Tanama River Float and Cueva Sorbetos

Saturday's trip was our third trip down the Tanama River in tubes! This is a hard trip to coordinate because it is weather dependent meaning you have to make sure there is enough water in the river but that it won't rise substantially (rain) while you are on it. There is also coordination that needs to be done (if you are in a large group) with land owners (for safe parking) and the water authority (if you drive a pick up vehicle up to the dam to collect people). Also where you put in is 20 minutes away from where you take out and there needs to be vehicle coordination since parking is limited. Also it involves coordinating people - always a wild card. The day started out late (as always) with the normal (for here) problem of people being late and everyone having to wait for them. This is not a 20 minute unpredictable "late" but more a systemic problem of waiting more than an hour holding up the many for the few. Once we were on the river though all was forgotten. The first time we floated the river it was crystal clear and a nice group of 20 or 30 people. The second time was utter chaos of 100 plus people and a Willie Wonka chocolate river. This time was 15 people or so and fairly clear water. It was cold water but it is November and warmer here than anywhere I can think of. Here Jeff is smiling as always. There were some little rapids for us to babble down, a few places to walk over (or risk rocks bumping the butt) and only 1 or 2 to portage. Here's the happy 3 musketeers - Richard, Jesse and Issac. They came without tubes and lucky for them someone brought extras! There were waterfalls, guineos rapids,, sunny spots and lush vegetation. The smarter people brought paddles (we were not among of them).

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The best part though was the cave at the point we take out of the water. Cueva Sorbetos is just above the dam on the other side of the river and a few people in the group had never been there. We all swam across and entered the cave. It is very muddy and when the river rises you can get safely trapped inside. We went through the muddy area into the heart of the cave (our 3rd visit) and were again in awe of what we saw. THIS is why we stay here. Who gets to see things like this every weekend? Magazine readers maybe, but regular people? Don't think so. In this photo you can see Jeff's yellow helmet to the right of the large column. That will give you an idea of the scale of things. This was in the collapse area which I call the TV viewing room since you walk up the collapse, turn around, and there is a "screen" of formations you can watch while you have lunch! Besides the sorbetos (straws of hollow calcite) there are helictites pointing their antigravity formations in odd directions. I am not super knowledgeable about this but have read that capillary action and impurities cause the odd angles that define this type of formation. These are small individual formations but they cover the walls and ceilings that go for 50 feet or more, have some bare patches and start up again. In my head I picture little trapeze artists and invisible animals sliding up and down the poles. Magic!

At the end we came back across the river, walked 10 minutes or so to the walkway over the dam and to the trail. The river recently must have risen a lot to push sticks on the walkway like this. This time a truck picked us up at the top of the trail (in the past we have walked). Then we had the car shuttling before heading back home. I think this will be the last time I do the river and it was nice to have a few friends and sunshine with us!



Tanama River Hike

Saturday our friend Dallas arranged another Tanama river trip like we did at Xmas. This time it was to introduce some of the wonders of PR and nature to the younger generation with ties to UPR Mayaguez. The weather (rain) is a concern when making this long trip because of flash flooding but the weather was marginally acceptable Saturday at the start and actually turned out to be pleasant. It was a large group of 42 enthusiastic, energetic, and interesting people. We hiked to the entrance of the cave and waited for the entire group to arrive before starting in the water. There were other groups of tourists here taking inner-tubes through the cave as see in the back of the following picture. We made it through the cave and again waited on the other side for the whole group to make it though. It was clear to the leader (Anthony) and to others that we were going to need to change the plan. Large groups tend to move slow and even though we were composed of 5 or 6 sub groups it was still slow. We stopped and had lunch at the Big Arch cave. This was a good point to turn around. Everyone had a great time and we were able to get a good sample of the river. We did almost a mile on the river (about 1/3rd). Many people want to go again with hopes of making it the whole way. I think a limit of 15 people would be good with good weather. Now that its starting to rain more I think a limit of 10 -12 people a trip would be good. I don't know about doing the trip during the rainy season. Thanks again Dallas for arranging the trip and thanks to Anthony for leading it.

Hiking/Floating the Tanama River

This past Saturday we were lucky enough to have been invited by Dallas (you may remember a post about him and his kayaking cat) to go on an excursion of sorts to the Tanama River. We have gone down one section of the river just above the dam a couple times with the SEPRI group but this section was to have "caves" that you pass through. Mention the word "cave"and we are there. It was another early morning. We have been having a lot of those lately. We left the house at 6am and met at the Arecibo Observatory at 8. Other participants dribbled in and by 8:30 we were all there, suited up, and ready to begin a long day of fun. First we had to pile into a couple cars to drive to the take in. The Observatory is where we would come out. If you have never been to these places (and even if you have) you may not find them. We drove for probably 40 minutes on windy roads down and then up and finally parked alongside the road. We then headed into the jungle for 40 minutes or so to reach the river. Maybe it was 40 minutes, maybe it was more, you just kind of walk...taking in the scenery...smelling the smells...chatting with people you have just met and people you already know.

Then we arrive at the river bank, scramble down and plop into the water. This hike/excursion was wet 3/4 of the time. We had life vests since the water was over our heads in places. Some people wore helmets and a few had headlamps. It is always a challenge to keep things like extra shirts and lunches dry when you are submerged most of the time. I sported my new "Guano Gear Personal Pack" which is a really nice, easy to drag around...push around...carry on your back pack with a huge drain hole so you don't cart around heavy water. Elvin tried the double-garbage-bag method of putting things in zip locks inside a hefty garbage bag inside another hefty and filled with air so his camera and stuff would float effortlessly (and hopefully water-free) down the river with him. I think he had some success- but it looked uncomfortable to haul on the dry parts. The first thing we encountered was this "cave" section. This was really a cavern since it wasn't full of water and you could see a slit of light at the end. Very cool to enter a tunnel like this - a near death experience (you know, "go to the light" and all that). It was nice to just drift into the dark and out again.


The water level was low since it hasn't been raining which is good - There were lots of things embedded in the ceilings of these caverns and it looks like they fill up regularly with water. See the tiny human in the light on the left? That gives you an idea of the scale of things. This river is really in a canyon.

We encountered interesting geology like these fallen-off sections of large rock.

Do you recognize this character? From Survivor Man perhaps? Tom had the strategy of taking off the dry shirt, braving the very cold water and putting the shirt back on for the shallower sections of our journey. He is clutching his survival pack of who knows what or maybe the pack doubles as flotation? (he looks cold at any rate)

Some more neat geology.

At some parts we opted to climb out of the water and into the sun and scrambled over rocks for awhile.

There were many beautiful waterfalls...


Lots of hanging vines and some nice caverns with small holes to explore...

Most openings were really wide and you imagine how much water passes through them.


To the left in the upper part here are some caves. Unfortunately on this trip you have to keep moving or you won't make it out by dark. Jeff popped up there for a quick look-see but you have to get to those caves from above.

On the left Diana floats by this beautiful waterfall. The sun was out and peeked into the canyon in many spots really making the jungle and geology look even neater. I really like to climb and get muddy - Jeff and the others were floating down below while a couple of us did some quick exploring on a ledge above. Jeff guided us to what he thought was a carving in the rock and when we got there it was...a carving. There isn't any way for us to know if it is Taino or recent (I'm always thinking recent) - it would be an odd place for the Taino to carve something (there are many carvings in the river beds of Puerto Rico though) but it would be odder for a recent human to carry rock chipping tools to this spot and chip away to fake out explorers like us. Who knows?


Anyway, the carving was pretty neat.

Now we are at the end and have to climb climb climb (and did I say climb?) out of the gorge. We had some pretty steep spots on what started out to be a trail...then we were following the fence line of the observatory on a trail of sorts - this looks like a trail right? We went for at least and hour before emerging into a farmers field. We could see the Observatory and knew we had to go up and around it, but the last time any one had been on this "trail" was a few years ago. I know how fast things grow in my yard, so I was amazed when after 20 minutes or so a trail was found! In the states you have trails that animals keep open - deer, raccoon, possums, elk...here there aren't any mammals other than feral dogs to do that. So what keeps the trails "open"? On other excursions we were told the trails had been used by Tainos and local people for foraging...maybe that is the case here too. So now we had the really steep part of the trail. When going somewhere for the first time you just don't know what to expect and how long to expect it for. This is both good and bad. The bad thing is that is seems that you won't get out and it will never end. The good thing is that you don't know how long you have been hiking or how much further things are so you keep going at a good clip since it is getting dark, your feet are soggy, there are still rocks in your boots, the hunger pangs start and mainly it is getting dark! We locate the trail and some very old flagging. (I really need to bring a roll of flagging tape with me at all times to re-mark some of these spots.) We follow the trail out and ta da are close to the end.

Finally we emerge at around 6pm on the other side of the viewing area of the Observatory. We trudge down one last part with a Yee- Hahh and clean up a little, shuttle back to the cars, go off to the Mofongo place and have some dinner. By the time we get home it is 10:30 at night. Iraida and Bro had maybe even a little longer trip back and everyone else lives near us or San Juan. This was a little longer than we thought it would be, more interesting than you can imagine or see from the photos, and the group was a group of really nice people. We hear there is another section that has 6 caves to pass through. We also hear that it is an even longer trip. Guess we have to wait until we get an extra hour or so of daylight to do that one! So thanks Dallas for arranging everything, a thanks to Tom for leading the way, and everyone else for another great adventure! Who does this kind of stuff? The next morning we were back up in Aquadilla for some diving. The waves were kind of big, the current was really weird, and the visibility was around 20 (bad for here) with milky white water from all the suspended sediment. As soon as we got close to Aquadilla we saw surf boards everywhere and knew it wasn't going to be great, but diving is relaxing for your joints and mind (unless there is trouble) so we popped in for an hour or so. We came out into even bigger waves and figure diving is going to suck for a while. That's ok though - we got a bit of exercise Saturday and frankly, I need a rest!

Tanama River 2009 - Part 1

Last year we went with the caving group (SEPRI) on a float down the Tanama and had a lot of fun. It is a yearly event and we decided to go again with "refined" tubes (we made plywood platforms to drop in the hole to sit on). This event gives previous, present, and future cavers and their families an event to participate in that isn't a cave. When we got to the river I was shocked to see a Willy Wonka Chocolate River where last year's clear river was! This is following our day of mud and rotten pig in Hog Hell! Oh well, it'll be fun anyway. The river was rising up to 1000 cfs around midnight and then dropping to around 100 during the day. We were starting out in the morning and I guess the deluge of mud enters with the big rains at night. Here I am on the left staring at the Chocolate River from the bridge.

Every one was assembling at the river bank with tubes, helmets, and other gear. It was quite a large group this year.

After standing around for a while and getting a safety briefing people started plopping into the river and heading downstream.

The river is really pretty with jungle and old farming crop remnants on the side. There are a lot of big boulders in the river that made nice little rapids. I floated for a while just looking up at the sky.

Hey - isn't that Jeff? He is happily bobbing down the river.

Like everything here it is hard to show the scale of things. Things are big, and tall, and very jungley.

There were a few spots we had to get out of the river and walk around. There were either sticks or rocks or some other combination of debris that made it unsafe to try to float over. The safety guys in the front would determine if an area was unnavigable and then send tubers to shore.

Here's Jeff just sitting on a rock happy to not be in Hog Hell! Maybe he is thinking about yesterday and is happy to be in the clean air, not in a cave and not underwater...

Tanama Part 2

The entire river is rather scenic but this waterfall is kind of a nice spot to hang out for a while and have second lunch (if you remembered food). You can see the top of the waterfall to the upper right and it must be spectacular in the rain!

The falls are a favorite photo spot since you can cool off sitting under them on the log.

I really like the wild spots of the river where the trees and bamboo are spectacularly tall and there are immense boulders in the middle and just jungle to the sides. We'd see jungle with what looked like banana groves interspersed. People must have farmed here in times past. It makes for good snacking when you can find the ripe bananas.

After the falls and down the wild spots we go to the end. There is this last bit of fast narrow water before the dam. The safety crew has a rope across the river after this little bit so no one gets caught in the current and swept over the dam. A lot of people portaged rather than go down this part. Last year I flipped but this year it was smooth sailing!

Then it was time for the little walk out (30 minutes or so). Like most of our adventure things it was through the jungle.

We could see the dam which had a lot more water going over it than last year.


Then it was on to the catwalk - look at the huge boulder!

There were a few trucks/vans/cars at the exit waiting to shuttle people back to the put-in spot. How many people can ride in the back of a pick up? A lot!

It was a very fun day again. Last year we didn't have our tubes quite right but this year it was a comfortable ride. The higher water made it nice and the day was pretty sunny! Can't wait til next year1

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!

Dallas' Kayaking Cat

Sunday we planned on tubing down the Tanama river but after a bunch of late night phone calls and a call at 5AM the trip was cancelled. Too much rain in the mountains caused too much water in the river. The trip is postponed until next weekend. So our friend Dallas kindly offered to take us kayaking in La Parguera. His kayaks were already in La Parguera so we left ours at home. The weather was great, very little wind. Katrina wanted more sun though. The water could have been a little warmer for her but she didn't get too cold.

Dallas showed us around some mangroves. We briefly saw a manatee. Dallas also has a cat that likes to go kayaking.

Katrina with her new friend.

We stopped and did some snorkeling. The visibility wasn't very good but we could still see some nice fish. We didn't see any jellyfish. Just as Dallas was showing me what fire coral looked like we heard Katrina shouting. Looks like she found a bunch of it the hard way. Leave it to Katrina, if it bites, stings, or just plain irritates she will find it or it will find her.

Nice butt cheek. These welts looked like they hurt a lot. She even got some on her back because she was swimming on her back when she brushed into it. It's funny that Katrina get so upset when she gets bit/stung by a tiny tiny ant and she makes such a big deal about it. Then she gets all these welts and hardly says a thing about it. These looked like they hurt a great deal, much more than any ant...

Thanks again Dallas for comming up with plan B.