Emily’s Mexico Report!

Hey Everyone! I just got back from an absolutely wonderful trip with Whitewater Instruction.org down in Valles, Mexico. Dane and I flew in to San Antonio to meet up with my Uncle Scott and drive down with the rest of the group. We spent one day in San Antonio eating Pizza and Chinese food while laughing at my Uncle and Dane playing WII. Ben and his crew showed up at my Uncles around 2am and the journey to Mexico began.

I didn’t know anyone else on the trip except for the leaders, Ben and Michele and my Uncle. But after cramming 7 of us in a small minivan with our luggage I got to know everyone a little faster then I expected. There was also another van with 10 more people.

We arrived after a breeze through the border, many gas station stops and a few well needed bathroom breaks. If anyone was wondering, its not smart to have Calcium Fluoride in a zip lock when crossing the border. We had to restrain the guard from putting it in his mouth! (kinda looks like drugs)

The camp site was amazing! I arrived and was like, good thing I forgot to bring everything, because this place had it all! Nice bathrooms, hot showers, a view of the Micos, buffet style meals, hot coffee, and best of all it was at the take out.

The first day we went up and paddled the Middle section of the Micos. We started that morning seeing where everyone was at in the group, keeping in mind that we had 17 people. My Uncle wanted to start there too, to get his confidence up but by the time lunch came around he was fired up to go run the top section. Its starts out with a perfect practice 15 foot drop into a beautiful crystal clear pool. And the horizons lines just start there, pool drop, pool drop, pool drop. Himself, his friend Barry, another customer Jim, Dane and I all decided to hike up which after knowing how far down you go in such a short time, its not fun to walk up! We did it anyway and the water was the best welcome you could get.

The next day we went and ran the Tampeon (I don’t think I spelled that right) which is deeper in a canyon and more high volume then the rest of the rivers we ran. This river tended to scare the group because if you swam (which many people did) you swam for a very very long time. I was in my Uncle’s Super Man Colored Fun and it was great in this type of water. I am closer to the 2 Fun size but for teaching out of it, I thought it worked perfectly. Everyone I put into it was impressed by how much easier it is to keep the stern out of the water compared to our 2007 Funs.

After going down the Tampeon we had a 2 mile paddle out. This was done in pitch black, with only two head lamps, one glow stick and a lot of people. It was hard to find out where everyone was and whether we even had everyone. But we made it to the takeout safe and sound and had beef street tacos.

The next day the town of Valles had a Parade for Me and Women Kayakers. This was hilarious and one of the funniest things I have ever done, we were in the rafting companies big van at first but then when we noticed that everyone was going to be riding on a flat ben trailer and dancing, we had to join in. Riding on a flat bed trailer dancing with over ten people going thirty is not as graceful as you would think, not to mention Mexico has more speed bumps then I have ever seen. None the less, it was a blast and we received gifts and a presentation from the town of Valles.

When we arrived home from the Parade we a run down the Micos and the town came to watch. It was cool to get to the bottom drop and see over a hundred people, including Miss San Luis and the runner up beauty pageant girls, watching you kayak. We then got Miss San Luis into the kayak and had to explain that the huge crown needed to come off because she needed a helmet.

The next river we ran was the Salto. I think this river was one of my favorites because it was longer and it had so many fun rapids and drops. We had a great time getting everyone down this river and found it great for learning since most of them you needed to actually go somewhere instead of just falling off.

We then took out at the famous El Mecca, which Dane was seriously considering but decided it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Instead we at dinner at El Mecca and had, amazing tacos, fish, guacamole, ceviche, margaritas and flan.

The next few days we dealt with a broken down van but saw the famous Las Pozas (Stone House) and paddled the Micos several times. The mini van left after our runs down the Micos and we stayed one extra day.

We ended up going back to the Salto so Dane and Ben could seriously look at El Mecca this time and because a low flow and not so pretty lines, the decided to skip it and bomb down the river. I stayed up at the restaurant and ate three bowls of raspberry ice cream and just relaxed in the sun. My Uncle ended up having an amazing day and so did everyone else.

After another dinner at this amazing restaurant we then drove back to Texas. Big thanks to all the drivers and everyone we organized this trip. I am hoping to lead one sometime in the future and would love to get a few more ladies out there!

Here are some photos from the trip! Enjoy. Now back to Southeastern boating, not to mention Rock Island is running over 20,000 cfs! Thank you rain!

Happy Paddling

Emily