2003-11-29 Belize Zoo 2003-11-30 Rafting the Caves Branch 2003-12-01 Jungle Biking and Cave Tubing 2003-12-02 Rafting the Macal 2003-12-03 Kayaking the Sibun 2003-12-04 Island Day 1 2003-12-05 Island Day 2 2003-12-06 Island Day 3 2003-12-07 Lamanai Ruins

Day 5 (Tuesday, 12/2/2003)

We arose early on Tuesday morning, loaded up the van and the rafts, and headed in the direction of Guatemala in search of whitewater.  Our first choice was the Macal River, which flows north out of the heart of the Maya Mountains, following a mostly labyrinthine path full of Class IV drops and Class V holes before confluencing with the tamer Mopan River near the border town of San Ignacio.  Due to heavy evening rains over the past three days, however, there was a good possibility that the Macal would be unsafe to run.  Slickrock will not allow expeditions on the Macal if the release rate from the upstream dam (Mollejon Dam) is greater than 20 cubic meters/second (about 700 cfs), and Slickrock also doesn't allow any tours to run Class V rapids.  For those unfamiliar with the whitewater classification system, Class V means that, if you fall out of the boat, you are at high risk of serious injury or death.

The Macal is not a "big-water" river.  It's more akin to the rivers in the Texas Hill Country, only much more intense.  Huge, young sedimentary shelves have been exposed due to erosion, and the Macal cascades down over these shelves with Class IV and V (and sometimes Class VI) intensity.  The shelves form natural dams that cause the river to pool up into long flatwater and Class II sections, which give a welcome reprieve from the gnar.

We checked in at the main office around 9 AM.  The release from the dam was exactly 20 cms, so we could run the river, but only just.  What we didn't know until later was that, due to the heavy rain the night before, the Macal picked up about 200 cfs of additional flow from contributing streams downstream of the dam.  The river was higher than the guides had ever seen it, and there were a lot of portages around sections in which Class V holes had formed.  However, we were also able to run some shallower sections that are not typically navigable by rafts.  One particular shallow, labyrinthine section had never been run before by a Slickrock tour, and as the first to run it, we were given the privilege of naming it (I wish I could remember what name we picked.)

We spent a long and thrilling day on the river and then dropped by the Cahal Pech Mayan ruin (near San Ignacio) for a brief twilight hike, a history lesson from Neri, and a bit of souvenir shopping.  One of the locals sold me a hand-signed carving of a jaguar that had been crafted from a piece of Macal River slate.

We made the hour-long drive back to Ian's, where a late dinner awaited us.  The plan had been to depart for the island the next morning, but during dinner, we received word that 40 MPH winds were preventing boat traffic from getting out to the reef.  If the winds didn't die down, our backup plan was to stay another day at Ian's and kayak a Class II river nearby.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Sadly, most of this stretch of river was inundated in 2009 with the completion of the Vaca Dam, just upstream of Vaca Falls. This dam was built primarily to generate electricity, but its 18-megawatt capacity could have easily been supplied by about 10-20 utility-scale wind turbines.