SOMEWHERE OUT THERE

Pancho, Joe and Tim about to leave for the river trip
 

It's 12:30 am here in Tena. I doubt I'll be able to sleep tonight. One reason is that I have a pile mountain of clean laundry on the bed that should have been folded and put away yesterday. I've already scooted it to one side, then to the other, and tried to sleep next to it and on it, but it didn't work. However, the main reason I can't sleep is because my husband is not here and even if you threatened to take my chocolate bar that I have hidden in the back of my freezer, I could not tell you exactly where he is right now. How did this happen and why did I allow it?

 I can really only answer one of those questions since he is grown, and I can't "allow" or "not allow" him to do things he wants.
It happened because Joe is friends with Tim who works for/owns River People, Tena's oldest and most reliable river rafting outfitter whose office is located on 15 de Noviembre. Tim invited Joe and Pancho to come along with him on a tour he was taking a group of people from Quito on. At 1pm today the boys loaded up Tim's car while I watched, pretty much helplessly. Although I'm very excited for Joe, I can't help but feel a little bit worried for him. Ok, and maybe a bit of jealousy added in that mix. After all, this is not the regular rafting trips he does with Tim that's over in a few hours. No, this one will last three nights, three days and will involve camping in a cave among other cool shenanigans. To even get to where they are starting this trip involves a seven hour drive deeper into the jungle. As much as I love to camp, this would totally be the highlight of my life...if I was invited to tag along... which I wasn't. 

I let Joe borrow my pink Cannon camera. I know the boys are going to bully him mercilessly about the pink camera, but it's the only one we have and I begged him to take lots of pictures on all that I'm missing out on. I also think they will tease him about wearing his glasses and bringing his contact case and solution to the jungle trip. Real men travel blind. I also think they will question why he brought several types and sizes of swiss army knives that are too dull to cut ice-cream and are really only good for maybe picking at a hangnail. The saddest addition to his little travel knap-sack was his Teva sandals that literally have no soles. They tore clean off about four river trips ago. The way he just stood there as Tim and Pancho loaded up the boats, paddles, coolers, and supplies, I could tell Joe was even questioning himself why a boy who grew up in treeless, waterless Indiana was going on a three day class five jungle/rafting trip with broken shoes and a pink camera. I can't wait until he gets back so he can tell me all about it!