.

We unloaded the van and loaded onto a bus. We drove for like 6 hours or so till 9 or so and got to the town of Camana. We were supposed to switch out busses and drive all the way to Arequipa... but there was no bus there to meet us. So we convinced our driver to drive us all the way.
Once we were out of Camana, the driver asked Gian Marco if he could drive because he was tired. He was having trouble figuring out the gear shifting and I guess it was hard to drive. About 20 minutes into it, it started making this horrible noise and Gian Marco alerted us that the accelerator was stuck and he couldn´t stop accelerating. Sweet. Isn´t that what you want to hear. There was lots of yelling and swerving.. and finally they opened up the floor and did something to the engine to stall it out.

Now we were stuck on the side of the road. Sweet. An hour or so went by of them trying to fix it... finally they jerry rigged it to make it work with string or something, and we turned around and drove back to Camana. Now it was 1:30 am. We got into town and found a hostal that would take all 14 of us and all our shit for 60 soles. That´s cheap. So we crammed 7 of us into a tiny room with 4 beds, and the rest slept on the roof with the roosters and goats. Good times. We got probably a solid 3 hours of sleep.

Day 6.... still technically day 5?....
We got up and had some awesome smoothies, cafe, and empenadas, and then Gian Marco found us a huge ass tour bus that would take us. So we loaded up all our shit into the huge ass bus and off we went to Arequipa. We got here around noon. We´ll be here for a day or two and then it´s off to Cusco for Halloween. Woo hoo.

The Cotahuasi adventure was a long, epic one. I´m kinda glad it´s over now... but it was awesome times!!!

I got a first descent of the Cotahuasi on my riverboard! That´s pretty sick! I´m stoked about that one. I think it definately was a difficult river to riverboard too. I feel like I gained a lot of respect for riverboarding on this trip. People didn´t think a riverboarder could run the lines I did and that´s awesome. I also feel like I didn´t run that gnarly of lines and I never went out of my comfort zone. I pushed it, but not too far. That´s exactly what I wanted to do on this trip. Hell yeah!

Colca Thinking

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:40:00 +0000

Bugs galore- never stopped gnawing at my ankles for 4 days.
Rockfall death at any moment - kinda sketchy.
WIND!!! Moving upstream in rafts
SWIMMER!!! Emily, Drew, 2 rafts flipping, Wairo
CONDOR!!!! The condors are amazing.
I´m grateful night.... we all said why we were grateful while getting sandblasted on the last night... good times.
Chocolate Canyon
Green Canyon
Slightly hungry all the time
Cankles and Wrarms
Hiking in
Baby in the microwave joke and kid in the trunk joke
Pumping water
Hot springs
Cafe´ y hot chocolate y mate´
First dog descent of the Colca
Cathole poop station
Highside!!!!!

Colca Quotes

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:37:00 +0000

"It´s class 2 till camp." - Gian Marco right above a huge class 5 rapid.

"Please do this for me!" - Hootie begging Ben to crack him over the back with a giant bamboo stick.

"COLCA!!!" - Everyone, every few hours or so.

"Holy Chit!" - Gian Marco

"Wairo, echese!"- Drew, Sara, and Christina because they had the squirly dog in their boat.

"It´s just a bunch of dirt."- Scott Baker.

"CONDOR!!" - Gian Marco

Rio Colca

gingerwatergirl@gmail.com (Liz Arnold) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:41:00 +0000

I just got off the Colca yesterday, and now I´m in the town of Cotahuasi getting ready to leave for the Cotahuasi river tomorrow. We hike in with mules tomorrow and camp at the put in.This is either the deepest canyon on earth, or the Colca, which we just did is the deepest canyon on earth. Either way, they´re both pretty friggin deep.

The Colca was awesome! First we hiked in with mules for somewhere between 14 and 20 km... there was a discrepancy in the distance.. .it felt like 20. We descended 6,000 feet in 8 hours. My knee was buggin by the bottom. It was one of the most spectacular hikes I´ve ever done.

We spent the night by the river the first night and were anxious to see what we just got ourselves into. It was pretty bony and shallow until we reached the confluencia with the Mamacocha river. That added about 500 cfs, which was just what we needed. We stopped and offered some coca leaves to the gods at the confluence for a safe trip. From that point, the rapids only got bigger.

The winds picked up at 10:30 on the dot and they were a gustin´. Our first rapids we came to were 1, 2, and 3, and the scout took about 40 minutes of gnarly hiking about 1,000 feet above the river. So we scouted and then ran it, and everything I had planned to do wasn´t actually possible to do.. ha ha. We were relying solely on kayakers paddle signals. It was awesome! This was class 5 rafting!

We spent our first night above what was the biggest rapid yet of the trip in the middle of a tight gorge. The whole river had changed since the last time Gian Marco was there and we were in a new set of rapids, with the biggest one being the newest one.

I guided most of the time with Hootie and Emily up in front paddling and a pile of gear in the middle. It made it hard to get used to manuvering in the technical stuff. It was so sweet though! Emily fell out on the second day, in one of the biggest rapids on the trip. She swam over a 3 or 4 foot ledge onto some shallow stuff and messed up her knee. She just got bruised up real good. We named that rapid Rhodes Rodilla (Rhode´s knee). (Hootie was guiding that one... ha ha).
Later on the 2nd day, we hit a wall and flipped. The other raft flipped in the same spot. 2 upside down rafts and 6 swimmers.. ha ha... and a dog. Wairo the dog got the first doggie descent on the Colca.

Things move fast in the Colca. Lots of blind droppy stuff on the 3rd day. Drew had a gnarly swim too, in another bigger rapid on the 3rd day. Tons of excitement. It´s basically like rafting with 7 safety kayakers though, so it´s cool.The whole trip was pretty epic. We entered Chocolate Canyon on day 3, then went into Green Canyon, where all the rocks were green. So cool.

We had two major portages on the 3rd day too. There was nowhere to go in the first one, except down. We portaged under the rapid! All these huge boulders had fallen in, making the whole river sieve out into this huge cave. The whole left side was under rocks, so we portaged under them. It was epic! The second portage was really long. We had to do 4 fire lines of gear, and it took us a little over an hour. That section of river was all sieved out too, but we had to go up, over, and around the rapid.

The last day, we had a short paddle out, and the Garabato (our shuttle driver´s name was pasted all over our vehicle) was there to pick us up. We drove into the town of Cotahuasi all night, up over a pass over 15,000 feet. We drank rum, pisco, and cervesa from like 10 in the morning when we got off the Colca, until around dinner time, so we were all hung over by the time we went over the pass and finally got into town. Good times.

Now we´re leaving for the Cotahuasi river at 6 am tomorrow. I´m riverboarding for 6 days now, and I´m really excited!! Should be epic too!