I was wondering if anyone had a line on information about paddling
Mexico. I have been Google searching in English and Spanish, and
finding almost nothing useful, other than ads for commercial rafting
companies. In desperation, I printed out a 50 year old article in
Spanish from a mountaineering magazine, but I imagine the river is
different today.

As a long time traveler in Mexico, but a relatively recent convert to
serious canoe paddling, I am thinking about a trip down south this
winter or spring.

I just picked up Tom Robey’s book, A Gringo’s Guide to Mexican
Whitewater. Most of the trips are class IV, so over my head, but he
lists quite a few class II and class III rivers. Some of the trips he
lists are pretty extreme, with portages requiring rappels and zip lines,
and lots of pictures of kayaks running waterfalls. Class I trips with
great scenery might be nice also, but he seems to focus on Whitewater,
which is even in the title of the book! ;-)

I was particularly interested in the rivers that empty into the Gulf of
Mexico. Many of them are in the state of Veracruz, which is probably
the center of the commercial rafting business in Mexico. Rivers that
looked especially interesting to me include the following. The Rio
Actopan, not far from the city of Veracruz. The Rio Guayalejo runs
through the El Cielo Biosphere reserve, and would be a two or three day
trip.

Any experiences or pointers to other sources of info would be appreciated.

Richard


--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals

I have a similar interest. So if you find anything please let me
know..Paul

"PaulJohnson1222" wrote in
oups.com:

I have a similar interest. So if you find anything please let me
know..Paul

I'm working this week at an organization just outside of Mexico City.

It's awfully dry around here but I believe the coast is about 200 miles
away.

PaulJohnson1222 wrote:
I have a similar interest. So if you find anything please let me
know..Paul

I have been researching hard, in English and Spanish. Truly there is
very little out there on the web. I got a personal email from Tom
Robey, he emailed because he noticed I was looking at the Rio Guayalejo.
He said that river has had a flood, is now totally different and a
Class III/IV, so I am taking it off my list. I will probably run the
final river list by him for his comments.

I did get some information from a paddler from Veracruz, but he said
that he knew of no trip writeups available on most of the rivers. :-(
He was nice enough to add me to the mailing list for his paddling club.
Obviously all the email is in Spanish, which I can read and write.
They are having a club trip in a few weeks to the Cascada Tamul, in the
Huasteca of San Luis Potosi. I am hoping to go down in 2006 with
members of the local paddling club and have a joint trip. Should be fun.

Given the limited information, it will be a challenge. There are a few
kinds of trips that make sense to me. 1. Well documented whitewater
rivers in the Robey book, many of which are commercially run. 2.
Rivers widely reported to be flat water, even if there is no
documentation available. 3. Paddling in the lagoons near the coast,
great for birding. 4. Rivers run by the Veracruz paddling club.

I think that if you just pick a river off the map, you might be
rapelling as part of your portages. ;-) Rapelling is OK, if you have
the equipment, the crew, and the time to do it, but I am probably too
old and too smart to want to do it.

If you get the topos, you can use the feet per mile calculation to give
you a hint of which rivers are probably easy, but you would still have
to watch out for surprises.

Richard




--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals

Richard, I spent 3 years in southern Mexico in the early 70's. I was
not there to recreate, but was working on an airfield in the highlands
of Chiapas. I do not know that the Mayan culture has a strong
background in river running. I don't recall ever seeing a river boat
the whole time I was there. Basically, I don't know that they spend
alot of time in the water except to swim and bath. They did not even
fish where I was at, due to the lack of fish in any quanity, again due
to lack of game management and an undependable water sourse.

The coastal areas do have boats, but the inland terrain is very steep
and the water very fast. The most noticable thing is that the rivers
often flow in subterainean caverns. With a rudimentary background in
geology, I noticed that much of the country is fault-blocked
limestone. This results in rivers that emerge from the ground, flow for
a mile or two, and then as quickly re-submerge. I am not talking small
rivers, but some could easily be several hundred feet across. Some of
the falls would be very steep and dramatic, and rivers would disappear
under ground and then reappear 10 or 20 or more miles away. This is not
conducive to taking river rafting trips, though it is amazing to see
this huge volume of water come out of the side of a mountain, and then
all of a sudden - gone!

I understand that the same exist out on the Yucatan. There may be some
rivers that support short raft trips, but nothing extensive. I had some
friends in Costa Rica, who took a day trip that lasted 5 hrs, with some
big water, but not really very long.

I suspect that the WW that you mention was found in Northern Mtn which
I am not real familiar with. I have read about the Copper Canyon area,
which is larger than our Grand Canyon, and mostly undeveloped which
could offer extreme opportunities to the brave hearted. As you mention,
a lot of extreme approaches and excapes that would require
mountaneering techniques. Even where I was at, the lay of the land was
extreme. The main river was less than a mile away, and I was never able
to get there because it was unapproachable from where I was located
several thousand feet above the river. We had mules fall off the trail
hundreds of feet to the bottoms of the canyons. To say the least, you
learned to step carefully!

I don't know if this will help you, but it is my impression as I
remember it 30 years ago. I doubt that the rivers have changed, but
maybe they have figured out how to market what they have. I know they
dive into the water holes in the Yucatan, and spelunking is a big sport
in Mexico, which could add some adventure if you did that while
kayaking! :-)

Life is about each moment of breath,
Living, about each breathless moment!

Thanks, KnesisKnosis, aka Tinkerntom, aka TnT

and now a friendlier, "RkyMtnHootOwl"


2 WW kayaks,
'73 Folbot Super,
pre '60 AEII
77 Hobie Cat 16

Richard Ferguson wrote:
I was wondering if anyone had a line on information about paddling
Mexico. I have been Google searching in English and Spanish, and
finding almost nothing useful, other than ads for commercial rafting
companies. In desperation, I printed out a 50 year old article in
Spanish from a mountaineering magazine, but I imagine the river is
different today.

As a long time traveler in Mexico, but a relatively recent convert to
serious canoe paddling, I am thinking about a trip down south this
winter or spring.

I just picked up Tom Robey's book, A Gringo's Guide to Mexican
Whitewater. Most of the trips are class IV, so over my head, but he
lists quite a few class II and class III rivers. Some of the trips he
lists are pretty extreme, with portages requiring rappels and zip lines,
and lots of pictures of kayaks running waterfalls. Class I trips with
great scenery might be nice also, but he seems to focus on Whitewater,
which is even in the title of the book! ;-)

I was particularly interested in the rivers that empty into the Gulf of
Mexico. Many of them are in the state of Veracruz, which is probably
the center of the commercial rafting business in Mexico. Rivers that
looked especially interesting to me include the following. The Rio
Actopan, not far from the city of Veracruz. The Rio Guayalejo runs
through the El Cielo Biosphere reserve, and would be a two or three day
trip.

Any experiences or pointers to other sources of info would be appreciated.

Richard


--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals

Richard, I was thinking about your "surprises" and when we think of a
strainer, we think of a tree fallen in the river. I will tell you
though that to see a hugh sumederro, where the water all of a sudden
goes underground, gives a new meaning to the word - strainer!
RkyMtnHootOwl

Richard Ferguson wrote:
Snip ...
I think that if you just pick a river off the map, you might be
rapelling as part of your portages. ;-) Rapelling is OK, if you have
the equipment, the crew, and the time to do it, but I am probably too
old and too smart to want to do it.

If you get the topos, you can use the feet per mile calculation to give
you a hint of which rivers are probably easy, but you would still have
to watch out for surprises.

Richard




--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals