The Expedition to the Rio Lacanja

10 minute YouTube video. Lots of footage from 2 GoPros, Nikon D5000, and a Kodak Playsport.

Tom roaring at the jungle covered Landeros Ruins

Google Earth image of the surrounding areas

The transcript of the video narration:

Our adventure began in San Cristóbal de Las Casas a day before the end of the Mayan Calendar on December 20th, 2012. We packed Alejandro’s van with a 14 foot NRS self-bailer and other expedition gear. From San Cristóbal we wound our way to Palenque where we met the expedition leader, Rocky Contos.

Rocky Contos has explored nearly every river in Mexico and has over 200 first descents in Mexico alone. He explored the Lacanjá in 2011 and this would be the first SierraRios.org expedition to make it’s way down the entire length of the river. From Palenque we headed east passing near the Bonampak ruins to reach the put in at the town of Lacanjá.

The turquoise waters of the Rio Lacanjá flow from the pristine jungle mountains in Eastern Chiapas near the border of El Petén in Guatemala.

A quick look at a satellite image of this region reveals nothing but green, green and more green with very few access points. This is one of few relatively untouched stretches of jungle left in Central America.

The Lacanja stretches nearly 90 kilometers dropping around 700 feet in that distance. Instead of a gradual change in elevation, it is concentrated in dozens of travertine limestone drops ranging from a class II to V.
 

Landeros Ruins

This was our white Christmas…

Although the river was filled with innumerable white water treats, there were a few hardships we had to endure in the jungles of southern mexico.

Some days we needed to use the saw and the machete to hack our way through vine covered passages that blocked our way on the river.

Ancient Mayan temples and cities lay in ruins alongside the river. It felt like we were the first explorers stumbling across the strange stone structures reclaimed by the jungle for the first time.

On Day 7 we arrived at the confluence with a much larger river, the Lacantún. We paddled another 20 kilometers to reach the first river beach we had seen in over a week. The full moon shone brightly as we set up our tents for the last time and said our goodbyes to our jungle adventure.

Saving Face

While travelling around Latin America (and other places in the world) I have commented a number of times on the general lack of geographical awareness locals seem to have in their area of residence. There have been several occasions driving around Mexico that I have chosen not to ask for directions. I have come to this point for the following two reasons:      1. People generally don’t know where things are. And if you get out the map, forget about it.      2. People want to ‘save face’. Meaning they don’t want to appear to be stupid, so they give you some sort of mumbled directions even if they should have quickly responded “I don’t know”.

And so I've learned that asking for directions in Mexico is not a straight forward process. Often to overcome this dilemma I will ask for the same set of directions a handful of times from different people. I have noticed patterns in age, occupation, etc. that increase the chance of receiving correct directions from someone.

Puerto Progreso, Yucatan, traveling with Tom and Taylor

Example:

Just yesterday, while wondering around the rainy lowland city of Villahermosa, Tabasco I had an opportunity for direction inquiries. I had no guidebook, no map, just wondering around downtown sipping coffee and petting stray dogs. At some point I decided I should check out a museum or two. I had glanced at a Google Earth map before heading out and I knew within a few blocks there was a regional history museum. I ducked into a shop selling a variety of cheap plastic goods to ask where this museum was located.

In the shop there were three attendants and no customers. “Buen dia,” I said, “conoces donde esta el museo de historia?” The girl closest to me was about 17 and she gave me a blank look as she finished hanging a set of plastic combs on a hook. I didn’t really expect her to know as 17-year-olds don’t know much about anything. She redirected the question to the two middle aged women sitting behind the cash register. They discussed the question for 30 seconds or so and finally came to the conclusion that they had no idea there was a museum in the neighborhood and no idea where it was.

I smiled, said thank-you, and walked out of the shop. By luck, as I turned the corner, I was immediately faced with a large blue colonial building with “Museo de Historia” inscribed in the bricks above the door. Of course the shop attendants had not been in the museum before…many people don’t visit the museums in their hometown. Museum visiting is something you do when you have ample amounts of free time to wonder aimlessly and not for someone economically obliged to work. However, I still find it incredibly interesting that you can spend hours, weeks, months… years in a shop and have so little idea of the buildings immediately surrounding you. At least they didn't give me false directions!

....

San Francisco de Campeche (Campeche), Campeche

Mural in front of Campeche

Comalcalco Ruins north of Villahermosa, Tabasco

The Rio Lacanja trip I had been planning for so long has finally come and gone. It was an unforgettable 8 days spent in the middle of pristine Chiapas jungle over the end of the Mayan calendar. We passed jungle covered ruins, crocodiles, multitudes of travertine waterfalls, and had to machete our way through vine covered passages. I have tons of video footage and I will be spending the next two days when I get back to Guadalajara compiling it into a 10-15 minute video. I can’t wait to get back!