FYI

For those who get these blog posts sent directly to your email: Mark informs me that the little slide shows don't come through to email. So, if you want to see the photos from the past couple posts, be sure to go directly to taminaus.blogspot.com (Nana, you'll have to go next door to Gary and Jane's) to see some photos.

Success

As always, the IRF team pulled off a great race. And as always, it wasn't without it's many difficulties and face-offs. But, in the end, it was all worth it. There were a few flips and boat wraps (which is when a boat winds up on a rock and the force of the river essentially wraps the boat to the rock), but no one was seriously injured, and all the teams seemed to have a great time.

The final ceremony was yesterday afternoon, with a delicious barbecue and lots of beer. The party then continued here at Jose's, with many of the safety crew and judges, as well as the US men's and women's team and one guy (Andrej) from one of the many Czech Republic teams. Amazingly enough, we are all feeling pretty good this morning, considering the great time we all had last night.

Now we are starting our vacation. After we finish up posting the results, etc., we will load up the car and head off for Trogon Lodge. After two days there, we will head to the Pacific coast for seafood and surf. And then it's back to San Jose for dinner with Rafa and his wife, Alejandra, before heading out early Saturday morning. Yay! A vacation for just the two of us!!

In the meantime, here are some more photos, including a shot of our second flat tire!

Rockin' and Rollin'

I don't have a ton of time to write. It's 6:!5 and we are leaving in 15 minutes for the second day of the races. Mark is still updating the InternationalRafting.com site every night, so hop over there if you are interested. I think he is posting pictures and videos as well.

Just in case any of you heard about our little quake down here, I wanted you to know we are fine, and everything is still standing (even us ... barely). We were sitting at dinner, eating amazing food!!, when the chairs and tables started shaking. It was just a little shaker, and definitely not the worst I've felt. In fact, at first I thought it was just a really huge truck going by. My only concern was that it wasn't a precursor to one of the many volcanoes down here about to erupt.

I was assured that it wasn't.

Well, time to brush my hair, chow down a burrito (made to order by Eric Boudreau ... an ex-Canadian men's team and now the chief judge of the race ... and also one of the 14 Canadians who stayed in our home in Denver a few short months after we moved in), and head on down to the river.