{"id":21123,"date":"2019-09-11T23:30:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T06:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=21123"},"modified":"2019-10-03T10:21:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T17:21:03","slug":"one-womans-mission-ecuadors-whitewater-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2019\/09\/11\/one-womans-mission-ecuadors-whitewater-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"One Woman’s Mission to Bring Ecuador\u2019s Whitewater Scene to the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m having a hard time picturing the upstream class IV Abby describes in detail as the sound of rolling boulders shoot echoes off the canyon walls. The Rio Pastaza is swollen with rain, abnormally high and too dangerous for boaters today. Full-size logs crack and break as the river jams them into the narrow chute known as Pastaza Canyon. An incredible amount of water and debris bottlenecks through a bedrock crack in the earth eroding at a pace slower than the surrounding dirt. It\u2019s not much wider than a kayak although this stretch is off-limits anyway. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A landslide up the road has blocked traffic and everything is quiet here today. We peer off the edge of an orchard at Abby\u2019s Hideaway to observe the chaos below. Abby shrugs, unaffected after living through the 2015 eruption of Tungurahua, the snow-capped volcano casting a shadow on the charming town of Banos. She invites me to the main house for a cup of tea and answers my many questions about the rivers and logistics here with a full history lesson about the region and the whitewater scene. Turns out, I unknowingly parked my camper van at the right place because Abby Dent is a wealth of knowledge and a pioneering female kayaker in Ecuador.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Raised on the Jungle Rivers
\n<\/strong>Speaking English, it\u2019s easy to assume Abby Dent is Irish but when she transitions to Spanish, it quickly becomes clear she was raised here. Abby and her family moved to Riobamba for a year before settling in Tena, Ecuador, at the age of eight, long before the area turned into a whitewater hub. Her family opened one of the first whitewater outfits, River People, and she was raised on the local rivers.<\/p>\n

She learned to swim rapids from natives in the jungle while cutting her teeth on big water during high school. As a senior, she pressed for early graduation and made the jump to full-time guiding at the age of 17 with a professional guide license, dedicating every waking minute to the rivers. She was likely the first and only female guide working in the country for a number of years.<\/p>\n