Downhill Kayaking: Return to Mexico, Part III: El Salto

The El Salto (the waterfall) section of the Rio Valles is about an hour north and slightly west of the Cascadas Micos run where we were camped. On our way to the river we passed several parades in the streets and preformances outside schools in the villages we drove through. As we neared our distanation we were caught in stopped traffic for a very large parade in the town of Naranjo that lasted over an hour. Everyone around us was abandoning there cars and watching the parade, so we followed suit. Through attempted conversations with locals in broken spanish we learned that we were observing celebrations for one of Mexico's most important holidays. The Aniversery of the Mexican Revolution is a celebration akin to our own Independence Day here in the US. This year celebrates th 96th aniversery.

Eventually we were about to return to the truck and complete our journey to El Salto. After a short drive we reached the takeout.

We unloaded our gear at the put in and John proceeded to bike the shuttle in quick order. Upon his return we climbed down the bank to the put in which begins several hundred yards of super fast boogie water that leads to the first big hole.

Below the first big hole is a constricted rapid that boost an even biger hole. However, the second hole can be avoided by driving up on the river left boulder and launching over it.

The main even of any run of El Salto is running La Luminosa. La Luminosa is a super fun drop with an interesting move that requires a sweeping turn before dropping off a sloped diagnal lip. You can boof it, plug it, or anything inbetween.

Prior to this trip Shannon had very little waterfall experience. She spent the first day on the Micos practicing her tuck and upon reaching La Luminosa she had a great line.

Below La Luminosa El Salto continues for a while with numerous smaller ledges and travertine rapids before reaching a drop we call "the spout". The line is actually a sneak to a larger, nastier drop, but is a fun move in itself. After padlding through some trees you launch 12+ feet into the strong cross current below.

After the spout are two fun boofs about 6 feet tall. The first one had a dramatic change during our time there, but more on that later.

On our drive home we went in search of another falls/river that were unknown to us, but what we found instead was the only mean Mexican local we encountered during our trip.