Five Days in Mexico

Getting There and Day 1

Before we could start paddling in Veracruz, Mexico, we had to go to the local Wal-Mart- not exactly my vision of my kayaking vacation- and outfit Rudy who had become separated from his luggage during his flight. Seven of us from Houston, Texas and California had offered to be guinea pigs for Rafael Mier-Maza, the manufacturer of Mayan Seas Kayaks, as he looked into the possibility of developing a business in offering kayaking trips in Mexico. I flew down to Mexico City with Bob Scaldino and Susie Bryon and met Rafael there. Then we waited a little longer to pick up Linda Day and her friend, Janet Beck, also from Houston, and Linda Roman from California. Rudy had had to get a direct flight to Veracruze and we would meet him there.

Then we began a long drive over the mountains to Veracruz, getting there about 11:00 P M. We had lodging in a lovely little motel. I was rooming with Linda Roman and we quickly decided who got which bed and who would shower first and were soon asleep. . I woke up to birdcalls, some known like the grackles and others mysterious and unknown. I couldn't wait to go see them so I quietly got dressed and went for a walk with my binoculars towards the beach. I was enjoying the beautifully colored buildings - I have to have lots of color and this place definitely satisfied it - as well as finding old and new birds including tropical kingbirds and shorebirds. The beach was much further than I had expected but I followed its curve up to the road Rafael had pointed out to us the night before as leading to the beach. But when I got to where I thought I could see the hotel, it wasn't in view so I panicked and went back several blocks to a Holiday Inn and got the receptionist - who had very limited English - and I no hable Espanol - to call our motel and ask for Rafael. I got him to come get me since I was supposed to be almost ready to go paddle in the Boca del Rio, a sort of riverbed that leads to a lagoon, and still hadn't packed or had breakfast. Rudy was there with the rest, having been picked up by Rafael after he dropped us off at the motel.

After the obligatory Wal-Mart stop, we proceeded to the put-in for Boca Del Rio, on the grounds of a restaurant where we would eat when we finished, and put in about 10:00A.M. Rafael had been towing a trailer with the then new Performas, the older Shel-Ha and his old version of a double. Most of us wanted to paddle solo but Janet was a novice to sea kayaking and needed to paddle double so she went with Rafael in the double while the rest of us all choose Performas, his hot little kayaks. I had already been paddling my own Performa but the rest of the group were trying them for the first time. We met 12 - 15 members of a paddling group, most of whom were relatives of each other. I paddled with a couple of the leaders, only one of whom could speak English. George asked me if I knew of Canoesport, a paddling store in Houston. That was really a surprise question. The other mememorial question was "Did I race?" Apparently they thought I was a fast paddler if I could easily keep up with them. The wind was strongly out of the west and the further we went, the stronger it got. We finally stopped at a golf club and got a drink and the guys started back. But I had started my kayak off facing downwind and couldn't get it turned to go back into the wind. I managed to get it back to land and waited for help since I hadn't mastered edging the boat in big waves. Rafael finally had to come and get me and give me a steering tow back to the first turn where the wind was not so strong. After we struggled back we had a most delicious lunch - crab craws, fish in a garlic sauce, a wonderful kind of frititta, filled with peppers and seafood, and fish soup. We all shared tastes with each other. We thought about working on our strokes after lunch but the wind was even stronger and none of us wanted to fight it so we went back to the motel and rested.

Then we went out for a light meal and walked around the square listening to music and enjoying the street vendors. After Rafael delivered us back to the motel, he took Rudy to see if his luggage had made it to Veracurz.. They repeated this pattern every night for three nights, finally having to come all the way back from a little town a few hours north of Veracruz. We also had to get Rudy some insulin as he had left it in his luggage rather than on his carry on.

Day 2

The second day we left early to go up to the ruins of Cempoala. Rafael dropped us off and went on to the Chachalacas , the town we planed to stay in that evening, to pick up a shuttle driver while we toured the ruins. Janet Beck found us a guide who only spoke Spanish - but she was able to translate for us - who did a really good job of explaining how the Totonac Indians had lived and built all the different temples gods of air, fire, water, pepper, death, and corn. We heard how the Aztecs conquered them and then how the Indians helped the Spanish conquer the Aztecs. We stood in a rock circle on a sunken rock and listened to how the place amplified our voices in a mysterious manner.

We ate lunch, just outside the gate with Rafael and Adriana, the girl who would drive our van back to her parents' restaurant while we paddled there. We had tamales for lunch that were delicious. After that we drove about a half-mile to the Rio Actopan. This was a beautiful little river with hydrillas, water lettuce, and lots of shrubs bordering it. This was an exploratory trip as Rafael had paddled into it from the Atlantic Ocean but had never paddled the full route. Soon we came to a chute that was quite narrow and swift. We had to take turns going down. Janet Roman ran into a floating stump and ended up pushing it out of the way. Bob and Susie carried their boats over a path on river left but the rest of us all made it down. After a few more bends, we found a rock garden and had to work real hard to get our boats through. The vegetation was particularly lush at the foot of the rock gardens and was full of birds. We saw jacana, little blue herons, snowy egrets, black-necked stilts, great egrets, lesser yellow legs and spotted sandpipers, all present in great numbers. There were often kiskadees and little warblers along the banks. We went through a total of three or four rock gardens, some of us paddling, and or crashing our way through and others portaging. I dumped at one of the chutes when I couldn't dodge two successive rocks. Several of the rest also dumped at various times. Finally we came to a bridge, and the river widened out into more of a marshy lagoon, with beautiful tall golden grasses in little islets and along side the shore. Rafael said we had another twenty minutes of paddling. So we all paddled faster as hunger was pushing us. It actually took us about thirty minutes to reach the restaurant, El Paraiso, in the little picturest town of Chachalacas. The barefoot waiter met us on the bank with an arm full of open Coronas. Nirvana! Truly we were in Paradise. After a quick beer, we unloaded and washed our boats then got everything loaded in the van and trailer. The restaurant also had a shower so we all took advantage of it to get the river water off us as we had seen raw sewage in several places.

The supper here was the best we had the entire trip, served from a tiny open-air restaurant that had huge palmetto roofed structure for most of the patrons to sit. It was currently waiting for a new palmetto roof. The meal consisted of beans mashed with powdered milk and garlic - now a staple on my own paddling trips - served with crackers, a rice dish filled with seafood, some vegetables, bean soup and the star, an entire large fish (called Mojarra) for each of us, that had had many slits cut into it to hold slivers of garlic then fried in hot oil.

We could barely stagger when we left the cafe to go check into our hotel, La Dunas, a beautiful U-shaped building around a courtyard with a pool and facing the Atlantic Ocean. Rafael told us that Chachalacas was now very similar to what Acapulco had been 40 years ago. There is one fancy hotel behind a wall but the rest of the town is mostly little shops or restaurants that are open on one side during the day. The houses are made of cement blocks and adobe and were painted in oranges, yellows, blues and greens that seem to be so loved by these people. Our room was stucco inside and out. Outside, the building was white but our room was painted a peachy pink with white beds, also made from cement with a regular mattress on top, as were the shelves. Our bathroom had tiled floors. The resident geckos were large pink and green creatures that could make a really loud noise. We left the windows open so we could hear the wonderful sounds of the crashing sea.

Day 3

In the morning we went back to El Paraiso for breakfast where the same waiter served us. We found out his name was Carlos. He served us juice, gorditas, picadas, together with beans, eggs, and onions for toppings. We also enjoyed watching the roofers, lay on the palmetto roof. They worked barefooted and one guy on the ground trimmed the fronds with a machete than threw them up to the guys working on the roof who also had machetes to further trim them if needed. They had to be careful not to step on the nails protruding out of the beams.

After this late breakfast, we were finally ready to paddle. The seas were just perfect to practice surfing but Rafael wanted us to go up to the dunes where there was a place we could snorkel. Several of us elected to walk as we didn't think we would be able to paddle back after the winds got stronger and the waves got higher. So after helping to push Linda Roman, Linda Day, Rudy, and Rafael off, Janet, Bob, Susie, and the restaurant owner's daughter, Adriana started up the beach to the sand dunes carrying our lunches and snorkeling gear.

We got to the point in time to watch the kayakers surf in. Linda Roman dumped but Rudy, Linda Day and Rafael all got good rides in. Rudy was euphoric as this was the first long surffing ride he had done. (But Rafael's kayaks are built to be surfing fools, even his double, Jalipineo. )But the wind was now so strong that the water was too muddy to snorkel so we just ate lunch and explored around a little before starting back. The wind was increasing dramatically and the sand was blowing off the dunes in drifts. The area looked foggy. So we decided we really needed to return. The walkers started off while the paddlers got themselves ready to leave. I kept watching for the kayakers to pass me but never saw any of them until I was almost back. On the way back we enjoyed watching Susie and Adriana climb the dunes and slide back down. But Bob and I both had heavy packs and didn't feel like trying it. I walked faster and faster trying to get out of the sand storm and got ahead of the rest of the walkers.

When I was almost back, I spied a kayak well out to sea. I couldn't tell who was with it but saw it start in. It disappeared behind a wave and then it reappeared upside down. It was way too far out for me to help and no one else was around. So I had to watch as it worked in very slowly. Finally I was able to see that it was Linda Day. I was able to walk out and help her after she lost the boat to a hard wave. She was fine so I ran down the beach to intercept the boat - the tide was carrying it south along the beach. By this time Janet had seen that it was Linda and had come running to help. She helped me carry the kayak in and we walked it back to the motel. Then I started back to see if I could find any of the other paddlers. I met Rafael who said Rudy and Linda Roman were both O.K. but they had had a very hard time. Rudy had dumped and then could not get his boat to come back to shore. Rafael finally had to dump out of his boat and let Rudy rest awhile before helping Rudy to turn both boats so the waves would help push them to shore. They also lost their boats on the way in when strong waves wrested them from their hands. Rudy lost his paddle and had to walk two miles down the beach before he found it. Meanwhile, Linda Roman had made it to beyond the surf and tried to wait for Rudy and Rafael but couldn't hold her boat in position. Then she saw them dump and tried to land near them. She also dumped and had to struggle back to shore.

Finally everyone got back and showered of the sand and set their clothes out to dry before taking a much-deserved siesta. Linda Roman had woken up with an upset stomach and had progressively gotten sicker during the day. She came back with stomach cramps and a fever. She slept off and on the rest of the afternoon and didn't go with us for supper. She refused to take any medicine but did drink a cup a chamomile tea the café owner's wife sent for her. We had another really delicious supper of shrimp cooked in garlic butter, a wonderful rice dish, and beans. Then we agreed to meet, ready to leave at 7:00A and all turned in for an early night.

Day 4

The next morning, after another delicious breakfast, we started off to Catemaco where we would paddle in Catemaco Lake in the by the San Andrés volcanic mountains. We took most of the day to get to Catemaco because the van was overheating. We also came through our only place where we had to stop and get out and let soldiers check our car and boats. Soon after this, we were stranded on a hill. Several of us stayed with the trailer while the rest went with Rafael to a car repair shop - consisting of a roof over four poles. The guy kept his tools in a derelict car. He removed the thermostat and we were able to go on.

We stopped at San Andreas Tuxtla for lunch and to get some money at the bank. This is one of the larger towns in the area and we enjoyed looking at the buildings around the square. There was a beautiful church there. We took a group picture in front of it. We finally got to Catemaco about 3:30P. We all fell in love with La Finca Motel. All the walls were a beautiful shade of rich teal or aquamarine. It looked out over Catemaco Lake where lots of birds were flying and the local fisherman plied their colorful craft. The grounds were also lovely with different kinds of crotons cut into hedges, a little shade huts to sit under. There were also hedges of gardenias, some of which were in bloom, spreading their fragrance over the grounds. Date palms, coconut palms and madrone trees were some of the trees I recognized on the grounds. We went down to see the boat put-in and saw many snowy egrets - twenty or more - standing shoulder to shoulder along the shore. Some of the scenery, not noticed by me, but reported by the guys was a nude female swimmer in the pool. I did notice the realistic pictures of sea turtles which appeared to be swimming on the bottom of the pool. They were especially realistic when viewed from our balcony.

After checking in, we quickly got into our paddling clothes and got the kayaks ready to paddle. We left about 5:00 P. and paddled along the shore to a little island. Some of the group came straight back . The rest of us went all the way around the island and then drifted and waited for the stars to come out and all the lights to come on along the shore. It was very peaceful, watching the fishermen working a big drag or casting nets. On the way back, we ran into a school of tiny fish that were jumping on our kayaks so fast, they sounded like rain. I caught a few of them. They were only about two inches long. It was a really magical time with the stars overhead, the lights of the town on the hills to our right, and the lights of the motel ahead of us. The air was soft and warm and it was definitely a great place to be. We came back and joined the others in the Jacuzzi. Then some of us ate a late supper and the rest just got by on their late large lunch.

Day 5

I got up about six o'clock the next day and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise from my balcony. The sky turned pink with a darker, brighter spot foretelling the sun's path. By 6:30, the sun was up, the attendant was cleaning the pool and the birds were busy. The water taxies were starting to bring workers to the motel. I could see coots, and lesser scaup on the lake plus pie-billed grebes and least grebes. The snowy egrets were the most numerous, other than the ducks and coots, but there were also black crowned night herons, great egrets, and little green herons.

We ate breakfast together in the outside part of the hotel restaurant and then set up our boats. I was ready first and took my binoculars and paddled over to a wooded, swampy part of the shore. I had a wonderful time looking at a hawk, snowy egrets, some kind of kingbird, a worm eating warbler, and other birds.

When everyone was ready, we started our paddle without Rafael who was going to go get the car fixed as it was still overheating and we had to drive over the mountains to get to back to Mexico City. Our goal was to paddle to an island where some monkeys from Thailand are living. Janet, our novice paddler, was paddling solo for the first time in the Shel-Ha. She immediately fell in love with the boat and could paddle it quite easily. This is Rafael's first boat and is slower but has more initial stability than does the Peforma so it feels quite safe to beginners. We first went back to the island we had visited the evening before. There we suddenly heard a huge sound that sounded like gorillas. We found three of the native monkeys lying in the tree up the hill from us. Further on, we found three other monkeys closer to the shore. They were about 30 inches high with long tails. They were all brown with brown, hairless faces and bright brown eyes. They had really big voices for their size.

We paddled on, stopping to visit a peninsula that had swamp and marsh growth along its edge. It too was covered in birds, including wading birds and warblers. We saw the water taxis taking people out and followed them to the island where the Thai monkeys were. There we found three adults and a juvenile, all eating oranges and bananas brought to them by some of the water taxies that brought tourists to the monkeys.

These monkeys were also brown with brown faces but had red patches on their rears and no tails. The adults were pretty aloof but the juvenile kept trying to jump in our kayaks. We would paddle close enough to take pictures and then would drift closer while we took them. As soon as the little guy saw us getting closer, he would run up the closest shrub and start it swinging to get ready to jump. At that point, we would quickly back paddle and avoided getting boarded.

After getting all the pictures we wanted, we started back to the hotel. Linda Day had been feeling more and more sick with Montezuma's revenge and got much sicker during the trip. The wind was picking up and the waves were getting higher so I towed her back while the others stayed with Janet. I was amazed at how easily the Performa towed. I was in another Performa and had only a little ¼" diameter rope attached to her boat and my life jacket by carbiners. But I could not even feel it pulling on my body. She was just keeping her paddle out to brace if she needed to and not paddling at all. Everybody made it back and had lunch, except for Linda who had crackers and chamomile tea and Linda Roman who went out sunbathing and just had a pot of coffee.

I took a book and a lounger and went under one of the little thatched roofs that provided shade and immediately fell asleep. Later, we had fresh pineapple that Linda Roman had bought the day before. Then some of us decided to go to the village for supper. Rafael still hadn't returned so we called a taxi to drive us over. But we walked all around the hilly little town before deciding on a restaurant where we turned out to be the only customers. We got back and had already gone to bed before I heard Rafael come in about 11:00 P and went down to help him load the kayaks.

Day 6

We left for Mexico City early the next morning where Rudy, Bob and Susie and I would spend the night at the airport motel in order to try to leave early the next morning while the others caught their flights. After stopping back in San Andreas Tuxtla for breakfast, we continued on our way. But the car began to overheat and we had to stop frequently and add water. Finally Rafael decided we were losing water through the radiator cap and fixed it to seal tighter after dropping us off at a park overlooking a huge waterfall. Some of us hiked part or all the way down to the bottom while others just enjoyed the view from the top. We still had car problems and again we stopped, this time to tighten a hose clamp to the new water pump Rafael had had installed the day before. This seemed to solve our problem and we continued on, sharing the road with tucks carrying the just harvested sugar cane and watching burning fields where the sugar had just been harvested. We also enjoyed the vegetation through the mountains - green fields in the valleys and trees and some rocks in the mountains with occasional fields.

We made it to the top of the last mountain and started our decent into Mexico City just as the city lights came on. The city seemed to go on forever with fairy lights as far as we could see. We spent another hour or more stuck in traffic and fighting to get our van and trailer in spaces for which several other vehicles were contending. I never saw a women driver in Mexico and one has to have nerves of steel to survive the games of chicken all the drivers play. We finally got to the airport about 9:00 and, my group started trying to get home. It took the four of us 2 days and we ended up seeing Newark and Pittsburgh before we could get back to Houston. That was another adventure.

But Rafael did an excellent job of both showing us some of his country and giving us some great paddles, as well as taking great care of all of us. We all admired his ability to improvise and problem solve while remaining his friendly, joking self. We particularly liked the river paddle and the wonderful people and food at Chachalacas but getting to visit the ruins was also great. And getting to paddle inside a volcano was a unique experience. Rafael is checking out other possible paddling places. Maybe we'll have to go help him see if they will work for tours. I'm ready any time, Rafael.