Day 5: Fundamentals of Moving Water - Demonious! Estoy Bien!

Once again I met everyone at 7:30 a.m. for our daily yoga practice before breakfast. Anna was very thoughtful in the planning of her yoga routine. Each day she would work on stretching the muscle groups that tend to tighten up while you sit in a kayak, hamstrings etc. but she would also incorporate moves for the muscles groups we would be using that day on the river, shoulders etc. It was great forethought on her part.

At 8:30 a.m. we were served our breakfast at Esprit. Today we had pancakes, sausage links, fresh papaya and fruit juices. After breakfast we went back to Aventuras to change for the river.

So there I was in-front of the pack with no guide leading three other beginner paddlers down a class 3 rapid! .."Demonious! Estoy bien!"

The girls picked us up at Aventuras about 9:45 a.m. When they came they had two local women with them, Jackie and Gabby. Jackie and Gabby both had been kayaking before and dated raft guides in the area so they were not complete beginners. The previous day we asked Anna if any of the local women paddle and sadly she said that not many participate in adventure sports because of the traditional attitude of the men in smaller villages. We were very glad to have them with us, they were great paddlers and gave us some insight into their culture.

We drove further up river from Jalcomulco to a put-in on the lower end of the Pescados section. The Antigua River is divided up into three sections with different names; the upper class 3-5 Barranca Grande section, the middle class 2-5 Pescados section, and the lower class 2-5 Antigua section. The local guides refer to each section as if its another river entirely, you won't find the Pescados or Barranca Grande on a map for that reason.

When we got to the put-in we began with our stretches to warm up. We began by working on the various strokes we learned the day before. We also worked on edge control by doing power circles in the eddy. Once everyone was warmed up we paddled up river to the end of a big rapid and worked on ferries in much stronger current. When the current is stronger its more difficult to cross, more intimidating to look at and you can't cheat. You must get to the top of the eddy line and really hold your angle to make it across. We did alot of practice on this skill in this section of river. I found my ferries coming along alot better than previously and that made me happy. I need to work on holding my angle when ferrying.

Once we finished practicing in the lower Pescados section we ran three rapids, about a class 2+ and ended under the foot bridge in Jalcomulco where we worked the first day on the river. On the way through the rapids Lorelei ended up swimming. I'm not sure how she got flipped but she managed to get herself to shore while Anna got her boat and drained it for her. She bravely got back in her kayak and paddled to the take out. She was a little shaken up so it was a good thing that we were taking our kayaks up to the van and driving further down river to the next put-in. It gave her some time to relax.

We pulled up to the put-in in the little village of Apazapan. We took our kayaks to the river and then went onto the footbridge that spans the river. Here Anna talked further about reading water and had us study the rapids and tell her where we think we should go. It was a useful exercise. We put in on the Antigua and immediately ran a set of three long rocky and shallow rapids. Somewhere in the second set of rapids both Connie and Lorelei ended up swimming. It didn't take too long to get them back in their boats.

Around noon we pulled into an eddy and ate lunch on the side of the river. Karine and Eileen had been carrying lunch in their kayak and canoe. We flipped a kayak over to use like a table and had pasta salad, water, broccoli and ranch dressing, cantaloupe and cookies. While we were eating lunch Jackie and Gabby taught us how to say our mantra in Spanish "demonious! estoy bien!", they also gave us another phrase to yell out. It was "animo!" which roughly means something like "we can do it", "let's go", or "be brave, have courage".

After lunch we got back in our kayaks and stayed in the same area to work on ferries. Anna also introduced three new maneuvers to work on. The first was a peel out. A peel out is a maneuver used to exit an eddy. As I mentioned earlier the stronger the current you face the more precise you must be. I'm not really sure why but the peel out has always been the one kayaking move that intimidates me the most...its something about going against rushing down stream current. But for the first time I really felt like I understood what I needed to do. Anna explained to me that I need to hold a 45 degree angle relative to the current, same as the ferry angle, and maintain that angle and a downstream tilt until I am in the current, once I am in the current I can open up the angle and allow to current to push my bow downstream. We practiced peel outs quite a bit and they got less scary each time. For me personally I learned I need to hold my downstream tilt better.

The second concept we worked on was an eddy turn. An eddy turn is used when exiting the main river current and entering an eddy. You must enter the eddy high where the eddy line is the least strong. You must paddle with speed and once your hips have crossed the eddy line you must lean upstream so the water flowing upstream doesn't catch your edge and flip you.

To link up practice for both the peel out and eddy turn we needed to do an s turn. Basically you peel out of an eddy and instead of opening up your angle to allow the bow to point all the way downstream you maintain a lower angle, still holding a downstream tilt and look at the next eddy you want to enter. As you enter the eddy you perform an eddy turn. We practiced this maneuver several times and had to do a ferry to get from the starting eddy to the ending eddy. It was good practice.

When practice was finished we ran the next set of rapids. There were two together and they were a long series of very rocky rapids. We divided into groups and followed either Anna or Milissa. I was in Anna's group and near the front. We came to a very congested spot where you had to go between boulders and over rocks. You are supposed to maintain atleast 1-2 kayak lengths between paddlers, Connie was having trouble controlling her speed and she pulled in-front of me and she then hit a rock. She was stuck there for a moment and unfortunately I was right behind her without a way to go in any other direction. She leaned the wrong way and the current flipped her over, as her kayak flipped it hit the bow of my kayak and I flipped. I set up to atleast try my roll but it was so shallow in that area that my paddle wasn't getting any purchase on the surface of the water. I had no choice but to pull and swim. Fortunately this wasn't the first time I've been flipped in a river and I knew how to self-rescue. As I came out of my kayak I reached up and got my arm inside the cockpit and grabbed my paddle with my other hand. As I was floating down river on my back with my feet pointed downstream, kayak in one hand, paddle in the other, I noticed my Camelback bottle floating past me. I let go of my paddle for a second, grabbed my bottle and held it in my mouth, got a hold of my paddle again and continued floating down river like this. Anna saw me and started to laugh....she was busy helping Connie collect her gear so I swam my stuff into the first eddy I saw. Helen and Mandy helped me get my boat in and drained. Connie had lost her paddle down river so Anna had to get the spare break-apart paddle in her kayak for Connie to use. What an ordeal! I was a little concerned that I got river water in my mouth and that I would get sick because of it.....

Once I was back in my kayak Anna told me to head down river, Helen, Mandy and Heather followed me while Anna got Connie back in her boat. What I didn't know is that Milissa, Karine, Jackie, Gabby, Eileen, Carol and Karen had all pulled over down river since they didn't see us for awhile. They were in the biggest eddies and there really wasn't anywhere for us to pull over...so we continued downstream. I could see some big rapids coming up in-front of me...I turned around to see that Anna was trying to make her way down in-front of us but I knew she wasn't going to catch us in time. So there I was in-front of the pack with no guide leading three other beginner paddlers down a class 3 rapid..."Demonious! Estoy bien!" I thought. I didn't freak out because at home I am a point guide on the river so I'm used to being upfront, I can also read water pretty well. I dug my paddle in and picked a line I hoped the other ladies could follow, we crashed over large boulders into pour-overs below but we all made it through the rapid fine! Anna and everyone else caught up with us at the bottom of the rapid. We all paddled to the take out.

I have to say that after today I was starting to feel more confident about my paddling. I saw my ferries improve, I understood how to peel out and was not so scared of it anymore, I attempted to roll my kayak when it flipped instead of just bailing straightaway, I was able to self-rescue when I did have to swim, and I lead three women through a rapid I had never seen before. That's progress!

We got off the river about 3 p.m. Eileen gathered everyone together while they were still in their gear and took some nice group shots of us all. We got changed and had a few cervezas before returning to Aventuras. After such an exciting day we opted to keep the adrenaline flowing by going zip-lining in the afternoon. Esprit arranged the trip for us and the guides from Aventuras Sin Limite were taking us.

We had a some time to get our wet gear hung up, we were told to bring our helmets with us to zip-line. We waited outside in the street since we saw several of Aventuras' guides standing around. While we were waiting for Anna and Eileen the local kids asked us to play soccer with them. There were two young boys and a very cute little girl. We couldn't say no, not surprisingly the older of the boys was very good. We kicked the ball around with them until Anna came.

We hiked up the hills behind the village and Anna showed us the palapa where we would be doing yoga the next morning. Aventuras is expanding their business and they are in the process of building a new retreat center in the hills behind Jalcomulco. So far what they have built looks very nice. We followed the guides to the first platform area where we were fitted with a harness.

Looking around I could see the Antigua River below, I've come to realize that I have a bit of acrophobia but I wanted to go zip-lining anyway because it looks like so much fun. One of the guides gave us the safety lecture, not that we could understand it because he only spoke Spanish. Luckily Anna was with us and could translate some of it for us.

The first line we went across was short and the "tester line", if you freaked out or didn't like it you could still turn around at this point. I walked up and the guide attached my cables and biners and showed me how to hold my hands, he then told me to sit back some and pick up my feet and I was off like a shot! I don't know how fast these things go but it feels fast! I flew down the line and in no time I was nearing the next platform, the next guide was giving me the "brake!" signal and I was trying like all hell but I wasn't slowing down...I crashed right into the brake knot at the end of the cable, the impact sent me flying in the air and my left arm slammed into the metal cable producing an instant bruise! Ouch! The guide helped me up and unattached me from the cable and I waited in line to get hooked up to the next cable.

The awesome thing was that Eileen came with us and brought the camera so she could get pictures of everyone zip-lining. All the ladies in our group decided to go except Lorelei, she was a little tired from the long day on the river. The second line was a bit longer and at a much steeper grade than the first so you went even faster. Both Heather and Karen had been zip-lining before so they showed me some tricks to try to get my brake to engage. I got hooked up to the second line and sped away through the rainforest as I was nearing the platform I tried braking and I tried what Heather had taught me and still I wasn't slowing down. I finally slowed down when I hit the brake cable but this time I didn't hit anything! We watched as the rest of the ladies came though the forest and then we hiked up to the next platform.

From here we had a great view of the Antigua River, we were able to see some of the rapids that we ran earlier in the day. Once again I was hooked up and away I went! This time I was able to slow myself down a little bit. I found myself looking from side to side at the river below me, the view was amazing. This really is a great way to scout rapids! We should have done it before paddling!

At the next platform we had to hike up the hill once again to get to our last platform. This was the longest line on the course. It spanned the Antigua River and went into the rainforest back toward town. I was hooked up and sent across and stopped myself at the platform...finally! The sun was getting lower and the sky was turning some amazing colors. It was a great experience to be able to fly carefree through the air through the rainforest over a river that you just finished paddling. A perfect way to end an exciting day!

We thanked our guides and hiked back to Jalcomulco and went right to Esprit for happy hour and dinner. Our happy hour drink was a Screwdriver made with local sugar cane and our appetizer was bruschetta. Since Eileen was with us on the zip-line tour there was no photo of video display for the night.

Our dinner was served and tonight we had enchiladas verde, enchiladas rojas, and enchiladas mole, there was also chayote, side salad with homemade Italian dressing and fried bananas with chocolate sauce for dessert. Once again the Bertas outdid themselves!

At dinner Anna mentioned that a local woman named Roxy was a massage therapist and was available for appointments tonight and the following day if anyone was interested. I have a nagging pain in my back so I signed up for a massage the following morning. We were told that we would have the next morning to relax and we would be working on the roll in the pool in the afternoon!

We sat around talking for awhile and Karine entertained us with her gruesome stories from her hospital days. After dinner Lorelei and I went into Cyber-Jalco, a local internet cafe to check our email. I hadn't checked my email since Friday and I already had 230 messages in my inbox....I hate junk mail! I sent some messages to family and friends back home and returned to Aventuras to shower and go to bed. I was exhausted!

Things Learned on Day 5 in Mexico:

1. The Antigua River is divided up into three sections with different names; the upper class 3-5 Barranca Grande section, the middle class 2-5 Pescados section, and the lower class 2-5 Antigua section. The local guides refer to each section as if its another river entirely, you won't find the Pescados or Barranca Grande on a map for that reason.

2. "Demonious! Estoy Bien!" is the closest Spanish translation for our group's mantra "Holy Shit! I'm o.k.!"

3. "Animo!" was a Spanish phrase we were given that sort of means "We can do it, let's go", or "be brave, have courage".

4. A peel out is a maneuver used to exit an eddy. You must hold a 45 degree angle relative to the current, maintain that angle and a downstream tilt until in the main current, once there open up the angle and allow to current to push your bow downstream.

5. An eddy turn is used when exiting the main river current and entering an eddy. Enter the eddy high where the eddy line is the least strong. Paddle with speed and once your hips have crossed the eddy line lean upstream so the water flowing upstream doesn't catch your edge and flip you.

6. A point guide is the first guide down the river that leads everyone else.

7. Aventuras Sin Limite is expanding their business and they are in the process of building a new retreat center in the hills behind Jalcomulco.

8. Aventuras Sin Limite also offers zip-lining in addition to their many river based activities.