Wolincircus.com

Monday June 7th 2004

6:00am
N 16’52.62 W 93’35.29 – Elevation 1337 meters
All night Jason has been throwing up. All I heard was major hurls echoing up and down the canyon walls. I think he scared all the wildlife away unfortunately. I wish he would just die so I could get some sleep (no, actually I felt sorry for him, but I was tired and since there was nothing I could do for him I decided to just sleep soundly). Hopefully it’s just some bad food, or something, and not the water or some disease. Anyway, he looks fine, but now he just has something that’s not quite sitting well.

Yesterday was an amazing day. I mean it truly was. Here we’ve been floating for two solid days, and the ENTIRE THING has been so interesting. There has not been a single dull spot. The river itself is perfect size for beginners like us. It is not too big that we would pop our rafts, or that we would be scared to go down the rapids. It has the perfect amount of small rapids. (addition: yeah right, read the entries a few days later!)

It started off fairly shallow, which was fine because we were still getting use to our rafts, and learning how to maneuver them. However with all the streams feeding it along the way it has slowly grown and now has some fairly decent rapids at just about every bend. The best part is when the canyon narrows and there are large boulders in the river and the river makes rapids that zigzag through the boulders. Yesterday, in the afternoon I wrapped my kayak around a rock (i.e. Wrapped it square around the rock) while Jason was filming it. We’ll have to see how it turns out.
After breakfast yesterday morning we packed up our camp on the sandbar and our feet were just raw from walking around in the sand all the time (quite the white pilgrims, that’s for sure). The whole river bottom is sand, which is wonderful, except that it is somewhat coarse, and these little city feet are just begging for a little mercy.

Our first major stop was at lunch. We came to some huge waterfalls pouring out of the side of the mountain into some beautiful aqua-azul pools.

The temperature of the water was cooler, which actually was refreshing compared to the warmth of the La Venta River. Each little pool had its own little unique beauty; the foliage surrounding it was thick and lush.

We pulled out the stove and cooked up some food and we were on our way again. Big bummer I lost my hat at the pools. Now I got 5 days of blistering sun without a hat.

Our next stop was a bend in the river with some caves. The cliff was fairly steep, but I scampered up and explored them. It was neat, I saw a whole cluster of bats hanging together. I wonder if they do that as families, or if anyone can join the cluster? I’d say probably the later. Well the caves had all sorts of sticks and even a fence post and some barbed wire that floated down the river, so it must rise quite a bit. On the way down, I showed Jason some climbing practices and he worked on trusting his feet a little more.

The canyon seems to not be as tall lately, even though it still reaches about 400’ or so. As far as wildlife is concerned, we’ve seen many beautiful birds, such as white cranes (with long slender necks); tons of green parakeets; black ducks; and various other specimens I can’t name. We saw a long black snake, but the best so far has been the iguanas, which lie along the banks, perched on rocks or the edge of the cliffs. These iguanas aren’t very big (2.5ft. with tail) but they are fun to watch and observe – since they move like little tanks.
I was blown away, because we came around one bend and saw a group of horses in the water. There were terribly skinny, and I just can’t imagine how they get in and out of this canyon. But a ways further we came across a few cows in the river also, and it seems that there is some type of peasant up on the rim somewhere who has a narrow little trail for these animals to come down and water. But, we never saw anyone.
Amazingly there has been no problems with mosquitoes, and as I write right now, the canyon is just echoing up and down with dozens of bird sounds from parakeets – to who knows what. It really comes alive, especially at night. So far the days seem to start off clear, then get overcast around noon, and then a bit windy in the afternoon, and then clear up at night. Who knows, this could change. Yesterday it clouded up and then we got hit with a rainstorm. The water from the rain was cool, and we jumped into the river to warm up – it felt like a blazing hot bathtub. It’s amazing that the water is such a perfect temperature – I’ve rarely gone swimming in one like that. When we were at the waterfalls (which was an in-feed of the river, and was thus cooler water) the river felt way too hot, and almost sick. However, when it rained, the river then felt so warm and soothing.
Unfortunately I tipped my kayak over today and everything fell out, and in the process I gouged my toe.

It’s amazing how such a small part of your body can affect your overall behavior. So now I’m being extra careful with that foot and wearing my sandals the whole time which is what I should have been doing the whole time. It rained most of the night, but we found shelter under a large ledge on a river sandbar, and so we just listened to the rain come down as our stuff dried out on clotheslines.

After dark, fireflies lighted up the night sky. Thank you God for such a beautiful world, so diverse in so many places. I just love the different places, the deserts, the mountains, the jungles, and the caves…