Adventure on river Atoyac in Mexico
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| Pico de Orizaba- Photo source " |
The idea was to explore a selected area and find the perfect starting point for a 2-day kayak trip on the Atoyac river from the spectacular hills of the Pico de Orizaba down to Veracruz to the Atlantic Ocean.
It was well planned and mapped trip, I spent more than 5 hours studying entire valley on internet, checking on access roads, orientation points and tracking the river flow, because I did not expect to have any navigation, just a virtual map in my head. I already experienced this kind of trip. It supposed to be a combination of off-road in a car, kayaking and biking, but I did not expect it to be so interesting.
The plan was to get with a car down the river to the selected spot to explore it, drop a bike there, get back few kilometers up the river in the car, park it there and then kayak down the river towards the point where I left my bike, pack the kayak and bike back to the car with kayak in the backpack. Well, it did not go very much like that, it went so much more crazy than I could even imagine.
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| Bridge over Atoyac River in Miguel Aleman |
I departed from Orizaba quite late, at around 7 am in a car with a bike and a kayak inside. I did an unexpected stop to check the river Atoyac in General Miguel Aleman, It looked great, but little overwhelming, I did not expect it to be so wide in that point. I shortly walked on the local bridge over the river, and the view of the river canyon already made me respect that river before I even started to kayak on it.
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| Viewpoint to the plains of Veracruz |
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Atoyac train tunnel and Atoyac Cascade
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| Old forest road tunnel entrance |
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| Road disappearing in the filed |
I was on a wrong road, but it was very beautiful mistake and great off-road within the possibilities of my rather a city car. There was no need to rush, place was already beautiful enough to get carelessly lost.
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| One of the great views in the local fields |
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| The parking area- local field |
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| Dummy in the abandoned house |
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| Rocky river Atoyac |
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| A good starting point for the next trip on the river Atoyac |
Soon after, I descended to the river and prepared for kayaking. I had my routine so the kayak was inflated and ready in about 5 minutes. What I did not know was that I actually am not on the river but a local water channel for irrigation of the local fields.
When I went through most of the dark tunnel... another surprise! I realized I am being attacked by the birds which were nesting inside. Not a best combination- paddling and fighting off the birds, when I could barely fit in there. At the end the birds were just scaring me off rather than really attacking. Luckily there was no huge sudden drop, just a small cemented shaft with a minor channel drop, so I could lift and carry my kayak around it back to a channel underneath.
After that it was a pleasant ride, very controlled and quite swift. I passed by local farm houses on the sides of the channel, even with local people washing clothes in it. I am sure they have never seen anybody crazy enough to go there in kayak. I could see it in their faces, a combination of fear from unknown, a big question mark "?" and little bit of being shy, cause the channel never brings them any visitors.
Then there was yet another surprise. Unexpectedly, the channel terminated and water ended down in some other mysterious shaft. I had no other option then just abandon the channel, deflate and pack the kayak and explore the area. And there was a channel bridge over another river! Some kind of a river crossing- never seen in my life. It was amazingly simple engineering master work- water is pulled down the hill through a large scale tube then across a bridge over a steep river canyon and then pushed up the steep hill on the other side of the river bank.
I carefully balanced with a heavy backpack with the kayak on the tubes around 15 meters high above the river and then started kayaking again on the other side, just to realize that channel disappears for good in a nearby lemon farm. Since I was not keen to search the channel again, I decided to quit and find my way to my bicycle several kilometers down the river walking. I did not know I was still 12 kms away from it!
I crossed the fields and found a village. I wanted to hide my backpack in a local corn field to not to carry it all the way to the bicycle and then back. Local people were not really happy seeing me wandering around. They never seen tourist there, because it is not a tourist place and having a random foreigner appear in their area with no obvious reason brought great suspicion to their faces. I felt it deep in my bones. I had to leave that village as soon as possible to avoid conflict. Yet, I wanted to drop my huge 80-lts backpack with the kayak in their corn fields. After I did it carefully avoiding locals seeing where I did it, I started to walk away, and then suddenly I said to myself:" I rather take my backpack to avoid passing through that place again", so I did return for it.
I was already dehydrated, stressed, exhausted from strenuous exercise and so while walking south I had to start hitch hiking. The problem was I did not know where I was going, just that there was a bridge in the middle of somewhere far from any civilization. Very naive but still I tried to get some people to move me closer to the point.
I got one! It was a truck and I ended up on top of it. I have not even said where I wanted to go, because they were just going to the neighboring place behind the fields, It was a 5 km ride, not bad :)
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| The route of the exploratiom- over 35 kms in total- all sorts of transportation |
I found out where I am and started to hitch hike again. Direction- deeper to the fields :)" Amazingly I got a motorbike ride but it was just a couple of kilometers west. Still I was so glad for it, because it was getting dark, and I had already drought in my mouth.
The place where the guy dropped me was literally like the hell. The fields were carbon black full of small fires and smoke everywhere, The farmer workers had bodies covered with dirty clothes and their faces looked tired and were black from ashes. Most of them were just staring at me during that sunset with machetes in their hands. Since I heard that local people often resolve conflicts with murders which are rarely investigated, I needed no more :). However I do not believe those stories, those men were just hard working good people, but the image might be deceiving.
I tried to lift up my mood and walk away somewhere in a direction I thought was correct- southwest to find the river and eventually the bridge. I was very tired, without water for last many hours, but I found it! By the time I got to the bike in the field it was already dark, I had to permanently "borrow" few lemons from the farm where I hid my bike to fool my brain that I ate and drank a bit. They saved my life.
After all those challenges I had to bike back with a heavy backpack and it started with a very steep hill climb. It took only a while and I started to have muscle cramps. On top of that crossing one of the villages I have been chased by the local, quite reasonably sized, dangerously looking and sounding dogs. I pushed the pedals so hard to escape from them, that with all that adrenaline I forgot about the pain for a while. But it soon came back, and it was so intense that I had to pedal only with one foot. It was so difficult, plus on top of all, I got flat tire and I did not know about it, because it was difficult anyway, so I just thought to myself that I must have been completely drained, that is why it was so hard to move forward.
At the very end of my physical possibilities I reached another village where I approached the nearest house with some signs of life and begged for a glass of water, I got one glass and shy, but strongly decided, I asked for another... just in case. I flushed the water down my throat. The best glass of water in my life.
My goal was the same- get back to the car, no matter what happens. Then I saw incredible thunderstorm approaching from the area where I had to go. Still I was struggling to move forward but was so tired that I did not realize that I have flat tire, until the moment I could not pedal anymore.
Biking with no flashlight on the verge of physical collapse even the relatively short distance of 15 kms with the dust road lit by lightnings from approaching storm and few local cars I was just hoping to not end up falling asleep from exhaustion,
I finally got back to the car and drove back through the rain-washed villages from the storm I was observing. The storm caused complete standstill on the highway, and even if I had got a Coke and eaten some sugar loaded food on the way, my body started to resign, I was falling asleep. Not the best thing on the highway. I actually welcomed that the cars did not move for a long time, so I could stretch, because the muscle cramps were coming again, It was not the safest way of driving on a highway- high chance of not being able to brake at all.
After all, I arrived to the house late night at 10:15 pm safe and relatively ok.
Resuming... 2 km mountain trekking and bridge exploring. 7.5 km combined kayaking with obstacles, 2 km walking fully loaded, 5 km hitch-hiked truck ride, 2,5 km hitch-hiked motorbike ride, another 3 km walk fully loaded and 15 km bike trip with a flat tire pedaling with 1 leg. Plus 4.5 hours drive. One lost sunglasses and one gained sticky smile for surviving the day- the most challenging of my life.