Prepping for Carrera Papagayo

Promotions were finished up yesterday.
At the moment we have 8 teams, which we are pretty happy with since it is our first year in Mexico. We know that next year's race is going to be much bigger as word gets around and we have more time to promote. A lot of people have said they would love to hold more than one race a year.

Having eight boats out on the river is considered a huge day for this rafting company. We’re providing a lot of marketing for them. It’s nothing like the big Lytton rafting companies, the profits are much smaller here, so everyone involved is excited.

After having such big parties in Vancouver, we’re looking forward to the smaller party being held after this race. It will give us more time on the water, more time to get to know people, and more time for presentations.

One of the lawyers representing the hydroelectric project is coming
to do a presentation, and we also have a local activist coming to speak about the river. We will be doing a Free Flowing Rivers project presentation for the students to let them know more about what we are trying to accomplish, and how they can get involved.

Some of the things we have done so far:

• Taught some local kids how to get their kayak roll in the swimming pool at the rafting base
• Planned a hike to a high jungle location so people can see the area that is going to be flooded.

We will be offering kayak rolling classes on the weekend, and are planning an activist photo on the bridge over the Papagayo river.

There will be a lot more going on here in terms of creating awareness about the rivers being dammed. We are really getting the community involved, and have great opportunities to work with the kids and teach them about the river.

Let it be a smaller event. We are ready for the first race here in Mexico.