Waterfalls, Pyramids, and Tacos - Mexico 2008

Hitting the mega boof of La Luminosa on the Salto

In November 2008 an intrepid team consisting of Frankie, Grandad, Katy, Tom, Pete, Donna, and I headed over the Atlantic to travel and boat around Mexico for three weeks. We spent our time in the states of San Luis Posti and Veracruz. I've got to say that it was a superb trip. Mexico has some amazing and unique rivers, (a lot of which are still unexplored), super friendly people, and excellent cuisine. Combine all this with plenty of cultural interest. I've been left wanting a lot more of what Mexico has to offer. I've got to go back.........

We flew into Mexico City (via Charlotte USA), and from there we headed north on one of the excellent executive Mexico buses to get to our first destination - CD Valles. This area is home to the famous Micos Cascade, the Salto, and the Santa Maria river along with a lot more. We stayed at the excellent Expediciones Huaxteca campsite at the bottom of the Micos waterfalls run. If you ever make it out there Expediciones Huaxteca come highly recommended. They sorted all our shuttles as well as providing somewhere to pitch a tent. They also did our food (which was absolutely top notch - some of the best we had in Mexico), at sweet prices. Their staff were excellent and couldn't do enough for us. The campsite was probably the most pleasant we'd ever been to, with great facilities and an excellent setting. This was also a twitchers paradise - with loads of cool birds like parrots flying about. The campsite was pretty central to the rivers of the area and it was really easy just to nip to the top of the Micos Cascades for a quick blast.


Our first campsite on the banks of the Micos river


Our all terrain Huaxteca shuttle bus


Tom at the spectacular Micos put in


Lining up the first fall of the Micos


Frankie heads off down the first few drops of the Micos


Heading off down the Micos whitewater playground


Frankie on a small Micos slide


A 28 foot Micos plunge


Enjoying the final set of cascades on the Micos


Tom takes another route on the final set of falls


Frankie doing some filming

Along with the Micos, this region is also famous for the Salto, a long section of drops and small slides through some pretty Mexican jungle. Have a look below......


The whole gang gathers at the spectacular falls at the take out of the Salto


El Nemo - the first big plunge on the Salto


Tom runs El Nemo


Over-rotating on a 30 foot drop on the the Salto - painful!!!


Frankie takes a much nicer line


Tom flies off the same drop


La Luminosa - one of the most fun drops I've ever done


Pete goes airbone


Grandad goes for it


Grandad runs one of the many Salto falls - El Trampolin....a sweet 20 footer


Getting some more verticality on the same fall


Pete taking a chunky rapid on the Salto


Mexican flora and fauna part 1 - a very pretty flower


Flora and fauna part 2 - Snake!


The team enjoying a delicious meal after a spectacular trip on the Tampaon section of the Santa Maria river

The San Lluis Potsoi area really is amazing. I can't recommend it enough, you need to go! Plenty more from Mexico to come soon - Veracruz State, lost jungle cities, and a good dose of boating...........

Wet West Paddle Fest

In the middle of September a small gang of us headed north to Fort William to see what the Wet West Paddle Fest was all about. I'd not been to any big paddling type events for a while due to a strongly anti-social sense of avoiding crowds on rivers. I've got to say though that it was a superb event - great boating and really really nice people. I would imagine I'll be back up for this festival again. There was a great atmosphere throughout the weekend and we all had loads of fun. Thanks to Jo by the way for letting us make her house look like a squat for the weekend.


Playing on the Garry


Confidence inspiring sign at the Moriston put in


Getting ready to float down stream on the Moriston


Beef decides to melt in the guts of the first drop


Brinky also goes deep


Dave enters one of the longer Moriston rapids


Working my way through a rapid on the Moriston


G Diddy enjoying himself


Beef lines up for the last drop of the Upper Moriston

Turkey - another large portion

The Alara was just over into the next valley from the Manavgat. It was a pretty stunning place, and we ended up spending a few days there. We were well looked after by a local restaurant owner and his staff. We spent our nights sleeping on the roof of his place, after eating copious amounts of food. The Alara river itself was a quick two minute walk down the hill from the restaurant which was handy as it doubled up as our washing facility. The valley was extremely beautiful and there were several sections to do on the river. We didn't managed to get them all done but the stuff we paddled was excellent, especially the middle Alara canyon also known as the Kaiser Gorge which I would dearly love to have running in the hills near my house.


Chilling out at the Alara restaurant - some of us slept on these platfroms


While the rest of us slept up here


A spring at the put in of the top Alara gorge


Deep in the first Alara canyon


Sheer rock walls don't make for fun portages


Beef drops into the Kaiser gorge


Working through the Kaiser gorge


Ali and Beef work their way down stream


Approaching a boof


Beef gets some air


Ali goes for the boof


A tight Alara drop


Heading off into the canyon


After a long day on the river it's bath time


Donna gets to grips with the washing facilities


Frankie messing about in the bathroom

The Alara was truly amazing. The river was so sweet, I wish I could paddle it regularly, we were sad to go. After spending our time at the Alara we headed back to the Dalaman via Alarahan Castle, which was spectacular in itself. Once back at the Dalaman we spent a couple more days enjoying the river there before the trip home.


Alarahan Castle


The only way to get to the castle was to climb through a series of tunnels.......


.........which were full of bats........


..........who loved to flutter round our heads


Another chilled out evening with great food


Nadir tries to relax before more Turkey Euro 2008 action

As it turned out Turkey was an awesome trip.....I think much better than any of us expected to be. The people were amazingly helpful and friendly, the food superb, the weather was awesome, it was cheap, and the boating was excellent. I can't really fault it. The rivers felt remote and were beautiful, and it's hard to believe that there are places like this so close to UK. I can't recommend South West Turkey enough, creeking in blazing sunshine for a fraction of the cost of an Alps trip - sweet.

Thanks to Alternatif Outdoor who set the trip up for us and especially to Nadir our driver who went above and beyond the call of duty to look after us. I'm sure we'll be back to Turkey soon.....


The gang