Mexico

Well we have arrived safely into Mexico, a place that is familiar and yet so different. THe weather here is crazy - hot mostly but today out of the middle of no where we had a crazy rain storm. We were beginning to pack up camp ( which is quite an ordeal) and I was helping with the kitchen supplies. We have a trailer that is packed full with water jugs, coolers (5 or so) food, dishes, garbage stuff and well you know all the stuff you need.... It drizzled a little and before we knew it we wer all soaked and laughing at ourselves. The place where we´ve been camped is at the bottom of several hills. When it rains things get totally muddy. It is one big mud pit. The vans and bus don´t really do well as they slip and slide everywhere. One of the days we had to push the vehichles out.

The river is just a stone´s throw away - at the bottom of ravine by the campsite. It is turquois- green colour and you feel as though you are in paradise. We have put for kayaking about 8km from our campsite ( it is a luxurious spot) and we take out when we arrive back at the campsite. However to get there you need to go over 7 (I think) waterfalls/slides to get there. THEy vary in height from 10 to 25 ft. The first day was intimidating but we have done it several times since and it is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth that I have ever been.

Yesterday we had a scenario where on one of the instructors was running the third last waterfall. It is the highest watefall. She went over the waterfall and then needed to be rescued. In this situation she had a broken femur ( the big bone in your upper leg). This is a life threatening situation so we had to pretend to treat the break and then evacuated her out off the river. To get her safely to a vehicle we must carry her out on a back board. But before that is possible we must apply traction (pulling her leg and applying pressure to ensure that the broken, "fixed" bone would stay in place) and build a splint. As you can imagine this is no easy task.

I had taken the day off to rest as my shoulder was a little sore and suddenly Jon (another student) had paddled back to the campsite and explain what had happened and listed off the supplies that we´d need. We then took the supplies (mainly a raft) and one of the vans to a hotel part way down the river. As a team we try to divide into smaller groups with specific tasks. We got the raft ready, while others took care of the medical side of things and others tried to scout routes for taking her off the river. Everyone´s adrenaline is pumping. We got her off the river in about 2 hours. Everyone remained positive. Jason was complimented twice during our debrief time for being level headed and seeing the big picture really well!!! Not a surpise at all.

The gear that we had gotten used to wearing (dry suit tops, Neoprene tops and bottoms) have been stashed away for a while. And shorts and rash guards (spandexz like material that keeps the sun out and offers a little warmth)ave replaced them. We use alot more sun screen though. I got a good burn while we were in Texas.

We had no problems getting into Mexico. In fact this trip was one of the smoothest border crossings they´ve ever had. Maybe it is because of the great story they created. We were all told before hand that there were certain words that we could repeat often if asked any questions and they were Xalapa and Veracruz the two main places we´d be stying in and even then we were supposed to butcher the pronunciation. If needed we were going to explain that we were world class athletes training for the Bejing ´08 Olympics. We sure had a good laugh about that.

We´ve adjusted well to the food. It hasn´t upset our tummies too much. Probably the hardest thing is learning to drink large quantities of water because you sweat all the time. Sometimes it cools down at nights but not always - and cool is relative to the hot days. Probably most of you at home are not even feeling a little bit sorry for me now because I hear it is a little cold there.

Yesterday morning we awoke at 4:40 ( yes in the morning) to get up a see swallows fly out of the cave that they live in. The place is called Sotano de las Golonodrinas. If you are wondering if we were mad but this is a world renowned place and really it is quite spectacular. We sat in a smelly, wet van ( we use the van to transport us to the river and the afternoon before it had been raining) in the dark going up this crazy narrow, steep path. We had to get to the cave as the sun began rising. And we made it just in the nick of time. The cave is 500m deep and teh birds start near the bottom and weave there way up in circles until they fly out. IT takes over half an hour because there is thousands of birds. Some of them were swallows and others were parques(?) that were a bright green colur. We were able to look into the cave by using a rope. It was a great way to start the day.

Tonight we board the bus at 11pm and travel all night to an ancient ruins site. I can´t wait.