A Christmas Tale Retold After 10 Years of Belize

 

It is Christmas Eve and I lay in my tent camped on the edge of a whitewater river in the jungle of Belize with my clients. It is now ten years on since I first came to work  here in Belize, and I find it just as alluring  now as I did then ( though perhaps a dab more normal than I thought of it back then). Sleeping in the jungle with the sounds of the multitude of life around me, the stars twinkling above me and the roar of the rapids on the river next to me; I am brought back to a group email ( no blog back then) I first wrote of this experience back in 2005. My words then echo now in my mind as I sit being present to what's around me. I have included my old email below along with some photos I have taken over the years in Belize to accompany .
I hope you all have a great New Years and... Keep exploring.

Jaime

 

Written in 2005

Dark, wet and moody Jungle, where the rain falls so hard and for so long the ground pools even when it’s flat. The air itself becomes wet and the jungle rings with the noise of drumming everywhere. It stops suddenly, just as it started, though what is left now are the heavy drips that build from the upper canopy, drumming all the way down till large droplets strike the sodden earth. Now the sound of the river returns, a constant buzz from the nearby rapids, the frogs start calling and singing, the jungle is now alive with a new kind of music, and overture of tones and harmony that clutter, yet give symphony. A toucan flies across the gap made by the river winding through the jungle.

We are camped out on the side of the Moho River, in southern Belize's Toledo district. This trip is a four day journey through the jungle via the Moho, which runs a path

 

That leads to 5meter pool drops and an assortment of shoots, just to add excitement to the otherwise tranquil setting. We travel on inflatable two person rafts or kayaks, sometimes known as duckie's, they are stable and durable, and thus we can let our clients captain them without a guide, after a little lesson of course. All around us is life, howler monkeys in Ceiber trees, four eyed grey opossums who come to see who is in their territory at night, multitudes of birds, from eagles to Grackles (a type of black bird), to Oropendulas with their TUI like calls (for those in NZ), to the tiger Heron, who has a call a little like the gentle rumbling snarl of a tiger.

Boy I am humbled by the beauty and magnificence of this world. The two Mayan guides I work with, Pedro and Camellio, live in such a simple way and are so in tune with and knowledgeable of, the jungle we travel in, that I feel like an alien on an in hospitable planet, though boy I am super happy to be here.

Pedro is teaching me how to catch Green Iguana from the kayak. The iguanas hang out on trees along the river and when you surprise them on low branch they leap into the water. The trick is to paddle up slowly with your PFD of and as the jump you jump in after them, grabbing them by the tail until they stop spinning then they just relax until you let them go, quite amazing. I have not yet caught one, they are dam fast.

I found an amazing snake (in fact I found a number of them over the week), called the blunt headed tree snake, delicately long and super thin, it is a striking creamy white with large terracotta orange bands on it, its cat like eyes give away that it is poisonous, though it is extremely docile and even if it did bit it mouth is small and its fangs at the rear of the mouth (the specialises in eating frogs and their eggs, as well as insects). This particular Snake curled around one of my fingers and made itself at home staying there for 20 min's until I encouraged it to move to a tree.

 

Previously the trip starts on the ocean out on the Caye's (the name for the islands here) on the barrier reef of Belize (the second largest in the world). Here the sand is white and he water is warm and clear, the snorkelling great, eagle rays, morays, sea turtles and sharks, not to mention the multitudes of fish species found amongst the coral. Out here on the Caye's( pronounced Keys), brown pelicans dive for fish along with yellow and blue footed booby's, who in turn get harassed by frigate birds for their food. The frigate cannot dive for its own fish, due to the huge wings and little body, though it must resort to piracy.

On some of the Caye's live spinney tailed iguanas, a lot more ferocious than the green, however I did catch one (see attached photos). Out here we kayak from key to key or patch reef to patch reef, snorkelling and eating and drinking, catching seafood when we can. The kayaks are also set up with a sail so we can sail when the trade winds are blowing. Out on the Caye's I think of myself as more of a snorkelling guide, as that's what we do mostly, so it is very cool to spend so much time in the water and getting to know the foreign fish here.

  

However this place is amazing and has so much potential, the people are very friendly, though can be quite in your face sometimes. The Mayans further south, are simple and quite, living of their farms as they have done for centuries. It is interesting to live in a country with so much ethnic diversity, Creole, Garifuna, Mayan, and Mennonites, all different languages, and culture, though one nationality.

Any hew; I am great, merry Christmas and happy new years to you all.

J

 

Our New Zealand Adventure Published

 

Adventure Kayak Magazine has published a story and photos from our Yak About Adventure Project at the start of the year. Article was written by Laura and the photos where provided by Freya, Cynthia and Myself. Freya even scored the Cover Shot, though it is not a photo from NZ. I am also proud to say that my photos have featured in every issue of Adventure Kayak this year, I am pretty stoked.

 

Also Published was a photo I took from my Kayak trip down the east coast of the north island of NZ with Dave Briggs.

 

can read the rest of the mag online here http://www.rapidmedia.com/ak/adventurekayakmag_fall14/

Downwind Squamish Surf Ski Dash and immigration Comedians

 

   

Last night Tara and I crossed into the USA, thought not before we had an “EPIC” Surf Ski adventure.

I had just spent a day helping install the new amazing custom” ‘Yak Wagon” roof rack that now enables 16 x 7 feet of storage space on the roof of the bus, and after an evening paddle in Deep Cove North Vancouver, the day ended with a pleasant long sleep in the ‘Yak Wagon.

The next day, as I popped out of the bus to go find the amenities, I bumped into Bob Putnam, the owner of Deep Cove Outdoors and Canoe and Kayak Centre, and after a catch up, Tara and I were soon invited for a Downwind Surf ski Paddle....... We were supposed to cross the border today..... let me “Think” about a surf ski outing.... well traffic would probably be quite high between 3 – 8pm, so if we go paddle we could cross at 9pm lower traffic amount.... “OK Done! We are in!” I exclaimed. “now let me go tell Tara!”

The fun part here is that Tara had never been in a surf Ski before, both of us had not done down wind surf ski runs before, though we both had super strong cross over skills, so we were exited by the novelty of the idea. Earlier in the week, Tara had paddled a K1 racing kayak around the lake without falling in, so combined with her solid rough water expedition and white water paddling skills, she would be all good.

 

After visiting Deep cove to discuss TRAK kayaks, I confirmed with Bob we would come, and we loaded a ski on the Wagon and off we went to Porteu Cove, here we meet the rest of the crew we were paddling with, and they all had slight nervous doubt when Tara and I told them we had not paddled surf ski’s in conditions like this, and in Fact Tara and not used either a surf ski or a wing paddle before. Bob knowing the backgrounds of both Tara and I, had a kind off sly twinkle in his eye it seemed. Tara was a little nervous about it all, though I knew she would be fine and joked with her about it.

 

Soon we were on the water and it was so much fun, the speed, the surfing of waves, and water in the face, along with the challenge of a different vessel in advanced conditions, all added up to 2 hours of great fun. The biggest thing I learnt this day was to read the waves 2 -3 sets in front of you, in order to predict where to steer the ski in order to keep catching and staying on surf able waves. And by god it worked, a revelation for my skill set right there, awesome.

 

Charging up Howe sound hooting hollering, and ripping along in 3 foot wind waves with 35 knot winds at our backs we all to soon found ourselves in Squamish estuary, ducking and diving amongst the kite and wind surfers, to get into the harbour. Soaked head to toe with big smiles and aching muscles, we helped load up the ski’s and then it was off to have beer and pizza at the local brew pub. What a fun day and yet another paddle discipline I want to indulge in.

All to soon we were back on the road and heading for the border, and at 9.20 pm we walked in to immigration after reporting at the booth, and we were greeted, not with the expected surely USA immigration officers, but by some rather human, endearing and humorous individuals. It all seemed your usual routine, until our case officer left to get our passports from the booth officer, and while he was gone another officer made a comment that we were left standing at the altar by the priest. And soon it was all on, wise cracks flying left and right. The next target was my bus... “what are you .... errr driving .... some sort of .....err caravan?” asked the officer with some sort of bewilderment as he looked at the bus through security camera monitor showing it parked outside. “or is it a..... Bus?”

On telling him it was an ex well chair transporter, he smiled and stated cautiously “ I was going to say it was some sort of..... um.....some sort of.....” “oh man don’t say it” jibed the other security officer with a look of mischief”

Our case officer said “ I was going to say it looked like some sort of “Handicapped Enabled” vehicle!”

“OH MAN YOU SAID IT” laughed the other officer, “Ha ha ha ha ha ha....it is not that bad man, look it is a tour bus it even has marketing decals on it, it looks great really!” we all laughed at the truth of both realitys of what the ‘Yak wagon was and had become”. Tara had been processed and just as I was about to be processed, the whole system crashed... and soon came a whole bunch of new jokes followed by “ don’t joke about this stuff, we are supposed to be putting across an air of high tech surveillance, we are meant to have all this fancy CSI stuff our systems don’t crash” followed by some more chuckles. Eventually the process worked while being harried along by more friendly banter, and while I went out to get money from the bus to pay for the visa waiver stamps, Tara informed me they even attempted to impersonate me and my accent...

Who would have thought we would have had a laugh at the border crossing with immigration officials, I guess there is a first for everything. Soon we were in the USA , with a fully kitted out ‘Yak Wagon, a lots f different Kayaks, and the realisation suddenly hit me.... the Yak About Adventure with TRAK Kayaks and the TRAK on Tour had really begun, this will be a lot of work, though will also be a lot of fun.

Spring Back into Life in BC (Part 2)

Spring Back into Life in BC (Part 2)

Goodbye Mark and Hello Tara, my spring has been one of visitors and new friends and Tara Mulvaney is both. As I said goodbye to Mark Bardsley, after his great trip to BC, I then said hello to Tara. I meet Tara in New Zealand when camping on 90 mile beach in NZ, she paddled in through the rough west coast surf, and she was in the middle of paddling around the North Island Solo and on her way to becoming the first woman to paddle around all three main islands of NZ. She succeeded at this and now she was sitting in the passenger seat of my bus with a kayak she purchased in Vancouver and she was going to now paddle around Vancouver Island Solo. Before she left I managed to get her to hang out for about 10 days and have some adventures.

SKGABC Guides Exchange

Before I said goddbye to Mark, we attended the guides exchange on salt spring island. This was wonderful way for Mark (a Sea Kayak Guide in the UK) to learn a bit about how things are done on this side of the world, and for me it was also a great chance to give back (by leading a currents and group management class at polier pass). Above all else these events are always fun social times and a great way to network with people in the same industry. This is also where I reconnected with an awesome character I meet last year at the MEC Paddle fest Leenie. Leenie is a most charismatic and Gregarious character and a true joy to be around, he and I lead the Current and group session and of course had great fun shooting the shit and I promised to come see him and his wife Serena in a couple of weeks when the Puntledge River festival was on. Despite the calm sunny weather I had a great weekend with old and new friends and it was great to get out in the water using the TRAK Seeker Folding Kayak for all the guides to see. Soon the weekend was over and being ten years since my last visit, I was sad to leave Saltspring Island, though I needed to head to Victoria to do some work for TRAK Kayaks and send mark on his way to the Broughton’s to go paddling.

 

 

 

 

Quadra Island and Surge Narrows

When Tara turned up, I was just getting ready to head off to shadow a Level 2 sea kayak guides Assessment, so we prepped together and headed to Quadra Island, where we camped out by a lake and in the morning meet up with Don Webster (Guide Assessor and rock star international guide). Tara was unable to join us on the guide assessment so she headed off on an intro solo camp out on the BC coast, while I enjoyed helping out and learning more about Training, instructing and Assessing Fellow guides. It was a fun challenge and helped me learn how much more I can still learn, it was also fun to work in the fast currents around the area and have people swimming for real. It was a sunny and beautiful weekend and we had a great camp site where, early the next morning during land Nav’ exercises, a pod of Orca Swam right by our camp literally only 50 meters or less away. I love this place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the return to the launch site the next day I found Tara sitting by my bus, she unfortunately had not seen the Orca, but had a great time out there. I helped check assessment sheets, joined the debrief of everyone passing and becoming level 2 guides, then said goodbye; Tara and I remained though as the flows at Surge Narrows where maxing right now. I talked Tara into coming back out with me, albeit slightly “kicking and screaming” and without a helmet (I couldn’t convince her she needed it, as she stated “this isn’t white water kayaking!”). Tara quickly learned that a helmet is a nice piece of kit to have at surge, even though you may not need it, it certainly adds a sense of security as you play amongst the rocks on waves and foam piles caused by shallow rock shelves. I Learnt that I had to be a bit more pushy with talking Tara into good ideas, like coming kayak surfing at Surge, wearing a helmet and bringing your Camera and Gopro; all this inforced by Tara recognition that she was having fun, it was cooler than she thought it would be and she wished she had brought her camera and a helmet. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Tara was a natural dispite it being her first time in a skeg boat and intentionally going into swift water to play with a sea kayak. Soon it was getting dark and Tara without a dry suit was getting a bit chilly, so we headed back to our lake side campground for the night before heading back to Van isle.
Puntledge River Fest

The following weekend it was back on the road again to the Puntledge River Festival and, as promised, to meet up with Leenie again. Tara and I where greated inthe street by the Grinning Leenie and the heavily pregnant Serena, as I parked up the ‘Yak Wag’n. Soon we where merilly eating great food in the yard under the tree’s and drinking home brew beer and cider. Leenie and Serena are both sea kayak guides “done good” as could be said. They are now following different carriers though have managed to accumulate two houses between them and maintain a pretty outdoorsy lifestyle, yet another inforcment to me that “there are other ways to lead life and be successful by the standards of society”.
The night went on late with lots of drinking, and Tara and I awoke in the morning with pretty decent hangovers. After a fabulous breakfast of homemade Granola (muesli), Tara and I where off to the Puntledge Festival. Rolling in to the waves and smiles of friends is always great and it was no different as I rolled into the campsite and had Shayne run up to tell me some strange story about him mistaking some other bus for mine and waking them up early to fin it was not me. It did end up being Cody’s van who had come out to surge and to that Vancouver white water festival with me last month. This weekend was a great one and I had Leenie’s P n H Hammer Play sea Kayak 14.5 ft, and Jackson’s Karma RG river ocean Hybrid 11.5 ft. It was gonna be fun to get these big boats out steep creeking.

 

Despite a totally gumby move on my first seal launch in the Karma RG, where I slid down a path into the water, clipped another kayak, got tipped upside down, got my paddle stuck in some tree roots underwater forcing me to handroll up ,then continue to fight to get my paddle back from the submerged grips of a small strainer, I pulled myself together and paddled on with gusto. Indeed both boats handled the upper Puntledge and its class 4 rapids like a charm; These Rapids consisted of long rock slides and 14 foot waterfalls, despite the skeptics who commented on day one when I placed the 11.5 foot Karma on the shuttle. The next day everyone was asking if I was bring the big boat back down, I smiled and stated, “nope I am bringing a bigger one” and out came the Hammer. Everyone looked uneasy, though both boats just nailed the lines and the run. Tara had an amazing time and as usual was overly modest about her abilities, though was most certainly able to run everything we did with a big goofy smile. You can read about her version of the story here, and about how she almost disowned me for being a total rookie boater. www.tarasjourney.com blog here

I must admit on the first run I was reasonably nervous, though after nailing my line of both waterfalls the first time in the Karma RG, and getting a solid Boof out of her, I was more than happy to run it in the bigger hammer, on later runs. The event was an awesome social event with over 100 people showing up, and the upper Puntledge is an amazing and unique river run for Vancouver island, it is very uch worth visiting. And Thanks to Lendal North America Paddles for Supplying two white water paddles for the raffle you enabled the event to make much more than usual.

Tara Sets Off

All too soon Tara was leaving, and a long day working on the computer I soon pulled myself away packed my boat and Paddled out with her on the start of her trip. We started late in the evening and we didn’t go far in the magic hour of light before sunset. We pulled up on nearby southerly Island in the Windchelsea’s and made camp. As soon as I put on the water with her I was longing to be part of her coming adventure, and I was sad to know I would be turning back in the morning as she went forward. We sat up late around the campfire sharing tall tales and I giving her as much info as I could about the coast and what was in store. In the morning we ate breakfast and then pushed off onto the water, Tara complained she wanted to go white water kayaking now instead of sea kayaking, and I laughed at her. We said our farewells, and I hoped to see her again in a couple of weeks and perhaps paddle some more with her, though most likely I would see her mid July when she came near the end and I returned from a work trip to the USA. Tara is a humble, driven and inspiring young lady, I feel honoured to almost be able to call her a friend, despite how much she insists that I am not cool enough.
Follow Tara’s Journeys Here

Sourced from My Yak About Adventures Blog