Where are we going now?!?!

Thursday marked the official start of the Mexico Rendezvous. Everyone arrived with excitement to do some of the world class canyons near Monterrey, namely Matacanes & Chipitin. To everyone's disappointment the civil protection had closed the area again due to the rain. That did not leave very many options for us. The majority of the rendezvous participants did the Devil's Throat (the canyon we did the day before). Naturally we wanted to get a variety of canyons in so the next best option for those of us that had did the Devil's Throat the day before was to go to a canyon called Alemar.

Alemar (not sure about the spelling) sounded like a great canyon! Lots of water and about 7 or 8 rappels with potentially a few jumps. The problem is that it was a 3 hour trip to get to the canyon!! Not to be deterred, we woke up early (hoping for a 6am departure from the hotel) and left the hotel at 7am. The drive took forever!! We took two cars to accommodate us all and to set up a shuttle.

I am not entirely sure, but after we arrived and set up the shuttle, we started hiking about 11am. It was supposed to be a 40 minute hike up to a saddle where we would drop into a valley and encounter the entrance to the canyon. No one with us had done this canyon previously and the beta we received was a bit sketchy. Once we hit the valley floor, we saw a beautiful waterfall in the distance and thought this is where we were supposed to be going. We set off across the valley up the side of the canyon trying to get to the top of the waterfall. Once we got to the top of the waterfall we saw another one in the distance. Too good to pass up we continued up along the ridgeline towards this other waterfall. Wondering if we were only going to find these two drops in the canyon we continued further. Finally after 3 hours of hiking we realized that if we don't start down the canyon we were never going to make it back to the hotel by nightfall. Although it was a long hike, I enjoyed the hike. It was good exercise and the scenery was beautiful. Take a look at this unique tree we encountered along the way.

Down to the canyon floor we made our way and we encountered a nice smaller drop just above the 2nd waterfall we saw. Here is a picture of Heather and Jen Hooper at this smaller drop we descend first. This rappel ended in a nice refreshing pool of water.
The two subsequent waterfalls were excellent rappels both in the 100' to 150' range. One of them had bolts but the bolts were missing the hangers so we looked for alternative natural anchors. After these three drops we decided this couldn't have been the canyon we were told about so after some discussion we decided that we should proceed back down the valley to where the watercourse turned into another canyon. We all agreed this is where we were originally directed to go.

At about 5pm we began the descent of the canyon that was our original target. Within minutes we already at the first rappel. Water was cold and clear! It was already looking to be a beautiful canyon. Due to the time, we agreed that we needed to move pretty efficiently in order to get out prior to nightfall. With four ropes in play, we began moving our group of 10 canyoneers very efficiently by leap frogging each other. The canyon was very beautiful! The canyon ended at a nice pool that allowed us to do some jumping. Very cool canyon with lots of water and about 7 rappels (and a ton of poison ivy!).

By the time we arrived to the shuttle vehicle it was dusk. By the time both vehicles got back to us it was well after 8pm and dark. We were all hungry and went to the nearest town to see if we could grab a quick bite to eat. By the time we arrived this village it was after 9pm and everything was closed. Thankfully, Choy, one of locals, was able to convince a shop to open up for us. After eating we finally arrived at the hotel at about 1am!!

Extremely tire we hoped the next day would have a late start. At 6:15am we received a call from Chuy saying that we could get into Matacanes and we were leaving in 30 minutes...but that is another post!

The Devil's Throat

First day canyoneering in Monterrey!! It was a great day! We intended to do Matacanes; however, the civil authorities closed the canyon due to the rain. Not sure if it was due to high water or the roads. In speaking with Chuy, the owner of the local guiding outfit called Ibo, he thought the closure was unnecessary. Nevertheless we were not about to have this deter our first day at canyoneering! The next best option was a canyon called the Devil's Throat or La Garganta del Diablo as the locals call it.

Our group consisted of Heather, David and I and our friends Evan and Chuy. The ride to the Devil's throat was a long drive across 4x4 roads. Quite a bit of jostling! We arrived at our destination and we were excite to have a great day in the Devil's Throat.

It was a short hike to the start of the canyon. The forest was very unique to us. Many of the trees had what I could only call beards coming from them. It was looking to be a great day!!

The canyon was not disappointing! For the most part it did not have very much water. The first part of the canyon did have flowing water but nothing more than chest deep. Very scenic. About half way through the canyon the running water dried up and left nothing more than a few stagnant pools of water. Only a couple of them were swimmers.

Shortly after the water dried up we came to the narrows section which is the section that gives the canyon its name. Narrows are not usual for Monterrey canyons so it was a real treat. The first rappel into the narrows section was about 100 feet into a keeper pothole. Evan and I went first. One word description of this pothole...muddy! Two words...slimy mud! All the mud made exiting this pothole that much more difficult!! Right at the base where we were to exit the pothole the mud was at least 6 inches deep. Once I completed the rappel, Evan was already there. To minimize the mud on my feet, Evan gave me a piggyback ride from the rope to where we needed to climb out of the pothole. Evan braced himself against the wall of the pothole while I inched up his back until I was standing on his shoulders. With one last little push I was able to get to the first ledge to exit this keeper pothole. However, by this time my shoes had accumulated quite a bit of mud and made standing there let alone climbing the rest of the way out extremely difficult. With some more partner assists and the help of a couple of bolts I was able to climb out of the pothole and set a rope for the rest of our group to use to exit the keeper. All of us were quite muddy after this experience! The first picture to the right you can see is David standing at the bottom of exiting the keeper. Notice that his feet sank into the mud over his boots. The next picture shows David and Evan at the two different stages of exiting this pothole. Evan is pratically out at the top while David is at the first ledge. The last two pictures gives a little bit of an idea how muddy we became!

The rest of the canyon did not provide very much opportunity to wash off the mud other than stagnant water. The rest of the canyon was not as muddy but provided some awesome rappels and awesome scenery! This is definitely a great canyon!

5 Star Hotel?

We checked into the Cola de Caballo hotel in San Tiago, Mexico. Much larger than our previous hotel; however, I doubt its claim to 5 stars. We got a king size bed and put David in a cot the hotel brought in for us. David's luck kept holding out...his little cot was much more comfortable than our king size bed! Our bed has been so hard it was unbearable! The next morning we spoke to the front desk to see what they could do. They showed us another room but that bed was just as hard. Not only was the mattress super hard but it had not box spring. The mattress was sitting on a concrete platform!! The solution we ended up with is getting two of the mattresses they use for their cots and putting it on our bed!

Additionally, the first morning we woke up to a surprise! Apparently we were sharing the room with other guests as well! I have never heard such a shrill scream from Heather when she saw this huge cockroach! It must be a girl thing.

The hotel staff has been wonderful. Just a few things I think needs to be improved upon...the beds...the restaurant...and the unwanted guests!

Changing Hotels

Today is Tuesday. We had hoped to go on a rock climbing route referred to Via Ferrata. Was going to be one of the highlights of the trip; however, the weather has not been cooperating with us! It has rained almost all day. Since it was a bad day for activities we decided that we would take the opportunity to change our hotel a day early. We checked out of the Holiday Inn and we are now at the Cola de Caballo in San Tiago, Mexico. A much nicer hotel with quite a bit more space!

We also met a very nice gentleman from England today. His name is Evan Jenkins. He is up here for the Rendezvous as well. When we met up with Evan we decided we would see if we could go do Chipitin canyon that is not too far from the hotel. Evan had rented a vehicle that was an AWD (all-wheel drive). Unfortunately, we really need a 4x4 to get to where we needed as the AWD Dodge Evan had rented kept spinning its wheels. We were so close!!

The drive out to Chipitin is BEAUTIFUL!! The road is crazy! Very rocky, very steep in places, very narrow, and in certain sections if we were to slip off the road we would plummet to our deaths in the canyon below. After we back tracked out of Chipitin (we will do this canyon later in the week), we went off-road exploring the area. We came across some beautiful country here in Monterrey. To the left, you can see Heather as we were exploring some of the nearby country. Note the rain coat. The weather would clear up with the sun poking through the clouds almost like it was about to clear up and then moments later, a slow constant drizzle. Not very pleasant.

David's highlight of the day was playing around with the peacocks and geese that roam the hotel grounds. I am not sure what he is doing in the first picture but I think it is some sort of challenge he is giving the peacocks...like them showing off their tail feathers I think David is showing off his biceps! Looking at the second picture below you can be the judge of who won the contest of showing off their superiority!!

Cabritos

One thing Dan forgot to mention and I had to add... did you know that one of the big cultural food specialties here in Monterrey is baby goat?? It's called "cabrito", and they literally cook every single part of the goat.

I thought it would be a great cultural experience for all of us to at least try it, right?? So we went to a restaurant recommended by our concierge, called La Huestaca, a short walk from our hotel. When we arrived, we were given a menu which, when opened had a large picture of pretty much the whole body of the baby goat minus the head, roasted. Circled around it, were individual pictures of the kidney, legs, chest, and... what was missing?? Oh yeah, the head!! Kind of lost my interest there.. we decided to go for the steak fajitas. Maybe next time.. or maybe not!!! :-)

Monday in Monterrey

Another slow day in Monterrey. With a slow start we finished breakfast at about 11:30...man that was a slow restaurant! Our plans for the day were to go out to a little town called Garcia and explore a cave called Grutas de Garcia. Not a high adventure but the pictures on the internet look beautiful! But first, change some dollars to pesos.

After waiting in multiple lines for about 15 minutes each I found out that changing money was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. The banks I went to said I had to have an account to change dollars to pesos. I kept thinking to myself...how many people that have accounts are changing dollars to pesos?

After what seemed like forever, we were on our way to Las Gutas de Garcia!! The cab driver was very nice but had a different view on personal space than what I have. About the middle of the drive the cab driver handed me a pair of tweezers to see if I could pull a thorn from his hand that I couldn't see. Now, I don't know about you but caressing a strange man's hand looking for a thorn that doesn't seem to be there is not what I was looking forward to on vacation!

We arrived at Las Grutas de Garcia and it became obvious that Monday is not a busy day for them. Heather, David, and I were three of a total of eight people there. It was nice as we had the tour guide all to ourselves and were able to walk through the cave at our own pace. I was immediately impressed with how large the cave is! Here is a good picture of David and Heather that gives a little bit of an idea of how large the cave is.
The cave is full of different formations. Definitely one of the more beautiful caves I have been in. I was disappointed to see the lack of preservation of the cave. Throughout the cave you can see where they have cut down different rock formations in order to have a "safe" cave. Too bad, it seemed like they were more interested in getting a bunch of tourism rather than preserving the natural beauty of the cave.

Here are a few more pics I thought were interesting...






Our plans for tomorrow was to do the Via Ferrata in Monterrey. Don't know what the Via Ferrata is? Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQWYaBnea-g

Unfortunately, due to excessive rain, the guide service canceled. I was so looking forward to this!! We'll have to figure something else out for tomorrow.

Sunday in Monterrey

Sunday started off well. We planned on going to the local ward's sacrament meeting. We found out that the closest was just around the corner and began at 11:50am. Late enough to have a lazy Sunday morning. We took our time getting out of bed and having breakfast. Then we realized..."wow it is almost noon!". We hurried to finish getting ready (tempers flared a bit...not going to say who) and then went in the direction that the map on the church website directed us. We kept on walking and walking....walked some more...then some more...the street we were looking for never came. It was now 10 minutes past the start of sacrament (tempers flared a bit more)! We finally gave up on our quest to find the church building and went back to the hotel. I asked the hotel for a map of the immediate area and found out that the church thought address of the hotel was miles from where we actually were (looks like there is more than one street called Padre Mier in Monterrey)!

At this point we decided to change our pious desire to attend church to a carnal desire of breaking the Sabbath! ;-) No condemning please...we are on vacation!! We walked around downtown, through the Macroplaza where they sell just about everything. I think this was the highlight for Heather of the trip thus far! Heather bought a couple of trinkets for our daughters and then we went to look at some of the sights in downtown. Here is a picture of David next to the Neptune fountain. Notice his head is not tilted in the cool stance. This is one of the few pictures we were able to get him not to cock his head in an effort to look cool!

Later in the evening we really wanted to have an authentic Mexican experience for dinner and wanted to find a restaurant that had a Mariachi band. We took a cab to the restaurant at 7pm and found out that the band did not come out to play until 9pm. So we decided to go to the movies (yes, I know it is Sunday!). After the movie we went back to the restaurant at 9:30 starving and ready for dinner; however, the band still was not there...and the restaurant was practically empty. We sat down order some sodas, and I was so frustrated about the band that I convinced Heather and David to go to somewhere else (did not look like the band was coming out anytime soon).

By 10:30 at night we finally ended up eating. Heather and I felt like such horrible parents...it was 11pm on a Sunday night, after watching a movie, we had our 14 year old son at a club listening to a live pop band eating fajitas! Yes I know we are lousy parents! Live and learn!!