Mexico "Youth" Trip

Just got back from Mexico and I could not have asked for a better trip, but I could have done without getting sick. This year it was only Nathan Sass and I who decided to huck the gnar.

We flew into Mexico City on Christmas Day and took a bus out to Aventurec in Tlapacoyan. The next day we paddled the Tablazo section of the Rio Alceseca which at first looked like a drainage ditch to me, but it turned out to be the best first day of any trip. This section was pool drop in nature with numerous drops around 20 feet and two that were larger.  Nathan and Tom ran one of the drops that was in the movie Hotel Charlie.










The next day we decided to give up the overnight trip on the Santo Domingo and instead do other creeks that were closer. At Aventurec we met a group of paddlers from Oregon. Four of them decided to tag along with us on the Super Alto Filo-Bobos . To spice things up a bit we did a section above and a section below the main part which ended up being about 20 miles. It was a beautiful river that wound itself through small canyons with amazing little waterfalls that fed the river.

By the end of that I had gotten sick which was expected. The third day was spent driving to our next destination which was near the ocean. Nathan and I spent the afternoon relaxing at the beach and recovering from the previous day.

For our next adventure Tom decided to take us to el Rio de Oro. To get there we had to drive up the mountain through cow farms, and when we stopped to get changed,  the cows thought that the boats must have been food or something because they all congregated around us and started licking the boats!  To lead us across the fields to the put-in we had a local guide.  The put-in was very foreboding because it was raining, there weren't any real eddies, you could not see far downstream for the mist, and there was a large waterfall not to far downstream that we had to look out for.   There were many fun rapids and two 30 footers in a row.   One of the coolest things about this little river was that the take out was the ocean! We got to paddle straight into the ocean and surf the waves so we basically went from the headwaters to the end.

For our last river we did a little more driving and ended up in Valle National, a small town near amazing mountains. To put-in we asked permission from a small indigenous town in the mountains and even got to use their road to get closer to the put-in. We then had to drag our boats the rest of the way down the mountain for about an hour and a half. By this time it was already 2:00, and we had a ways to go.  So, we "wildwatered" it in order to make it out before dark. There were many many rapids with a lot of wood and sieves to watch out for. All in all it was another great river, but would have probably enjoyed it more if we had not been in such a rush. Around 5:30ish both Nathan and I had already been mentally prepared to spend the night on the river. In the end we paddled about 15 miles in four hours. But we made it.

Another great Mexico trip as expected. Perfect weather, hard rapids, and great people are only a few of the things that make Mexico the best place to paddle, especially when you go to school in Ohio.
More Photos