Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico
Whilst the others dillied and dallied, I didn't, I got on first and grabbed the front row.
Back of the net!
Moving along the river on the approach to the canyon, sometimes at great speed, not only did I get the best view, but I missed all the water spray that was thrown up.
I glanced around, I felt sick to the pit of my stomach, one of the group, a right limp wristed old woman of a man had put an umbrella up and was hiding behind it.
I lost the plot.
"What are you doing?" "You, what are you doing?" ( I never even bothered to remember his name, nor several of the others, who I had no time for. Why bother?)
A squeaky mumbled reply " I don't want to get wet"
"It's 90 degrees, water won't kill you, jesus christ on a bike"
The boat slowed down to admire some wildlife, well a bunch of American Crocodiles actually,
Evolution was kind, their nostrils, eyes, and ears are plonked on the top of the head, so the rest of the body can be concealed underwater for sneaky surprise attacks, they are at the top of the food chain with no natural predators themselves. They are not fussy eaters either, and will attack humans. Keep that throttle on full revs driver!
An adult male can grow to 20ft long and weigh up to a ton.
The boat sped up again. The brolly remained closed. back in his day bag, where it belongs, I mean wtf are you doing bringing an umbrella on this trip anyways, it's the dry, very dry season.
The canyon is a deep and was created around around 35 million years ago by a crack forming in the earth's crust and ongoing natural erosion by the Grijalva River, which runs through it.
The canyon has vertical walls which rising up to 3,300 ft, with the river turning up to 90 degrees along its 8 mile narrow length
The walls of the canyon contain a number of small caves. The best known is the Cueva de Colores
A sort of memorial plaque there only since 1996 to a Dr Manuel Alvarez
It gets its name from the colouration of the walls, mainly varying shades of pink created by the filtration of minerals. It contains a small statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe often surrounded by fresh flowers and burning candles left by visitors. It is only accessible by boat.
There are several seasonal waterfalls tha cascade into the river, the most notable is the "Christmas Tree", so called as it resembles one.
The branches are made by deposits from the waterfall which has sustained the growth of thick green lush moss.
Full marks to our skipper he got us in really close,
This is the dry season and the tributaries a not in full flow, I can imagine it would look wondrous in the rainy season
DONT FORGET YOUR UMBERELLA---ella---ella
At the north end of the canyon is the Chicoasén Dam and its artificial reservoir, one of several on the Grijalva River, which is important for water storage and the generation of hydroelectric power. The power station provides thirty percent of all hydroelectric energy produced in Mexico.
When we got back on dry land I was called aside by a couple of ladies who thanked me for my umbrella intervention " We couldn't see much when he had that brolly up, thank you for saying something, we didn't like to"
- Do not suffer fools
- Be the shepherd
Oh and the sky? just a shot I grabbed through the bus window later in the evening.
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