Rappelling Practice in San Juan

We were fortunate enough to have semi-private rappelling instruction from Ivan and Julio (two very active and generous SEPRI members - cave society). We went to a park where they had a nice set-up - telephone poles and a cross-beam just ready for rope slinging! After multiple tries Julio got the rope over and started securing it to the other pole so we could prepare to ascend. There are a variety of knots and safety type double-rigging that I watched but cannot yet repeat. We will need to practice practice practice before dropping into and ascending out of caves.

There is a lot of gear, and since it isn't mine it all needed adjusting to get it snug enough. Lots of clips and straps and fortunately a lot of help.


Here I am climbing up the rope using the frog system (think that's what is it called). It involved a hand Croll rope gripper thingy and a strap your feet fit into.

Here's Jeff getting all adjusted. If you are back in Washington - check out the kayak water polo helmet with all your signatures!


The whole while that we were practicing this little car/ "ice cream truck" was cruising the parking lot selling drinks and stuff out of the back end!

Tubing the Tanama River

Since Jeff and I arrived here a year ago we have been trying to get involved with the caving group SEPRI. We have gone into one cave in Florida, PR and really enjoyed it. We'd love to go caving in the South or West, but the most active group appears to be in the North in Karst country. We need to practice rappelling and get our own gear before we can go into any others. The gear is expensive and there are two types we need to decide between. But...the group does an annual river float that we were lucky enough to get invited to. Here we are at the put in -helmets, life vests required. This group is very organized and safety conscious which is something we appreciate.

Jeff is having a good time and looky - he's wearing the water polo helmet sent to us from the Washington kayak water polo guys - thanks guys for signing it and sending it to me!

Here's a spot that was a little shallow - hit-your-butt shallow. The water level on the original weekend the float was planned for was extremely high so it was rescheduled for the following weekend. There were probably 50 or more people that came. People had tubes, tubes strapped to plywood, rafts and inflatable kayaks. Some water craft didn't make it all the way down.

This is the last little rumble on the river before the take out. We were on the river for 3 hours and 45 minutes and drifted through wild gingers, bananas, tree ferns. We picked some guineos and had a little free snack along the river. Jeff shot this as I was whizzing down the rapids.

The take out was above the falls that feed into the Arecibo water plant. Scouts drifted first to watch for snags and big rapids and other dangers. They were also at the take out to rope it off so no one could shoot the falls! A short hike out and our day was over. The float was stunning with really neat geology and waterfalls and undercuts and stuff. Wild plants could amuse me for hours if we could stop longer. We really enjoyed this float and look forward to caving in the near future and of course to next year's float. Next year we will devise some better seats in the tubes and cruise the river in Santa Hats!