Waking only when the resident flock of ducks attacked the tent for some reason, we emerged into the bright warm morning sunshine just in time for breakfast.
Today was about white water and after a leisurely paddle in the river we attended the safety briefing, donned the attractive orange safety gear and pushed off into the fast flowing current.
The augers were not good as we narrowly avoided a drowned cow at the first bend, bloated and stiff, its legs pointing in the air as if in a warning as to the perils that lay ahead.
But venture on we did and after 25 minutes of simulating the dreaded flip, rehearsing mouth to mouth and trying to use the defibrulator without electrocuting the wrong person, we ventured into the first of nine rapids.
Martine survived hanging upside down on the zip line yesterday and steered our boat.
He had clearly studied at the International School of Madness and belowed the same inspirational lines that Captain Jack had done so in Thailand.
The High Fives were the same as was the sadistic tendency to drown us at every opportunity.
The water was higher than expected and the blue inflatable bucked and reared as we slid over rocks and nose-dived into boiling cauldrons of water, flinging us bodily against our restraints and threatening to tip us into the foaming maelstrom at any minute.
We paused only to watch the boats behind make the same mistakes as we had done and two hours later we were falling unceremoniously into the cold water to swim the last 400m to the landing point. Emerging bedraggled and smiling from ear to ear, the old Mercedes bus picked us up and took us up the steep and winding river-side road that lead back to the centre.
The pictures taken by the resident camera man, perched on every good vantage point along the way were played back in the office with pulse racing tracks from AC/DC and we were sold.
As soon as we were dry, we hit the road again, this time headed for Salta City and the colonial charm of its well preserved heritage. It was a few hours in which we began to ache from our exertions but after checking into the Elena Residencial, a quick snooze turned into a twelve hour sleep with no dinner.
We needed it.
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