Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Journal Entry – February 15, 2005 – Rio de Iguana (Iguana River)

Author: Scott

Today was one of the high points of the journey thus far. In Tenacatita there is a river that runs about two miles through jungle and mangroves and winds back to a cove just up the coast from the main bay. At the end of the river there is a small town with a number of beach front restaurants (Revelcita). The river ebbs and flows with the tide and makes for a challenging, interesting, and fun adventure. We loaded up the dinghy with drinking water, a handheld VHF radio, first aid kit, sunscreen and other essentials and we were off. The first order of business was to brave the rocky dinghy landing which we did without incident and then drag the dinghy over a sand bar into the river. There is one right way and many wrong ways to navigate the first part of the river (changing daily with the tide) and we made our share of mistakes that caused us to gently run aground in the sand, but a quick jump out of the dinghy in knee high water and we were off again. Now our Mexico cruising guide bills the river trip as impossible to get lost, well I am here to tell you that although temporarily, we did manage to get a little lost. A few hundred yards up the river there is a sharp turn to the right and a gentle turn to the left. We opted to turn right and found ourselves in a narrowing channel that eventually got too small for even our little dinghy. Somehow we managed to turn around and head back onto the river, but as we continued on we started to get suspicious when our surroundings looked familiar and the bay came into view, oops we zigged when we should have zagged and we ended up at the start of the river that no one can get lost on, technically I guess we weren’t lost, just confused. We spun the dinghy around and zipped back up the river. About half a mile up the river the banks narrowed into a thin channel and the jungle closed in around us. There were mangroves and a cover of trees above, all kinds of birds, termite hives, and fish breaking the surface of the water. You would not be at all surprised to find an alligator here, but we learned that the crocodiles had been captured and moved to La Manzanilla and that is why they have the crocodiles for the tourists, but who knows for sure that they didn’t miss a few. With the cover of trees it became much more difficult for either of us to see and navigate so we had to slow the dinghy to a crawl. Pam sat at the front of the dinghy calling out “left, right, left I said left…” It truly was the blind leading the blind, but we had a marvelous time. The funniest part of the trip (for me not Pam) was when we came close to the trees and a thick muddy vine hanging down drug across Pam’s back, head, and finally my legs leaving a trail of stinky swamp mud. Pam’s look of complete revulsion was priceless, and we both had a good laugh after the initial shock wore off. Pay back came quickly however, because we got in a spot where the only way to push off was for me to stick my hand elbow deep into the mud all the while thinking of the leaches that could be finding a meal. Thank goodness there were no leaches but I had one grody arm. We meandered our way at a snails pace to an intersection and made the left hand turn that would bring us to the dinghy dock. We stowed our gear and headed on shore for a bite to eat.

We walked through the small town and chose a restaurant that sounded like other cruisers were inside and who should we happen to see but our friends Larry and Julie from Komara, they were having lunch with four other cruises and we settled in for our own lunch. I had a fish roll which is boneless fish rolled around shrimp, bacon, almond cream sauce and herbs, and then fried to a golden brown, and Pam had a huge plate of breaded shrimp.

Our friends from Komara were ready to leave and offered to head back with us. The return journey was completely different because I had a large dinghy to follow back as we thread our way through the jungle. Larry sped down the river just slowing enough so that we could keep up, this was a true E Ticket jungle ride. We had a ball flying through the winding river and jungle. Our return trip only took half the time as our outbound leg.

Once back at the beach we stopped in at the palapa for a drink and to wait out the large breaking waves before attempting to return to our boats. No luck, the waves just continued to grow and we were all faced with fighting the sea. Our first attempt was a little sketchy because we were immediately blown towards the rocks and I had to jump out and pull us back to the beach. On attempt two Larry helped us out and we managed to fight our way to calmer water after climbing some really high waves and bumping our prop a few time on submerged rocks. The dinghy was no worse for wear and we were a little more seasoned in our dinghy launches.

Back on Tournesol we reflected on our day while hanging out in the cockpit. Today was quite an adventure and we stood up to the challenges. We learned from Larry that the river was used to film parts of the movie Rambo, and so I guess if Rambo could beat the river so could Scott and Pam.

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