We rounded out our Chiapas trip with a fairly short teaser of Cueva del Rio La Venta. It is a thoroughly fantastic cave system particularly noteworthy for a challenging 3-day traverse that can be made from its top Sumidero II entrance to its lower entrance adjacent to Rio La Venta. We explored very briefly up the lower entrance on our Rio La Venta trip, just enough to get a taste of the warm temperatures and the scale of features and annual flooding this cave experiences. I was keen to do the full through trip but this was not meant to be for a number of reasons; first we found out it may have never been done in December (at the end of the rainy season) and may still be flooded at a critical spot, second our group may not have had the necessary skill level to safely and efficiently traverse the cave, and third we probably did not have the time with our short 10 days on the ground. As a consolation prize Lukas managed to get in touch with a keen local caver Kaleb who offered to take us in the top entrance for a down and up overnight jaunt into the cave. We figured this was better than nothing and would give us just enough time to sort gear in Tuxtla before flying out our final day.
Once again Kaleb arrived later than scheduled, once again we squeezed past capacity into his Isuzu Trooper, and once again we had a long humid drive. This time it was over 3 hours as we had to cross Rio La Venta and work our way up the rutted remote roads into the karst plateau. We past several small towns with people living a simple farming lifestyle of subsistence crops and coffee for trade. Eventually we made it to the cave owner's place and had a thoroughly long and relaxed conversation with him. He decided he would join us, at least for a while, to and into the cave. A sweaty hour across farmland brought us to the reasonably unassuming entrance of Sumidero II. More slow suit-up, we did not actually head into the cave until close to 3:30p. I started to get the feeling it was one of those trips where goals slip away as time is lost, but it was not really my trip and I was happy to be along for the ride.
A few minutes of stoop-walking brought us into the Sueno Blanco passage, a short but pretty rectangular shaped passage with pristine walls. A few easy downclimbs and the floor fell out from under us as the simple phreatic passage instead decided to plunge chaotically down a canyon with archways, breakdown, and holes. Kaleb set about rigging the pitches as if second nature while the rest of us waited our turn. I could tell those in our group with very limited caving experience were particularly stressed about the pitches and how to manage passing the few rebelays. What was supposed to be three pitches of about 15m ended up being about 5 pitches but everything was well protected with a safety line the whole way down. This took us quite a lot of time to get seven people down. The passage then flattened out and ended up being an infeeder into the spacious subway-like Ramal Sur passage. The owner Manuel was unfortunately feeling rotten at this point (recovering from multiple ailments the last year) and so he ended up opting to head back up and out, with Kaleb making sure he got out alright.
Kaleb delivered very vague directions to Lukas suggesting we should continue on without him to the top of the next prominent drops and so we did. After an initial wrong turn, we ultimately found the well trafficked path with occasional reflectors marking the path. We skirted around mud, up over and down some large breakdown piles to where the reflectors pointed us down into a miserable looking breakdown hole. Here we had to grovel and squeeze a bit through some boulder gaps and then drop a very tight 7m rope through a slot. I went first. A short distance further was the top of the P35 pitch, the remarkable connection point for the top down and bottom up exploration efforts. This had a rather exposed pitchhead that I knew at least a couple in group would not enjoy and then soon after found out that it had a hanging rebelay over the void, a maneuver that some did not have experience with. I lost enthusiasm to continue at this point. It was already around 7pm and we were not even halfway to camp and I did not see how we would be able to get out of the cave at a reasonable time. I was confident our group could get down and up but I knew they would not be thrilled and so for a number of reasons I pushed for us to retreat back to Ramal Sur to find an impromptu camp. Soon Kaleb appeared and went down the pitch followed by Lukas who confirmed that yes, some of us might not feel comfortable at all with the hanging rebelay. More discussion. Though I would have loved to see more of the cave, I felt I knew the way back the best and that the safest option be that the rest of us head back and establish a camp, leaving Lukas and Kaleb to explore a little further for about an hour or so. Ultimately this is what was decided.
Ramal Sur Camp
We took our time up the awkward slot rappel and with teamwork it went fairly smoothly. The way back to the large Ramal Sur passage went smoothly. We scouted around, identifying several good campspots that would adequately fit us all and so sat down to make dinner. Eventually Kaleb and Lukas rejoined us. It sounded like the SRT got even more challenging with hanging traverses and a j-hang looping loosely across a canyon passage with the roar of water below and that we probably made the right decision given our time and experience limitations. After a social dinner we settled in for the night, pretty much everyone seeming to sleep well. I only brought a thin silk sleeping bag liner, which was borderline OK (I had a thermal blanket if needed but did not want to subject everyone to nightlong echoing crinkles). The pitches up were easier and smoother than everyone thought. One of the owner's sons arrived to bring us a bucket of corn drink just as we got to the entrance. His horse carried a few of the packs back to the house. More socializing at the house and eventually we were headed back to Tuxtla. Cleaning, organizing, and packing and quesadillas for dinner led us to the last night of the trip. Thankfully all the travel logistics went smoothly the next day and we closed out a very satisfying visit to Chiapas.
Our venture into Cueva del Rio La Venta was not the cave trip I hoped for but it was better than nothing to get a taste, to meet Kaleb who I thoroughly enjoyed and would love to do more trips with (I need to work on my Spanish...), and to continue to whet my appetite for a hopeful future throughtrip someday. Special thanks to Kaleb and Lukas for putting this cave trip together. The first three photos are by Lukas, the group shot is by Dave.
Chorreadero! It may not have the same jump-on-a-plane draw as five days through the wilds of Rio La Venta, but this was the second activity I was most excited about in Chiapas. Cueva del Chorreadero is a simple straightforward stream cave system. A stream bypasses a surface canyon to plunge steeply underground through a tall vadose canyon passage for 2.7km, exiting at a lower waterfall entrance 350m lower. There are really only two side passages that branch and rejoin the main passage. That description in and of itself is not particularly noteworthy for a cave system. Where the cave stands out is as a wet and wild throughtrip with about 20 rappels, about 12 jumps, multiple slides and swims, and not a moment of squeezing or crawling. The whole cave is rigged with anchors at anything that cannot be jumped so that a pullthrough trip is possible with about 120ft of rope. There are few formations and the general nature of the cave is waterfalls linked by deep potholes scoured into creamy limestone. More archways and natural bridges than I have seen anywhere else in the world. It is non-stop physical action and scenic beauty for hours with some groups taking up to 12-16 hours to traverse (I was hoping for 7-8). December would find us at the end of the rainy season when flows are back down to safe levels but hopefully the water would still be fresh and sporty.
We carefully packed and prepped the day before, anticipating a long and full day. In the morning we found that our arranged taxi stood us up and sent our Mexican compatriot out to flag another one down at the street corner. It was yet another tiny taxi, mountain of gear and people situation as we piled in for the cramped and trafficky one hour ride from downtown to the Chorreadero waterfall swimming area and cave exit. We arrived right at the 8am gate opening and talked up one of the caretakers. He had good news: A group of guides went through two weeks before (only other trip of the season) and confirmed the anchors were all intact and the cave could be safely descended. The caretaker did point to the map and repeatedly suggested 12-16 hours for the full throughtrip; my confidence was still set on 7-8 hours. I got a kick out of the subtle looks from the taxi driver that said "gringos loco y estupido." We paid our 200 peso ($20) permit fee then negotiated with the taxi to drive us further up the switchbacking road to the slight pullout where we would be dropped off. There was nothing but steep slope and no hint of a trail below us; once again the taxi driver questioned our sanity but at this point I think he was mostly excited to get rid of us. A quick look at the west end of the pullout revealed the start of the access trail providing us a very easy 10 minute approach to the first drop- I was thrilled we nailed the approach. We walked down a small stream for less than a minute to arrive at an obvious limestone patio suit-up area just before the first drop.
On a mission to not let the day get away from us, we put on wetsuits efficiently and sequenced our way down the first rappel. The first couple hundred meters was a cave without a roof, a slot canyon with many of the waterfalls, downclimbs, wades, and arches that we would see in abundance in the cave. The first short wade was the moment of truth: brr! actually much colder than I was expecting! Though I soon got used to the temperature and ultimately could sit in it all day, the first few submersions were a shock to the system.
The slot got darker as we got deeper and closer to a blind wall in the canyon. I was first down a taller waterfall (pictured below) with an abrupt left bend into darkness below. Finally we were at the upper cave entrance and the last glimpse of daylight until the bottom entrance hours later.
The cave was fantastic. Really fun and straightforward with no navigational challenges; just follow the water. I thoroughly enjoyed myself through the jumps, wet rappels, and occasional "last man anchor" challenges. Previous advice I got suggested we would be begging for the end but as it turned out we were ready for more when we saw the faint light at the end of the tunnel. It took us 4.2hours to reach the first "red cross" chamber, 7 hours to the exit. The last section seemed to take us less than an hour. The videos below really do a better job conveying a sense of the cave and of the trip than I am capable of with words. We were all stoked at the amazing cave trip, non-stop action, and solid teamwork we put in. Truly one of the better recreational cave trips I have ever been on.
Once out, dry(ish), and changed, we managed to arrange a taxi back to Chiapas de Corzo easily enough where we ate at a tasty restaurant on the very pleasant town square (with epic sunset lit thunderheads on the horizon and deafening screech of birds). More taxi shenanigans seeming to take a village eventually had us squeezing in yet again for our ride back to downtown Tuxtla. Repack, rest, and back at it again tomorrow for our final cave trip.
This is the river that set off my broader interest in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. The 60+km long wilderness river trip offered a plethora of towering limestone cliffs, graceful karst waterfalls, high quality caves, rocky rapids, and even a 400m-long section where the river straight-up goes subterranean! It held almost a legendary status in my mind and I endeavored to visit and experience it. The area was extensively explored by Italian cavers starting in 1990, including the first known descent of the canyon. Several major cave systems were explored and some important archaeological sites, in some cases on extremely hard to reach cliff ledges, were documented. With the popularization of packrafts, the river trip has become more popular in the last decade, though still on average there appears to only be one to two groups going down the river per year. After several years on my mind, I finally found the time and crew to make it happen and began planning a few months out.
As with several other trips this year I got rather lucky with the timing, having an opportunity to get a COVID booster before departing and our trip occurring just before the omicron wave of the pandemic hit. Cheap Tijuana plane tickets were too cheap to pass up and Keith and I gave the CBX cross-border bridge a shot. This worked remarkably well and was an easy win over dealing with LAX. I had a notable scare in visually not seeing our luggage make it onto our plane to Mexico City but happily it arrived with us in Tuxtla, undoubtedly slipped on the one other plane from TJ to MEX that day. The taxi worked well enough in getting us to our hotel. We were thrilled to see Lukas and Suhei on arrival and to partake in the homemade meal they prepared for us (we were determined to not start five days on a river with everyone in gastrointestinal distress!). It was undoubtedly the most modest hotel room I have ever stayed in (barely functional fan, two power outlets total, no toilet seat!) but the staff was friendly and we felt safe from the chaos of the city beyond.
Day 1: Excited for the trip to come I awoke from the short night's sleep and carefully packed for the next six days adventure. We were all ready to go for a 9am pickup by new caving amigo Kaleb, but reality was closer to 10am, giving us plenty of time to contemplate what vehicle he had and how we would fit 6 people and a mountain of gear in it. The answers were Isuzu Trooper and barely and uncomfortably! We were nevertheless grateful and in good spirits. We had lots of traffic exiting the chaos of Tuxtla but eventually made it to more open road and then turned down side roads towards Aguacero then turned again. We had a short scavenger hunt in the local town looking for the mayor equivalent, eventually tracking him down and paying our 100 peso fee to drive the car to the trailhead. This region was surprisingly dry in appearance, characterized by corn fields and karstic limestone outcrops. Kaleb drove until the end of the road at a corn field gate where we readied for the hike down. The trail was initially hard to find but Kaleb soon sniffed out the right one and led us down the steep side of the canyon. A little rocky and narrow, the trail was otherwise easy to follow and we parted with Kaleb about halfway down. Sloppily I wore my 5.10 water boots down to the river without socks (since they were buried in my pack); the 1.6km hike with heavy pack was just enough to give me torn blisters to nurse the next several days.
The first view of the canyon and beach and river was underwhelming (photos did not make the cut!). Cliffs were nice but small and intermittent. The beach was trodden with footprints, cattle pies, and a smoldering cooking fire. The river was lazy and barely deep enough for a packraft. The biggest moment of truth came next though: I walked into the river and dipped my hand into the waters. A perfect cool to lukewarm temperature I could sit in all day. What a relief! Since we knew the scenery would improve shortly downcanyon, all my other worries faded away.
We set off at 1:30pm, later than we hoped, but thrilled to get our trip underway. We put in about 7 river kilometers downstream of Aguacero. I was bummed to miss seeing yet another spectacular karst waterfall, but it was nice to skip some flat and shallow river and not start our trip with an abundance of watchful eyes. In the end I think it was the right decision given the unseasonably low water levels. In the first 150 meters of the river we saw one rifle slinging cattle farmer and a family of four attempting to spearfish in the shallows; after that we saw no other people until reaching the reservoir at the end of our trip. We saw a few cattle defecating in the creek, a good reminder to choose our drinking water with care. The further we went the wilder it got. The walls soon grew in height, surprisingly adorned by impressive columnar cacti and arid bromeliads.
A new experiment. Click for a 360 degree photosphere!
The river had a few small rock gardens for us to weave but nothing of note until well after we arrived at Cascada La Conchuda, a spectacular cave-fed travertine falls plunging over cliffs direct to the river. I could not resist a drone flight and worked myself into the first of several frenzied photo snapping sessions of the course of the trip. We were already behind and so we spent less time here than I would have liked.
Below the cascade were a couple rapids, rocky at the low flow requiring partial portages over sharp limestone boulders. As we soon found out the rocks along the river were exceptionally sharp and grippy limestone...except when they were exceptionally smooth and slippery limestone. Along this stretch of the river often there would be flat patches of exposed bedrock in the river, making interesting patterns with the covering sand.
We floated past an alleged overhang camp, which we did not see, and made it two more kilometers to a promising riverside overhang and cobble bar at 5:40pm. After a little work shifting a pile of sand on a bedrock platform, I had a prime tent spot beneath the overhang. It ended up being one of the better camps we saw anywhere along the river with sweeping views of tall cliffs and mysterious cave entrances in their sides. I took the drone up to sweep past cliffs, caves, and camp before the light faded. I almost had a run-in with the bright green flock of parakeets that noisily inhabited the cliff just above us.
The air temperature was perfect to lounge around shirtless in boardshorts and thankfully not very buggy at all. As my dinner rehydrated, I serenely floated down the river in front of camp- refeshing! I ate dinner as the parakeets began to settle in for the night and fireflys began to illuminate around us. I was ready for bed by about 7:45pm, anticipating a bigger day tomorrow. We had only gone 7km on the river on our first day; we had many more fantastic things to see and rapids to traverse.
Camp 1
Day 2: With many kilometers of river to paddle this day, our resident camp parakeets did us a favor with a 6:30am wake-up call. I struggled a bit with sleep, misguessing temperatures with my 40F sleeping bag that was too much to use (though night temperatures got better as the trip wore on). We had a 8:45a launch by the time we got through breakfast and packing. We had partially clouds skies most of the day to give us interesting shifting light and a slight upstream wind that was easily forgotten. Shortly downstream we found the first of many cave entrances worth exploring for a few minutes. The river occasionally bent beneath impressively towering cliffs, often with many overhangs and cacti.
The first 3km of the day were highly scenic but we all noticed the absence of good campsites- we felt lucky we decided to camp where we did the previous night. We past several weeping walls, river level springs and showering travertine falls, especially on river left through this section. A surprise waterfall aligned with the Vertiente drainage created a five-star camp spot complete with a 50m whispering waterfall, a calm green plunge pool, and a ring of spacious sandy beach.
Cascada Vertiente
Below the cascade we explored a few more springs as potential caves (no luck) and worked our way through lots of rock gardens. We had a 2.5km section of the "Rocky Rapids" to navigate. Some of us portaged more than others. Some things were read-and-run, others definitely needed the scout. Everything we saw would have been better at twice the flow. These slowed us down a bit but did not throw too much challenge at us (though somewhere here I must have sprung the tiniest pinhole leak).
For whatever reason (geology...) nearly all of the tallest and most imposing canyon walls were on the river's right- I had never seen cliffs like this before! The cacti and bromeliads formed amazing hanging gardens on ledges and in cave mouths. At one point we looked for a Mayan "Omega Altar" from an extremely vague description, walking out an ascending bedding plane ledge high above the river. I turned around when it got less than a meter wide and completely overgrown with vegetation but in hindsight it was the closest thing we saw along the river to the description. The river began to meander around great canyon walls in this section and there were several sleeper rapids- read-and-run, grab a mini-eddy, read-and-run, repeat. Keith and I ran most of them- not great quality with the low flow and exposed rocks but better than portaging.
Clouds built as the day got on and we began searching for camps. Once again the harder we looked, the fewer we saw. Above what our map labeled a major rapid (but ended up being basically nothing) we had a few options including a sloping ledge, a broad vegetated sandbar with lots of cattle poop, and a small patch of sand with a little overhanging trees. It was tight on space but we went with the tree camp at 5:45pm. I paddle shoveled myself a flat spot and pitched my tent just as an on-off light rain set in for the evening, night, and morning. It was a long and satisfying day. We covered about 18km on the river, which would put us in a good position for exploring the bottom of Cueva del Rio La Venta the following day.
Camp 2
Day 3: I had a more leisurely 7:30am wake up and had breakfast in the tent as drizzle and dark skies continued. By the time we finally packed and shoved off at 9:45a there were some patches of sun and overall it turned out to be a pleasant day. We were supposed to immediately have a challenging rapid to portage but instead we found a very simple read-and-run (clearly mislabeled). The dramatic cliffs continued but we began to see fewer cactus and more lush jungle vegetation along the corridor.
We had many rapids to scout and run as the river entered its most meandering section of canyon. Two rapids were definite portages, both unrunnable rock pile messes we bypassed on the right. Near the location of an alleged trail from the town of Unidad Modelo there was a unique bedrock falls rapid; extra scratchy and barely runnable. After this things eased up into the typical read-and-run rock gardens and the great white walls continued to impress.
Before long we started to get intermittent calm green water gorge sections with river width cliffs and very nice waterfall springs. I found a spring on river right to replenish my water, a float up water tap! Between these sections we had some more rock garden rapids, some of the more fun ones to this point. We had a nice lunch spot on a beach in one of these quiet gorge sections, pleasant despite the light drizzle. I couldn't resist a swim in the pleasant waters before we continued on.
We kept a watch eye out for a mysterious "green cross" landmark marking an important trail but did not see it (like many apparent landmarks). At 2:30p we stopped at a prominent spring on river left and the dry boulder chute drainage that seemed the most likely location for the lower entrance to Cueva del Rio La Venta. Lukas and Dave ran up the slope "to scout for 10 minutes" while the rest of us searched around for a suitable campsite. The options were quite grim but with some creativity and a lot of engineering we managed to carve out four tent sites on sand between rocks and vegetation. This took some time. It was over an hour by the time Lukas returned unenthusiastic about the cave. I set up my tent just ahead of a light drizzle and then rallied Keith and Lukas to return up to the cave. The boulder scrambling route up was steep and slippery but overall we made good time climbing up to the entrance. The cave was even warmer and more humid than I was expecting! The slightest bit of walking led to heavy sweat. Nice flowstone, gour pools, stals, and columns adorned the initial passages. We explored a bit more than Lukas did and found our way down an incredible mountain of giant-step flowstone. One more exposed handline would have gotten us to the floor of a waterfall chamber but we were worried the greasy slope would be harder to climb up without an ascender so we turned around there.
Camp 3
On the hike back to camp in the dark Keith and I spotted several yellow toads hopping out of the way and one that was willing to sit perfectly still and let us photograph it. Back at camp I set into my dehydrated dinner routine and then settled into bed. We went a modest 9km on the river this day but this placed us in position to see some of the very best Rio La Venta scenic wonders tomorrow. I was excited for what was to come. I fell asleep to the light patter of rain.
Day 4: We had some more overnight rain that led us into a gloomy day. We set off from camp at about 9:45am yet again. We had a couple fun rapids to start the day and then past a right turn had Ponedora rapid, long and complex. Keith and I ran the top part of the rapid but then portaged river left about 50m. More rapids continued and the boulders got bigger and bigger. More rapids followed, some with really fun drops mixed in. It would be some quality wilderness whitewater if only there was more water!
The day just kept getting better and better, working towards its scenic climax. There were two really nice gorge sections of note. The third one had the sound of falling water and we approached it and I knew right away we were at the Cascada Barranca gorge. I had seen several photos but they still didn't really prepare me for what I was in store for. Three components distilled down to (1) the darkest, narrowest, most overhanging slot yet, (2) a complex multi-part travertine cascade of white water cascading down the wall for over 50m width, and (3) still deep green waters disturbed only by the impacts of the waterfalls and our gentle paddle strokes. It was stunning on a level few places in this world are and I had to take an extra lap paddling back through just to savor it a few minutes longer. Unsurprisingly the photos do not do it justice!
photo by Keith
We floated through the Cascada Barranca gorge all too quickly. At the next river bend beneath a rincon we spotted some river right springs to replenish water and had lunch on some slippery rocks. Drizzle and grey skies set in. After lunch we had some more waterfall springs, some very scenic flatwater reflecting towering cliffs, and brief rays of light leaking through clouds. We entered yet another wall-to-wall gorge with a 90 degree turn to the right, my anticipation maxed out for what was to come next.
The final enticing corner before Arco del Tiempo
As we paddled around the corner we entered the narrowest slot canyon on the whole river, 5m wide in places and towering dramatically overhead. It was moody and magnificent. Floating on we soon had a roof overhead and had entered the Arco del Tiempo, the 400m long spacious cave passage the river traverses. The river shallowed. The walls were illuminated by light from the 100m tall lower entrance. In the middle of the passage was a particularly large roof collapse block and against it was a beach larger and higher than the river than I had hoped. I found a route up the boulder where foot traffic had cleared the slippery algae; the vantage from the top was hard to beat. I could see light coming in from both the upper and lower entrances, the graceful curve of the river around me, and the vertical walls reaching skyward into a stalactite-covered ceiling. Other than our put-in on the river days ago, this beach and the couple downstream of the cave were the first (and only) spots we saw an abundance of footprints. Happily we still had the place all to ourselves this afternoon.
photo by Keith
We had an interesting split of opinion at this point. I was thoroughly eager to camp on this fantastic beach within the cave but Lukas led a charge to camp on the river right beach downstream around the corner. I think he was concerned about stories of people getting flooded out of camping in the cave and getting washed downstream through the most complex rapids. I thought the beach had plenty of height, we had the big boulder to get up if needed, and several more beaches to swim for downstream; also other than the very large ceiling block (which clearly had been there for human history) there was no other evidence of rocks or ceiling collapses. So Keith and I opted to camp in the cave, while the other three formed their rebel camp 150m downstream just out of sight. I carved out a perfect tent flat in the sand with my paddle (I was getting good at it) and pitched the tent. I found there was a bizarre cycle where there would be 5 minutes of drips, then perhaps an hour without any; it was enough to set up the rainfly. Keith and I rigged a clothesline with the paddles. I attempted some drone shots while Keith and I sat on top of the big rock. As expected without a GPS signal I had a limited height and radius to fly and the drone would madly drift rather than holding its stationary position. It was highly stressful as I frantically took photos and videos and tried to compensate for the drone drifting towards walls (more than once reversing the controls and getting it even closer to crashing into a wall!). At one point I visited the others in their camp and confirmed an early 8am push off in the morning; tomorrow would be a big day.
After the drone I still had some photos I was hoping to take; basically I could not take photos fast enough as the light faded on us. It would have been just fine with me to spend an entire day in this cave or even to have a layover camp here. Oh well, what I got was better than nothing. Visiting this place was a dream of mine for several years; I was thrilled to be here. From our cave camp we could see sheets of rain cascading down and were happy to be under our stone roof. Keith and I had some very noisy swifts echoing in the cave but happily they quieted down for the night and the drips seemed to as well. I was looking forward to a good night's sleep. We traveled a short scenery-packed 8km today.
Camp 4
Day 5: Our last big day on the river. I had the best night's sleep yet. Keith and I were ready at 8am per the plan but it was closer to 8:40am by the time the others were packed. We also took a group photo at the lower entrance which delayed us a bit longer. It turned out it had rained quite a bit overnight, but as with every night the river level still dropped slightly.
Literally only 200m downriver from their camp was the sieve-y house boulder mess of Derrumbe Rapid. We knew this was the most daunting challenge on the river and that some groups had taken 4 hours to successfully portage this few hundred meter long rapid. We started portaging on river right over and under large rocks. At several points I ran ahead to scout the best path. Portaging was sweaty work! I determined we could have paddled a pool, run a short clean drop, and paddled another pool, which would have made quick work of the middle section of the rapid. I was outvoted and instead we spent over a half hour inching our way along a slippery portage, then paddling across to river left anyway. Now more river left portage antics, but generally we worked well as a team. It took us about 1.5 hours to clear Derrumbe, less than the 2 hours I allotted. In all it was less scary than it was made out to be from descriptions which was just fine with me.
With the crux behind us our goal now was just to make lots of river progress. Next up was the White Wall gorge which was a 2.5km section with some of the highest quality rapids on the whole river (and 1-2 portages). We continued to have calm water narrow section interspersed and more waterfalls. At one point and enormous river left alcove was too interesting to pass up. We found no caves but it was a very scenic spot nonetheless. Shortly after we had lunch on a pleasant beach.
On river right just above a minor rapid was an irresistible cave entrance. We tied boats on to a small rock arch and clambered up the short but steep cliff to the cave mouth. Definitely a cave, I probably should have bothered to bring my headlamp. We went over rocks, then breakdown, then mud to a bat chamber, then up the next slope further. Unknowing what to expect and more river to go, we turned around only about 100m into the cave. Later I found out the name of the cave was Cueva de La Vuelta and if we had stuck with it for 450m we would have found ourselves in a spectacularly decorated gallery 50m in length. Oh well!
Cueva de La Vuelta
Past the cave there was only probably four more rapids including a portage and then we were through the White Wall gorge. A couple more good narrows were interspersed. On the very last and smallest little six inch drop of the whole river I managed to flip overcompensating to avoid scratching my boat on a rock. My only flip of the whole trip, it totally figured that I would find the smallest final thing to have a mishap on. We all had a good laugh at my expense.
photo by Keith
The river slowed and shallowed down the final stretch to La Junta where the Rio La Venta joined the Rio Negro, a much bigger river. I convinced the others to wait long enough for me to quickly put a drone in the sky. I snapped a few quick photos before rain started to fall and I quickly brought the drone back. When the reservoir is full it apparently backs all the way up to the confluence but we had more moving water for a while longer.
Rio La Venta & Rio Negro confluence
La Junta
Below the confluence we were now on a wide river canyon of a much different character. The next 4.5km we had current but the river was so flat and wide that we had to be watchful for the channel. We seemed to hit the deep water of the reservoir right as a strong downpour fell. We waited this one out underneath an overhang and discussed our options. We all noted the lack of good campsites in this stretch and felt like we would have a better chance of pickup at the El Encajonado ranger station where the canyon opened up onto the reservoir. We opted for the additional 6.5km of genuine paddling and started on, Keith at the most determined pace, then me, then the other three. There was still a few more scenic sights to see but we were certainly now in the wind-down portion of our trip. Keith and I saw a group of some weird small brown-black racoon-like mammals, then closer to the reservoir I spotted a spider monkey gracefully climbing out pliable branches from tree top to tree top. As we approached I could see that El Encajonado had an amazing covered patio perch right at the end of the cliff; I would have been excited for cliff jumping if it was not for the scummy reservoir water to catch me fall. A little after 5pm we reached El Encajonado, 61km from where we started down the river and a solid 19km total for the day. We met the friendly and chatty caretaker, and I got to work on my Spanish comprehension while Lukas and Suhei chatted him up. We set up drying lines, organized gear, and set up tents on the tiled pagoda. The air was cooler here than further up in the jungle and I was looking forward to a good night's sleep. At some point the ranger left and at a later point the overnight caretaker and his brother-in-law showed up. The rest of the group played cards but I was quite content to lay in my tent and fade into sleep.
Camp 5
Day 6: We were supposed to get an 8am pickup but it ended up being closer to 9:30a by the time our boat arrived. We were happy to find it seaworthy, less happy to discover there were major issues with the motor involving randomly swapping out a sparkplug every 10 minutes for a while. The boat limped its way to Ruidoso and we considered it a win that we did not get abandoned on the middle of the reservoir or crash into another boat when both boat drivers were looking at their cell phones...Santos picked us up in one of those classic tarp covered flatbed trucks; Keith, Dave and I piled into the noisy back, leaving the Spanish speaker the cab. It was a surprisingly long drive back to Tuxtla, certainly with plenty of interesting sights along the way. We had a few interactions to suggest Santos was a bit of a shyster- oh well, we survived. Between Kaleb dropping us off, permits, our last night Ocote camping donation, the boat ride, and the truck ride back to the hotel, the 6-day trip only cost us $49USD per person; fairly epic value for such world class scenery.
The trip was everything I hoped it would be. We saw no other people once we started paddling and the air and water temperatures were perfect. We got just enough rain to change things up but not enough to be a major nuisance. The rapids ended up being more fun than I was expecting and the portages were not as bad as they were talked up to be. Some of the expected river landmarks remained elusive and I would have preferred twice the river flow but perhaps I will return to this special place again someday. It certainly exceeded my high bar for return visits in a world too big to see it all. Huge thanks are due to Lukas and Suhei who were huge helps with setting up logistics at all steps and getting to Chiapas a few days early so that we could hit the ground running. There was little time to sit and reflect on the trip in Tuxtla. By the time we unpacked and stocked up on food we were again packing for a long cave trip the following day. Below is a mostly unwatchable 23 minute cut of Rio La Venta footage; I couldn't base to cut it down any further.
