If you ever take a trip to Mexico to paddle, you need to check out the Rio Alseseca. It has a bunch of different sections, and each one has a different feel to it. We spent two days on the Roadside section; which is low volume southeastern style paddling. Now, after a few days trying to find it, we have directions for two different ways to access the elusive Big Banana section. This section was first explored by team Jackson and it took them several days. Thanks to them and their efforts, paddlers are now able to enjoy this section as a one day trip, or so one would think it would only take a day...
Some of the crew at the put-in for the Big Banana
Photo by John McConville
It was about 12:00 in the afternoon when Davis Gove, John McConville, Chris Baer, Jake Greenbaum, and myself finally were headed for the put-in. The put-in is at the base of a 1oo+ foot waterfall known as Big Banana falls. The options are to rappel down about 150+ feet, or find a trail to the bottom. The choice was easy for us since we didn't have rope to rappel from, so we decided to hike in. Again we were given 2 options for hiking, one from river left and one from river right. According to some of our friends it would only be a difference of about 30 minutes to hike in from river right, and the parking for the shuttle vehicle would be more secure, so we went with that one.
Top of the 20 footer
Photo by Chris Baer
After about 2 hours of hiking through the jungle and along a creek bed we found Big Banana Falls. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, but I didn't really get to take it all in because it was now after 2:oo PM and we needed to get on the water. So with about 4 hours of daylight left we began paddling into the unknown. We had no idea how many miles the stretch was or how many rapids there were. What we did know was that there was a "death hole," a 40 footer, a mandatory drop, and it is class 5.
Davis Gove on the 20 footer
Photo by Chris Baer
The first "real" rapid that we came up to looked good from my boat, and with positive confirmation from John I paddled into it. It was an easy first move and as I paddled through the right exit slot I noticed that there was a tree just under the surface, but it was too late. My bow went under the horizontal tree and I took it right on the chest. I tried to stay calm and wiggle myself free, but it was too late, my stern began to sink and I gave out a yell for help. Right as I got swept under the tree Jake came around the corner to help. Neither of us are sure what exactly happened, but I ended up getting pulled right out of my boat and my Everest had a big dent in the side of it that Jake is pretty sure he put there. Either way, I looked downstream and realized I was alright and looked back just in time to see Davis come around the corner, get stuck on the tree, disappear underwater, and pop up away from his kayak.
Blindly dropping into the mandatory rapid
Photo by John McConville
We are only a few rapids in and two members of the group swam out from under a tree. Needless to say things were not looking so good at this point and we didn't have much daylight left.
Jake Greenbaum probing the 40 footer
photo by Chris Baer
The rapids started to pick up and soon we came up to a big horizon line. It was an easy lead in to about a 20 foot drop. Looked good, and everyone started firing off of it. The next drop again couldn't be scouted from out boats so Jake got out and gave it a look. He told the rest of us that it looked good, just go down the middle. So I paddled right up to and and as I got closer it looked like I was about to drop into a crack, but it went and I gave a yell back to the group to let them know it was good. John came next, rolled right before the hole at the bottom and came back up with only one blade left on his paddle. Davis managed to roll entering the rapid and hit his head, and then both Chris and Jake got rolled in the hole at the bottom. We later came to know this rapid as "the crack drop," and it is about as mandatory of a drop as you can get.
John McConville
photo by Chris Baer
After several more good rapids we arrived at the 40 footer. This thing was stout, and with night just around the corner we found a way to portage around it and seal launch about 20 feet back into the water. So we all got back in as quickly as we could. The next significant rapid we began calling "triple drop," because it was three moves with small pools in-between. The first drop looked tight, the second was a hole, and the third drop was a slide into a big boof. Jake ended up running all 3 drops, while the rest of us just ran the third drop.
Chris Baer boofing the 1st drop of Triple Drop
photo by John McConville
After passing a dead cow in the river and running a few more rapid we came to yet another big horizon line. It ended up being Meatlocker rapid. It is a two tiered rapid, both drops are similar size and totaling about 20-25 feet. It was pretty dark at this point and we could barely see another rapid just downstream. Things started to get crazy at this point, the group was wanting to finish but light was pretty much gone. Fortunately no one did anything stupid and we ended up ditching out boats, grabbing what gear we might need to sleep outside for the night, and began trying to hike out. John had a headlamp, so he led, and in about 45 minutes we found a road and soon after we were all standing in the back of a truck heading to our cars.
We piled in Jake's Jeep, grabbed Linda, and then feasted on some tacos al pastor.
The entrance of Meatlocker
photo Chris Baer
The next morning we got an early start and hiked back in to our boats. Meatlocker looked good but a swim here could be deadly. At the flow we had Meatlocker has a pretty nasty looking hole after it and it is pretty walled in. So we found a tree to anchor off of and ran a rope from it to a small eddie and put someone on live bait on the end. Then one by one we all ran the drop with Jake leading us off. Everyone had similar lines; boofing the first tier and then pretty much disappearing in the second tier.
Jake Greenbaum leading us off Meatlocker
photo by Chris Baer
We were able to portage the "death hole" pretty easily on river right with another 15-20 foot seal launch back into the water. The next rapid ended up being the start of the Pezma section and both Jake and Davis had been on this section so we now knew what was ahead.
John McConville on the 1st rapid of the Pezma
photo by Chris Baer
The Pezma section is a great small stretch of whitewater. The first rapid is a sick boof if you hit it right. There is another rapid known as 80/20 that is pretty interesting, and the last rapid has a huge boof at the end of it.
Davis Gove hitting his boof at 80/20
photo by Chris Baer
Jake Greenbaum launching the boof at the end of the Pezma
photo by Chris Baer
We ended up all returning to the Big Banana after a day of rest, atleast for some of us...John ended up leaving his camera at the rapid that Davis and I took a swim, so Chris and John spent the next day hiking back in to retrieve the camera. The three of us drove to the other possible hike in trail and off John and Chris went. I came back in about 2 hours and it wasn't but 5 minutes later that they returned with the camera and good news! The trail was shorter and much easier than the first. So the next day we started early and hiked in to Big Banana falls in about 30 minutes.
Photo by Chris Baer
Just like our first time, our second time down the Big Banana was eventful. Davis went off the 20 footer and had his skirt impload, so I got signaled to chase him and my skirt popped also. Luckily Davis swam but was able to collect everything before the Crack Drop, and I just had to paddle a half full boat to the side. Then after about an hour of staring at it, Jake and then John fired off the stout 40 footer. Then everyone ran all parts of Triple Drop and again all dropped into Meatlocker. So with the Roadside and Big Banana sections done, it was time to check out the Tomata Gorge section....
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