MEXICO...a paddling trip to a new place

We've all heard about Mexico since we were little. There are so many Mexicans who make their way up here we don't feel as though Mexico is that far away, like maybe it's not that different than here, where we live day in and out. But that's very wrong. Mexico: so near in miles, yet so very different in so many ways.

Typical small town. This was the first place we rolled through that we actually stopped and bought some food and took a minute or two to check the place out. We definitely garnered a lot of stares from the locals but everyone seemed nice.

Buying water and talking about the fact that we don't want to pay extra for the plastic jug. We ended up dumping the water directly into our jug and giving the plastic container back to avoid paying a deposit. Notice the nice truck. This was typical in Mexico, that the locals had way nicer cars than we did. Our van was pretty much the most ghetto rig we saw in Mexico. Which was good I suppose because people probably figured we didn't have anything worth taking.

We must have passed this truck on the highway about 3 or 4 times. We'd pass him, then stop to do something, then pass again, then stop for food, then pass again. He was hauling two of the largest engines we'd ever seen, maybe locomotive engines??? Anyway, we were quick to learn that all cars and trucks in Mexico stink, especially the old one or big ones. They don't have the emission controls we do, so it's important to pass them quickly or the headache begins!

This was the first decent sized drop on the first river we paddled, the Salto. The water was low, normally this entire shelf is covered when the water level is good. We still had a great time, running this drop maybe 6 times in two complete runs of the river. The riverbed here was comprised of travertine, which seems to be some sort of limestone. Anyway, it makes for very large beautiful flat pools accentuated by various sized ledges. The stone is so grippy (much like coral) we could normally walk right up shallow waterslides to run them again.


This is the view from our first campsite. Pretty nice really, except for the fact that there was a shit ditch that we dubbed agua de bano, that ran between the bathroom and the bamboo grove that was about 20' from our camp. Corey, one of the Canadians on the trip, accidentally found this ditch with his foot the first night in the dark. He said it burned intensely until he rinsed it off in the river, maybe from excessive use of Drano or something. Needless to say, the plumbing left a little to be desired. I dug a hole and did my business in the trees.


Speaking of trees, this is the bamboo grove that was out of control due in part to the vast nutrients from the agua de bano. This also acted as a fence between our place and the neighbors. Check it out, there's actually barbed wire hidden in there, although I don't know why, the natural stuff was totally impenetrable by itself. Bamboo is awesome! This grove was about 50' tall.


I love Photoshop, when I can figure it out. I chose 4 photos this morning and pushed a button and this was the result! It's not perfect, note the bottom middle, but it's pretty damn good. This is Salto Cascada, the culmination of our first river run. Corey and I actually boated into the last large blue pool on the top left of the photo to catch a glimpse over the edge. This 150' cascade has been run down the left, but the line looked heinous at best!!! It was beautiful to look at though. We had dinner at the restaurant that was on the banks of this awesome spectacle. We planned to stay the night but they said the cost was $100 USD per person per night, WHAT, I thought we were in Mexico. We went down the road to the Sun Dial and agua de bano and pitched our tents. There was also a platform here for jumping into the pool at the bottom. It was about 70' off the water, pretty cool! Restaurants in the states would never have stuff like that. The platform wasn't even roped off. We are so worried about liability that it seems to stifle our adventurous spirit if we're not careful. Go on, find a big cliff and jump off, it'll be liberating!


This was typical of the travertine rivers. We'd boat to the edge, if we couldn't see from our boats, we'd get out and stand at the lip and look for the deepest landings or best lines. Super low stress boating. Oh yeah, note the shorts and sun, in DECEMBER! We were all from the PNW so the weather shock was a welcome one!

How can a place so beautiful be so full of trash? Do they realize what they have?


This was the single biggest rapid on the Salto. It's called El Trampolin, not sure why. The water was low, the rapid was ok, the river was beautiful, we wanted something harder. We drove to the Rio Micos, but were met with more of the same. Low stress travertine, fun, but not amazing, although the accommodations were sweet, we only stayed for a night then saddled up the long drive south to the mecca that is the Rio Alseseca! Here are some photos from the drive to the Micos and a couple shots of the actual run. There is a 60' sloping waterfall at the put-in that would be good to go with more water...if only we had more water.

Harvesting sugar cane. They burn these fields after the harvest and a lot of soot and unburned cane floats around in the air for miles and miles, a bit of a nuisance really.


Horse hauling rural Mexican style. I knew Sarah would appreciate this picture. When driving through Mexico, or any country without good infrastructure, one must keep one's camera in one's lap, so as to not miss opportunities such as these.


Some parting shots. The two upper houses were in similar locations, but obviously very different places, nice and shitty right next door, weird. The two lower shots are from the Rio Micos, which is really just a downstream section of the Salto. An easy slide on the left and Dan putting in below the 60' monster on the right. The images below are of the pimp place we stayed right at the take out, best showers we had in Mexico! The guy working road construction was a random dude running a roller on the hot asphalt. He didn't seem to be enjoying life so we grabbed him, gave him a boat and took him down some rivers. His road crew wasn't too excited about this so we traded one of the Canadians for him. I wonder if the Canadian ever become a good roller operator. I also wonder if life really is a short bitch, HA!



I'm going to sign off for now. More to come later. This only covers the first few days of the trip. Sarah is testing out my newest purchase, Rosetta Stone, Spanish edition. I'm determined to not be el Estupido Americana. Although many of the Mexicans I met didn't speak a bit of English, I felt stupid for being in their country and stumbling with their language. Next time will be different. Stay tuned for more pictures and stories from my Mexican adventure.