Ecuador Paddling Trip

Are you ready to elevate your paddling experience and tackle exciting local creeks, but feel uncertain about your technical skills? This is your chance to gain invaluable knowledge and spend an entire week honing essential techniques like boofing, eddy hopping, boat scouting, and river signals—all while navigating the thrilling waters with fellow adventurers. Ecuador is the perfect playground for this immersive learning experience, featuring continuous class III to IV creeks and challenging technical rivers. (Just a friendly note: our focus won’t be on running waterfalls, but you can expect to master more boofs than you can count!)

During this transformative seven-day journey, you will navigate some of Ecuador's most demanding runs, refining both your foundational and advanced creeking skills. You’ll also participate in engaging evening “classroom” sessions where we’ll delve into skills, safety, techniques, and the art of creeking. Rest assured, classes will conclude with plenty of time left for you to indulge in gourmet meals and soak up the vibrant Ecuadorian nightlife. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to transform your paddling skills and create lasting memories!

Itinerary:  *all 3 meals per day included unless otherwise noted*

Throughout the week, we’ll work on all the essential skills you’ll need to become confident on technical creek runs. Our goal by the end of the week is to have you boat scouting drops, then nailing the boofs once you find the line.If you’ve been wanting to work on your creeking skills, this is the trip for you! 

*Please note that itineraries are subject to change due to water levels and the ability level of the group.

Day 1:  Saturday—arrive to Quito airport. Most flights arrive at night and we recommend staying in one of the hotels out near the airport–there are many great choices that are 10 minutes away from the new airport. You should also arrange an airport pick up through your hotel. (If you arrive a few days early, it’s worth going into downtown Quito—a 1-2 hour drive from the airport depending on traffic—but if you arrive on the Saturday before the trip, we think it’s better just to stay out near the airport).

Day 2: One of your guides will pick you up around 9am (exact time to be confirmed by our office) and you’ll drive over the 13,000 foot Papallacta Pass and drop down into the lush Amazon Basin. If the weather is clear we will see three of the four highest snowcapped volcanoes in Ecuador. Once we arrive to the Luxor Hotel in Borja, we will enjoy the first of many excellent meals, outfit our kayaks, and head to the river. Warm up and skill review on the Rio Quijos, Pica Piedra or Lower El Chaco sections. These sections are beautiful mid volume runs perfect to get the rust off your paddling.

Day 3: After a short dry land discussion on creeking signals, boat scouting and “flow” (what we call running a technical river in a small group while supporting each other) we will paddle the upper Cosanga. You can practice technical river reading, eddy hoping, boat scouting, and other basic creeking skills.

Day 4: After traveling to the neighboring Napo Valley we paddle the Upper Misahualli, a delightful technical run, where the emphasis will be boofing. We will also cover scouting–what to look for and tools to help you make the decision to run or not–judgement, self-awareness, group-awareness and self-evaluation.

Day 5: Today you will paddle the Lower Jondachi where we will work on flow, river leading, scouting and decision making–all while running one of the prettiest rainforest rivers anywhere in the world. We will also work on general paddling technique, fine tuning your paddle strokes to be efficient and powerful at the same time.

Day 6: After breakfast, we’ll either paddle the Piatua or Upper Mishualli again, adding in river rescue plus putting all the week’s skills together on an incredible warm-water creek.

Day 7: Middle Cosanga today is full of tight moves where we will use all the skills we have been practicing.

Day 8: After a morning paddle on the Quijos we head back to Quito, hoping to arrive to the airport area by around 5pm. Most flights are leaving Quito around midnight these days. If you have a late flight Saturday night/early Sunday morning, you will have quite a few hours to kill. We can drop you off at the Papallacta hot springs, the airport, or at a restaurant or hotel out near the airport. If you fly out Sunday morning, you’ll need to book yourself a hotel for Saturday night.

SIGN UP HERE!!

Cost: TBD

• $375 to secure a reservation (not refundable)
• Final Payment -  60 days before arrival. 

Prerequisite: Class III+/IV kayaking skills