Sat
Jan
12
2008
Sunday June 6th 2004
6:00am
I fell asleep with pen in hand I was so tired from not sleeping wink last night. As I read the last entry I can see it doesn’t make much sense. Part of the first night we spent in a park outside of the Mexico City airport and then the rest of the night we came back inside the airport and studied the maps of the La Venta river and the surrounding Chiapas region. By 1:30 am we tried to get some rest until our flight at 6:30am. We just laid out on the marble floor in some corner. In fact we were right outside the airport Hilton hotel that was full, so we just crashed on the doorstep.
Every so often travelers came by to get a hotel room, but it was full and they were turned away at the door, and either slept on the floor somewhere or went someplace else. At 6:30 we took our smaller plane ride to Tuxtla Gutierrez. There was hardly anyone on it, and as we looked out the windows we could see overcast country that was hilly and covered with trees – it definitely looked rural.
As soon as we got off the plane, our bags were waiting in the smallest airport ever. The funny thing was, we were the only ones left and the guard made us verify our luggage tickets.
We jumped into a cab for 250 pesos and the driver brought us to the El Aguacero waterfall on the river.
He kept telling us it was very quiet and dangerous to stay there, because he thought we were going to camp at that one spot for ten days. But it seems like everyone always says everything’s dangerous outside of his or her own hometown, both here and in America. After a 3km dirt road off the main road we got to the Canyon rim where the trail led down to the canyon floor.
Our bags were so heavy we had to make numerous stops, but the stairs were the only thing that made the decent possible.
Seriously, since we’ve been on the river 2 days now, there hasn’t been a single way to get out of the canyon. The walls are so steep and sheer (often over 1200 ft high) and the jungle so thick, that it is in fact impenetrable.
We went up the river shortly to a large waterfall, and returned to pack up our boat.
The float so far has been terrific. The river is between 8” and 3ft deep the whole way and I have not needed to get out and walk at all. Jason has needed to push a few times simply because his canoe sinks a little deeper. We keep reflecting on the fact that a kayak is by far the superior choice for this river, rather than rafts. We’ve seen many buzzards, and lately some black ducks and white herons.
Last night we pulled over on a sand bar for our first campsite at N.16¨48.46 and W. 93¨32.03 elev. 1500.
We climbed up the side of the canyon looking for caves, and noticed that caves are actually everywhere. We found an underground river bed that was dry and followed it through some stalagmites and stalactites and saw dozens and dozens of bats, some small and some large.
In the cave were some pieces of pottery. Many were large collar rimmed jars, as I’ve learned from various archaeology classes in Israel.
We kept following the cave until it went straight down to a pool of water and we stopped because the mud was so thick and heavy. The mud was so caked on our shoes that we couldn’t even walk. It made everything so slick that Jason said they ought to start using it for bearing grease.
The trip down the side of the canyon was heinous, and we sure were tired and ready for bed. Before we crawled into our beds, though, we spent about an hour just sitting in the warm river water.
It felt nice. The night sounds of the jungle are awesome, and the temperature has been perfect, and simply never changes. All night I slept without covering and was fine.
