As expected, after a day of travelling, too little sleep and a night of modest partying, morning came much too soon, and we broke up into groups to go do canyons. Not being in the "ridiculously early" group, I chose to do Chipitin, which features a couple rappels, a couple swims, one really nice slide, and a guided rappel through a 240-foot tall waterfall. Yeehaw!

No Rendezvous would be complete without car trouble, but…
A flat tire before even getting out of the parking lot???

Chuy provided “The Monster Truck”, with seating for, say, 23, which was essential to the transport of all those canyoneers UP the mountain. Here Koen, a Belgian from Spain, has a big smile – obviously BEFORE enduring the two-hour thrashing…

We followed a Mexican friend on a confusing maze of animal trails into the woods…

… and finally came to a stream choked with poison ivy. Time to suit up!

And got to some tasty rappels. Zack rappin’ into a pool.

John Hart was in the early group that left the hotel 2 hours before us, then had a two-hour flat tire. So they ended up about 15 minutes ahead of us. Another rap into a pool (folks from the other group), with much picture taking, as expected in such a beautiful place. Photo: John Hart

One of Chipitin’s best features is this cool waterslide, just before the 280′ waterfall.

More waterslide. Photo: John Hart

Yours truly on the waterslide. Photo: John Hart

Splashdown!

The Big Cookie in Chipitin is the final rappel, featuring a 280-foot waterfall. This is usually rigged as a guided rappel over to a tree on a buttress. As on any, well-set-up guided rappel, the rappeller gets a good face-shot on the way down. Here Scott starts the rap and goes in for the shot!

Here’s the guided rappel from the bottom. The Seldom-Seen, at the start… Photo: John Hart

…in the Faceshot section… Photo: John Hart

…and gliding through the air. Photo: John Hart

From there, a quick rap to the pool below…

Uh, wait! The ropes don’t reach!!! (The usual, ACA trick).

Photo: John Hart

Chipitin Waterfall, at least most of it. Photo: John Hart

And then there was the hike out. Not too far, just steep steep steep. It wasn’t all that hot out, but the humidity – jeeeesh! Here, Irishman Chris Brennan of Pasadena is happy to be near the top…

Ira and John from So Cal. Uh, why isn’t Ira sweating?

Rich, Scott, John, Chris, La Marquesa, Koen, Divin’ Dave, Ira. The ride down the mountain was – not too bad. We rallied at a local taco stand for some great local food, then back to the Hotel Hacienda Cola de Caballo.