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 rose 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.  But due to heavy evening rains over the past three days, 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 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 falling out of the boat may result in 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 after the gnarly whitewater.

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 ... 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 creeks downstream of the dam.  The river was higher than the guides had ever seen it, and there were a lot of portages around sections where Class V holes had formed.  But we were also able to run some shallower sections that are typically portaged during normal flow.  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.

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.  We were scheduled 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 plan was to stay another day at Ian's and kayak a Class II river nearby.