Sydney, Australia

Believe it or not but we had 3 nights in a row not in bed but somewhere commuting:

- first night in a bus from Tena (kayak city) to Quito

- second night we slept at the airport in Santaigo, as we arrived at 3am and had another flight at 1pm

- third one was in a plane from Santiago to Sydney, however we didn't sleep at all on 14 hrs flight! The time change got funny and we were so hungry for cinema movies that watched 5  to 6 movies ;) proudly we can say we updated our blockbooster negligence over last few months!

 

 
We are knackered but we manage to get to the backpacker hostel, we book ed the cheapest we could find near centre... But that meant we had to sleep in dormitory. Honestly, after so many uncomphy nights any bed would do!

We even have a miserable attempt to have a go on Sydney Saturday night life, but we finishe in a sushi restaurant followed by McFlurry ice-cream. 
 
 
I need to mention that we got very priviliged to meet a couple from Oz and Kiwi land ;) Damo and Emma that we met on a trek in Torres del Paine in Chile invited us over to stay at their place near Bondi beach. We felt very fortunate ;)
 






Emma and Damo are true travellers, visited so many places of the world and the dozens of photo canvas on the walls intheir house show the proof. We have a perfect guided tours and they prepare an itinerary for us the night before. 

One of the highlights of the day is the wake up swim in the ocean at Bondi beach, its so beautiful light in the early morning, together with some surf makes a perfect start of the day.
 

 

 

 
7 am swim in the ocean... priceless

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have a long day wondering one beautiful spots of Sydney: 

- Wolloomoolloo Bay ( with spelndid yachts worth millions parked in front of fabulous and too expensive for our pockets restaurants,

- Botanic Garden, with a note "hug the trees, talk to birds, walk on the grass" 

- Circular Quay, 

- Opera House - Most recognisable building of the city, looks like mating turtles ( although officialy its seagoing yachts), opened in 1973 by Queen Elizabeth, designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon,

- Sydney Harbour Bridge, 

- Menly Beach - we take a ferry ride along the Opera House to one of the favourite Sydney beaches on the north shore

 

 

Menly beach

 

Another day we decide to do a full workout just like local super fit local people...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whereever we look around there is either fit muscular guy running or a hot blonde chick with fake bobos jumping and full make up... how do they not sweat? .... Weronika is asking?

 
We did a 7km run along the coast from Bondi beach through Bronte and Clovelly to Coogee and we stopped at 3 places to jump into the natural saltwater pools for a quick swim... then run back 7km to Bondi.

 natural pool


We even stop at few spots to do some push-ups or abs as there are little workout stations.

We got the bikes from Emma and Damo (thanks so much mates!)


The run is amazing on the coastal walk with stunning paths and clifftops.
And then well deserved sushi on the beach... yummy!
 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Flight Sydney - Auckland 3hrs

 

 

 

 

Tena, Ecuador

We got this idea to learn the basics of white water kayaking a.k.a. river kayaking. After getting advised by uncle Google, we figure out that Tena, a city located 186km from Quito, is one of THE world's best kayaking spots.

Travelling to Tena from Quito costed us a fortune of 6 USD :-)
 

That's it. The 4-day river kayak course is booked. Let´s see if we can learn how to do the Esquimo roll, which is the main focus of the course.

We also hope the water will not be as freezing as the rivers down in Chile.
 

 

Technically speaking, below is a summary of the skills taught and practiced during these four intensive days.

a) Find "hedi" a calm zone behind a rock where you can rest.

b) Detect "hueco" meaning "hole" in Spanish which is formed behind a big rock, that can be very dangerous because the water constantly rolls back behind it like a washing machine. You dont want to be stuck there... if so exit the kayak and make a ball of yourself; current will ultimately push you out of the "hueco"

c) Identify "ola" meaning "wave" in Spanish that is a more or less big wave (can be huge) formed by a big stone deep underwater; hit the wave with the front of the kayak otherwise you ll flip straight eheh. Another option is to do 180 degree with your kayak just before the wave and just when your tail hits the wave, you strongly paddle in order to surf and stay on the wave and then let it take you going backwards...

d) Avoid shallow water and rocks when you see many white dots on the water made by many rocks at the surface.

e) As well, we learnt turning in the current without capsizing once the kayak is perpendicular to the current. You put the paddle far on the side and continuously sliding it back and forth while bending your kayak on the same side to help orienting it in the sens of the current.

 

f) Furthermore, we also practiced a lot how to rescue (i.e. bring back to the shore) your unfortunate buddy by having him grabbing your kayak either front or rear of it.

 

Lots of techniques, lots of fun, and knackered after each day going to bed at 8-9pm and falling asleep while watching a movie.. eheh

 
Before the Esquimo roll, you learn how to eject yourself from the kayak... this technique is preferably avoided if possible as the kayak is full if water and you got to swim with the paddle and the kayak to the shore in the current.

We trained practicing the "ferry" basically crossing the river from one side to the other one by orienting your kayak in the current.. always in the current..

And again and again, training step-by-step the Esquimo roll, here below first without paddle to get the hip movement and the arms correctly positioned like if we had a paddle.

And of course we practiced more than 100 times the Esquimo roll flipping either on the right or the left side, first in quiet water ("piscina" meaning swimming pool) and then rough shaky water, without paddling or while paddling in order to reproduce real conditions...pfiuuu scary sometimes
  

View from underwater up-side down.. not really sexy in the green blurry Amazonian river wáter

 

We also learnt how to rescue somebody who can't roll using the front of the kayak and hitting the returned kayak so the person who is up-side down can find the kayak nose with his hands and does not need to eject himself...Got to be quick there..as you panic easily when you are stuck under water the head down.

Our great instructor Leandro explaining and demonstrating for 1000 times the specific paddle movement.

Francois getting pissed off and getting angry not being able to roll on the first attempt.. something wrong with the paddle movement underwater...

Hitting the water again and again..

After many hours spent in the river, practicing again and again, we finally got it. We were so happy to roll and roll again.... just so fun.... when it works ;-)

Getting briefed on where to go through the next rapids...

Weronika, determined, sometimes experienced hard times to master the Esquimo roll, but not as much as Francois.. grrr

Sometimes under rain... :-(

And quite quickly sunny again... :-)

We have riden a river class II (rio Anzu) of 24km and the last day we tackled a class III river (rio Jatunyacu) of 27km. It was great fun to be literally up side-down and underwater! :) 

 

Trust us, this is quite scary and is kicking you up with adrenaline... but you also feel so safe because you know you can roll back to the surface anytime without ejecting yourself from the kayak.

 

 

Anecdote: we both practiced with our swim goggles which is very comfy as each time you roll you dont have water drops falling into your eyes.. also the first day our eyes were so red even if it is fresh water.

Anecdote: we forgot to insert the SD card in the GoPro for the last day which was the best! What a Kraffterie... it continues...