Trip Report - Juniors Mexico Trip 06 - Dec 25, 2005 – Jan. 1, 2006

By tom

Participants: Hans Wendel, Peter Redman, Pat Mucha, Jon Burgess, Dan Mehrez, Zach Brittan, Pablo McCandless, Jake Weiss, Tom McEwan, and with Jose-Luis driving.

What kind of trip is it where you spend four nights sleeping in a van with nine others, three of those nights driving all night, paddle for three days in Oaxaca, Mexico with boats loaded with food and gear, paddle a day in Veracruz, and another in Chiapas, and drive all night on the last night to catch your plane with only 1.5 hrs before takeoff. Would it be worth it? Was it the trip from Hell or a memory of a lifetime? Read on before you decide.

Everyone but Hans came through the international gate at the Mexico City airport at about 10:30 PM. They had taken the non-stop United flight from Washington, DC. Hans was not able to change in planes in time for the connecting flight. We grabbed a few tacos and burritos in the airport and took a two hour bus ride to Puebla, where the van was left parked in the bus station parking lot. We were tired. We simply loaded the van and at about 2 AM climbed in to sleep. Tom woke up at 5:30 AM to start the drive to the put-in for the first river. We we made it to the closest town to the river (called Altotonga) at about 9 AM, stopping briefly for arroz con leche and a corn and chocolate hot drink (called Champurrado) at a road-side stand.

We met Jose-Luis, our driver, in Altotonga and drove the 20 k with him down steep roads to a small mountain town called Tatempa. After changing into gear and hiking down a steep and winding path we were down to the river at about 11:30 AM. A brief warm-up and a short talk about how to be organized on the river, and we launched off into the first rapid. The river is narrow and the flow low - about 300 cfs. But the drops are steep and intense. To be suddenly launched into class IV rapids after many hours in planes and busses, was a shock to our senses. There were boats jammed in the rocks and paddlers went over, and everyone had to summon their best strokes and balance to maintain control. We came to a big drop with pinning possibility, and Tom ran it got out to set up safety for anyone who wanted to try. Pablo made it look easy simply by going over a dry part of the ledge and into a small eddy half way down. Jon B. got his bow onto the ledge but spun around backwards through the hole. Jake landed a pretty good boof on the corner of the hole and shot through smoothly. We paddled all the other rapids in the hard, first four miles of the Super Alto Filo Bobos, including a 13’ waterfall called Melt-Down, then continued with few stops down the entire 18 mi. of the river. One rapid, called the Red Rock Rapid, had been changed by the last floods, and there was a good size hole hemmed in by the red rock ledges. We were close together, and several of the group were momentarily stopped by the hole. Only Pat got truly stuck and spent some quality time getting recycled in the hole both in and out of his boat. We arrived at the take-out bridge at about 5:15 PM to meet Jose-Luis.

After a short drive to Aventurec, our headquarters in Mexico, where there was a nice dinner waiting for us, we met up with Hans, who had taken a bus to catch up with us. After dinner we sorted out the boats we would use for the trip, and at about 9 PM we climbed back into the van and took off for Oaxaca. We were heading South toward our next river. We arrived in Tehuacan at about 4 AM. Jose-Luis was fresh and he drove the entire way. In the morning we dropped off the group for breakfast in the central zocalo. Tom and Jose–Luis bought food for the over night trip ahead while the rest got a look at life in a little Mexican city. We drove to the put-in of the Rio Santo Domingo near Santiago Quiotepec. There we organized our gear and food, packed our boats, and then camped before dark below the river bridge on a sandy beach. Tom and Jose Luis drove into the small town nearby and spent a couple of hours at the Municipal building in discussion to get a written permission to go down the river below town. The officials spoke about the flood that they had had in October, of which we could see plenty of evidence. Trees and brush were lodged high in the bridge pillars and high on the banks. Jose Luis left us on the beach with the van, and we settled in for an evening around the campfire.

The next morning after instant oatmeal and fresh fruit, we took up Pat’s suggestion to hike up to the top of a couple hundred foot high hill overlooking the beach and bridge. We got back to the river and on the water about 10 AM.

The first half day we paddled around sweeping bends with current and beautiful cliffs of red rocks. In about an hour, we passed a gauging station. After lunch the river rocks changed composition into gray limestone, and the rapids picked up in difficulty. This required from everyone good boat scouting and boat control. The idea was not to get washed down into what had not yet been scouted. We were able to run every rapid. Everyone was getting a feel for maneuvering their loaded boats. A few times paddlers could not make an eddy or prevent their boats from getting washed ahead of Tom who led, but then they quickly fought back to regain control. Late in the day we stopped and scouted a 10 foot ledge. All were able to run it down the middle. A few people who aimed their bows straight down into the hole experienced back enders. Those who went over staying more level by catching rock under their landed nicely. There was a good flow in the river - about 800cfs. We camped on a pretty, sandy beach at about 4:30 PM.

The next day we paddled consistent difficult class IV white water with many blind turns. The rocks were large and hard to see around. In the late afternoon we came to a place where the water, after going into a particularly strong rapid, was forced under a jumble of large rocks. We carried this rapid and put in below in a nice pool. The river continued on with more rapids. We found a beach to camp about 4 PM. It was a place Tom had camped a couple of years before, where a concrete pilon twisted cables reminded of a long abandoned swinging bridge. We did some climbing on the large 20’ high rocks, and in the morning hiked down the river to scout the rapids ahead.

The paddle out was made fun by rocks just under the flow of water that we could boof, and by a place which had 3-4 particularly good surfing waves. Jake got an impressive boof where his whole boat left the water. We passed the last biggish rapid a little after Noon, and made it down the flat water to the take-out bridge by about 2 PM.

After changing and loading the van, we went to a dinner prepared by some locals who ran a store in the town of Santo Domingo. We then set out for the long drive to the Autopista and then onwards to Agua Azul, AKA the Rio Shumulha. (The ending “ha”, being the Tzetal expression for water.) It was another night in Hotel Van. We arrived at the tourist area at Agua Azul at about 5-6 AM. We unloaded and ate at local restaurant, and were on the water at about 9:30 AM. The river was made entirely of little and big travertine water falls. One was about 20’ high. To make it to the bottom smoothly you had either to run down it at an angle across the flow of water, or get a good boof to keep yourself from plunging too deep. It gave you a back ender if you plunged in too much. Another 12’ falls was run by Tom and Pablo, Jake and Dan. On this line you had to duck under a log five feet before went over the drop. Dan got a clean landing over the falls. When Jake took his turn, his paddle hit the log, and it was knocked out of his hands. He went over the falls with no paddle. He flipped and hand rolled and then got sucked back under the curtain of the falls. He came out of his boat and was swept into a corner between two parts of the falls, where he could get out on a small ledge. Tom was able to paddle back into the corner and hand Jake one end of his tow rope. With the other end clipped to his life vest, he was then able to pull Jake out.

The group was soon into the part of the river where there are 5 large travertine (30-70’) falls. The first one we were able to negotiate by throwing the boats into the pool below and jumping in after. The second could be run by sliding down a part of the travertine that was thinly covered with water, and which made a natural slide. The final three falls, we carried around, into the large pool below. After these spectacular obstacles were about four very powerful rapids before the river flattened. The middle of one rapid was blocked by a powerful hole. It was hard to avoid. Pablo and Zach unintentionally found themselves surfing in the monster, but made it out in their boats. The rest of the group decided to carry. Soon we were at the take-out at Agua Clara. A suspension bridge marks the spot. We arrived on time at about 3 PM to meet Jose-Luis.

Experiencing some some fatigue accumulated from the week, we took some time repacking and loading our gear for the flight home, and then we drove to the town of Palenque. There was no time to see the ruins, but we stopped in for dinner at a little co-op village of expatriots nearby, called Panchan. We ate at Don Mucho’s. The food was great, only somehow half of our party didn’t get served for over an hour. We were on a tight schedule expecting to drive through the night to catch the airport bus, and we couldn’t much afford the delay. We had to be at the Puebla bus station by 6 AM for a two hour ride to the airport. We had an additional complication in that our fuel gauge had stopped working the day before, and it was difficult to judge how much gas was left in the tank. We could only guess by the miles traveled on the odometer. All would miss their planes if we ran out of gas on the highway. In the middle of the night on an empty stretch of road there were few “gasolineras”. At one point in the middle of the night we had to leave the Autopista in search for gas, not sure how many more kilometers could drive before we ran out. It took us some time and breath holding breath to find a station. We got back on the road and to the bus station in time to board the 7 AM bus to the Mexico Airport and got to the airport by 9 AM. The flight was supposed to depart at about 10:30 AM. That didn’t leave much time in a crowded airport to make the flight. But all ended as it should.

So, was this the trip from Hell or a memory of a life time? We paddled some of the most spectacular parts of Eastern Mexico. We could only make it to these places by driving distances and streamlining logistics. We had ample bathing in the river. We would have liked a couple more days to visit Palenque and see a bit more of the sights. But school was waiting. We did not meet any belligerent Zapatistas. We couldn’t have paddled any better and more beautiful white water. It will be left to each individual to decide if it was it worth it.