Orientation was that night, where all the teams gathered to hear the rules and regulations of the race and how things would be organized for the next 4 days. The local TV news was on site and Julian arranged for our team to be interviewed, which was televised later that evening. We also had a chance to meet with the National Geographic Explorers club team, which consisted of the President of the club, Richard, and two of his friends, Bo and Jonathan. It was their first time participating in the race as well and they were in our division, so we decided our goal would be to try and keep up with these guys. We retired early that night in anticipation of an early start the next day.

Day 1: The next morning we awoke to drums beating in the distance. We nervously got all of our gear together and headed down to the river to see what kind of canoe Julian had arranged for us and to get started. The whole town was up, with people lined along the shore and both bridges crossing the river. Excitement and anticipation was thick in the air.

We found the fruit truck that would transport our gear from camp to camp, picked up our supply of water and bananas, which were to sustain us for the day, and headed to our canoe. It was a mass start, in which everyone lined up across the river according to two visual markers on either side of the river. There were 88 teams total and the professional teams were to line up in front. It was tough trying to keep the canoe in place with 88 canoes jammed together and the current pushing the boats as well. The BATSUB (British Army Training Service Unit Belize) crew were the official timers of the race and they began the starting countdown with a megaphone. At zero we were off! It was a frenzied sprint, with rough water being caused by the mass start. Canoes were tipping over and teams were pushing others away that came close. The crowd was cheering loudly and the local fire dept. had the hoses spraying water across the river from both sides. It was very exciting and the adrenalin was pumping.

Mangroves along the river

By the time we reached our first camp, Banana Bank, we were all exhausted and starving. We were told at orientation that lunch and dinner would be provided for us, but what we did not know was that both were provided at the camp. So, if you were a fast team that made it there in four hours, you received your lunch at a reasonable time and dinner later that evening, but if you were a slower team, like us, that finished in eight hours, you received your lunch and dinner right after one another. We ate our lunch of fried chicken wings and French fries, and then picked up our camping gear and found a spot to set up. We set up our rain-fly for Eduardo, using our paddles as a pole and then gave him a camp chair that lay flat, so he had something beside the ground to lie on. It worked really well and luckily it did not rain during trip. After dinner, we talked about how tough this first day had been and how we were dreading tomorrow, which was going to be the longest day of 60 miles. We all took some Motrin and went to bed, hoping to get some rest for our tired bodies.

Day 2: It was a beautiful night with a bright full moon and cool temperatures. Our alarm clock the next morning was a man in the camping area bellowing, “get up, get up”. It was 4:30 am. The start was at 6:30 am. We packed up and got on the river for another long day. Eduardo commented that he felt strong that morning, which encouraged us. Once on the water, we heard some strange noises from the bush, which Eduardo informed us, were Howler monkeys. We had heard the noises the night before in camp, but did not know what it was. We were not too far into the race, when Eduardo spotted some monkeys in the trees. The rest of the day, we spotted many more monkeys (and heard them too), along with many iguana and tropical birds. It was a long day, but a beautiful stretch of river. There were always supporters cheering for you along the way as well. We would travel through areas of jungle, then come across a small clearing with people swimming or washing their clothes, or just sitting and watching, all of them giving some encouragement to the participants.

We found ourselves paddling with the same group of people during the race; a BATSUB team, a Peace Corp team, the Fyffe Banana Export team and a team of girls that were volunteer teachers. It was a friendly, competitive atmosphere, with conversation back and forth to pass the time as we would pass each other on the river.

The dreaded second day of paddling ended up being a lot better than we anticipated. We finished in about 8.5 hours, just a little longer than the previous day! We set up camp, purchased some rum drinks and waited for our dinner of stewed chicken, rice and beans. We sat around and discussed the day with the guys from the Explorers club and watched the sunset over the hills, giving our support to the lingering teams still getting to camp. It felt good to know it wasn’t us! Later that night, as we were going to sleep, the locals serenaded us with Patsy Cline and other country songs on the karaoke machine at the local bar. Laughter also filled the night air from the local women cooking our breakfast for the next day on an open wood burning stove.

Howler Monkeys viewed from the canoe during the Ruta Maya 2004

About 25 miles into our day, the river made a sweeping turn to the left and the paddlers ahead of us started to put on life jackets. Several people on shore warned us of “big falls” ahead and told us to make sure to run on the river right side. We put on our life jackets and looked forward to a good rapid ahead. As we paddled to the right at the current split, we saw the other teams in front of us sliding over rocks. When we looked over to the left, there was a nice three foot standing wave and some nice fast current. Dang! We just missed the best wave on the river! It was especially aggravating since the rest of the day it felt like we were paddling up stream in pea soup, because the current was so slow. Instead of being easier than the day before, this day turned out to be the most painful. We finally heard the music from Burrell Boom, but it still took us another 2 hours to reach camp. During this time, Eduardo enlightened us about the monkey’s habit of pooping and peeing on people down below. We made sure that we did not get to close to shore under the trees.

The scene at Burrell Boom was a small street fair on the river bank, with make shift shops set up and people selling roasted chicken, beans and rice, home made wines and many other items. Everyone was having a great time, especially the older men playing dominos and the karaoke singers. We pulled the boat up on the ramp and someone handed us a cold beer; we were finally getting the hang of this canoe racing.

We saw the Explorer’s club team and found out that they were the team that was wrapped around the tree at the beginning. Their account of the whole incident was pretty hairy, but they came out unscathed, except for a nasty cut on Jonathan’s forehead, which we helped clean up. That night while we ate dinner, they showed video of the race on the side of the dinner truck. It was really impressive to see the top teams in action, since we normally only see them for a short while at the start.