The coolest, best, most dramatic and amazing canyon to do down there is Matacanes, which became known as "The Big M". It is an extraordinary canyon, on many people's top ten list, including mine. Some of us liked it so much, we did it twice! Divin' Dave wanted to do it three times - but was denied transport on the last day. Here's some pictures from Matacanes, assembled from trips on three different days. Pics by me and John Hart.

Yeah, yeah, the post is a little long, but John gave me too many good pictures of jumping, so...

After a two-hour, bone-rattling drive, it all starts here at Portrero Redondo.

Matacanes had the longest starting hike (2 hours) and so required the earliest start (6:30 am).

My companions on the last day (Day 4) were John Hart and Karl Olsen. Together, we were kind of the over-the-hill gang, if we could find the hill. Many photos from this section are from John.

John and Karl hiking in on Day 4.

We hiked 50-year-old logging roads, much like the road up to Portrero Redondo.

Might as well get started… We arrived at the first waterfall and suited up. Local regulations require the wearing of life jackets by all participants. Given how much swimming and jumping we were doing, the life jacket was a really good thing.

Matacanes is a popular sport-adventure guided trip, especially on weekends. For a modest fee, our hosts schlepped groups of 20 or so teenagers from Monterrey through the canyon. On both Saturday and Sunday, we hussled to get ahead of these large guided groups.

The canyon starts out with a little jump or slide, then a 80 foot rappel next to a waterfall. Here's Rich jumping in. Better than coffee!

Amy chose to take the slide…

Mike Putiak rapping into the first cave.

Okay, I should have a picture of that first waterfall rappel, but I don't. Matacanes has a few rappels, but the coolest feature is the caves. Two of 'em. You swim through them. So here we are at the first one, which requires a 100-foot rappel into the mouth of the cave. Then the raddest jump in the canyon - a fifteen foot jump into six feet of water, in the DARK!

Lucky for us, we had Diving Dave along, who had done it the day before, is really into hucking off things, and could show us where all the good jumps were.

Amy had dropped her camera the day before, and we were on a manly quest to retrieve it for the fair maiden. Thankfully, her description of WHERE was accurate, and the camera was not at the bottom of the 40-foot-deep pool, but on the ascending slope maybe 20 feet down. Her luck was also in having Koen, the amphibious Belgian from Spain, to do the diving. First try!

No sense in recovering a camera, then NOT taking pictures. “Just a few”, said Koen. “Just to amuse her”.

Matacanes
The name is a geologic term for these amazing ‘shower-heads’ found in the caves. They are tubes growing downward, with water flowing out of the middle of them somewhat like shower heads. There were small ones, maybe a foot across, and large ones up to 3 feet across.

Exit of the first cave, as seen from behind a large matacanes.

After the cool cave, the next section of canyon had a bunch of jumps. These are in no particular order – just jumping photos from the three trips. ALL jumping photos by John Hart. Ira taking the plunge…

Someone else jumping into a pool. Photo: John Hart

Someone else, with a shiny helmet and better taste in packs, jumping. Photo: John Hart

Divin’ Dave hucking off something. Photo: John Hart

Swimming, lots of swimming. Thankfully the water was not too cold.

Scott showing off his delicate, flying form. Photo: John Hart

Someone else, taking the leap. Photo: John Hart

There was a lot of stuff like this – a short jump into a pool, then swim, then hike. Photo: John Hart

Divin’ Dave diving one of the taller jumps. Yee Haw! Photo: John Hart

Divin’ Dave in the bubbles. Photo: John Hart

John Perry jumpin’, Ira laughing.

Divin’ Dave hucking off something BIG!!! Photo: John Hart

Karl and Tom simul-jumping.
Nope, I’m not scared, I’m trying to keep my contacts from blasting out. Photo: John Hart

Koen swatting a mosquito off of Mike’s back. At least, that’s what he SAYS.

The Ram, relaxing in a pool.

Into the second cave, which is even cooler than the first cave.

People swimming and floating through the second cave.

Swimming toward the exit, in the second cave.

Mike and Ram, swimming out the remarkable exit of the second cave.

After the second cave, we pause for a quick snack. The river exits out under the ferns and waterfall behind. Beautiful!

Now for some story.

Last day of the Rendezvous. Karl, John and I do a second lap on Matacanes, because it is just so good. Ram and a bunch go to Chipitin, to retrieve Koen's stuck ropes, among other things. When done with Chipitin, the agile canyoneer hikes up the trail back to Portrero Redondo, where the van is parked. Problem is, about that time the skies opened and it rained really hard for an hour or so, then less hard for another couple hours.

Not that big of a deal, but it does make it very difficult to drive down the mountain in our 2WD giant rental van.

Anyway, John, Karl and I come out of Matacanes hiking hard in the rain and arrive at Ajuntas, a cantina where the road to Portrero Redondo crosses the river. No van. Uh oh! We had hoped that the Chipitin gang had made it out in time to drive down before the rain hit. No such luck.

So we're sitting around in our wetsuits, trying to stay warm, drinking Cervezas and, at least for me, eating the local frijoles y aroz, con pollo. After a bit, we realize THEY might not make it down tonight - Hey, I wouldn't drive down that road wet! So maybe we oughta figure a way out of there. We glance around at the available vehicles - not too promising. There is Sunday afternoon traffic heading back to the main highway, but they are all full. We inquire about the taxi sitting out front, a cute little car, not really an ideal 4x4 Jeep Road basher type - but the taxi driver is not interested and claims to have had too many cerrvasas, and besides... it cannot climb the hill to the highway to get us out.

We start to walk, as much to stay warm as anything else. Only six miles to the highway, then a few more to the hotel. Honk, Honk - wait! The taxi will take us, with a vehicle switch... yada yada yada ... no problem. We pile in.

Our little green savior.

We ramble off down the road in the little car. Turns out, that little thing has the huevos! It's also got about 160,000 miles on it, and John and his son are taxi drivers in Santiago during the week. At one short hill, we have to get out and John (the driver) takes a running start to get up the hill. A couple river crossings later, and we arrive at John's wife's family's house. Time for the car switch. The new vehicle that CAN make it up to the highway is the VW bug in the background. Which has not run for about a year, and is all torn up inside, but used to be tricked out. A couple of pushes to get it started and... we're off.

Push push push. It starts, it runs, and it makes it up the hill.

Back at the hotel, John and his son, and the mighty VW.

We make it back to the hotel and go in to take a shower. Rich wants to know where the other team is with HIS rental van. I just finish explaining to him that it rained hard and no SANE person would drive down in those conditions, when Denise bursts in the far end of the hallway and yells:

"We didn't mean to do it!"

Rich goes pale, making the same assumption I did, and rushes out to go check the damage. I'm thinking, at least they made it down OK, but Rich is going to be really pissed that they messed up the van.

All's Well that Ends Well - no damage to the van. Denise just meant that they did not mean to take so long. They drove down, often creeping down at 1 mph; sometimes all but the driver walking 'just in case'. They missed us by a half hour at Ajuntas, and came on out. No damage to the truck, no problemo.

And then we flew home.