Pinche Caminetta

Those familiar with canyoneering, know that 99% of the time you have to drive on an extremely shitty road to access the approach for a canyon. I'd say the top three roads are the one to Icecube near Vegas, and both the roads for Rumarossa and Matacanes down here in Mexico. The latter is the one we get to drive clients on at 5 in the morning every weekend. Just that is an adventure for them, and inevitably one will ask, "What happens when you run into another vehicle coming the other way?", as the roads are really one lane, with a 100m drop on one side and a wall on the other. Usually it's not a problem...

Background: On Friday, I got to drive that truck and that climbing wall around Monterrey in rush hour on the busiest streets for about 4.5 hours. After we dropped it off, we stopped for some food and I was beginning to feel a little ill: flu-like. But we made it back to the Hotel in Santiago with no problems, drank some beer and went to bed. I was supposed to sleep in and have a day off on Saturday.

I got a phone call at 8:30AM, saying that I had to drive to Las Adjuntas (a little under half way on the road to Matacanes). OK, feeling worse, off I went. After ripping out the back of my truck, I made the drive from the hotel in 25 minutes (pretty good with fully inflated tires). There I met Paulo and Edgar, the two guides for the day and all of the clients.

What happened: They were almost to Potrero Redondo (beginning of the hike to Matacanes), when they ran into a vehicle coming down the last incline of the road. That truck didn't stop, so Edgar backed up and got to the side of road as best as he could. Unfortunately, the brake line blew out, and the truck rolled backwards, hitting the wall, and flipped on its side with everyone inside except for Paulo, who jumped off the back.



So back in Las Adjuntas: All six clients and Edgar were in my truck (with all of the equipment) and it was full. We tied the lifejackets up on the top through the windows of the extended cab. Paulo sat on top like my truck was a horse. About a kilometer from the hotel we got stopped by the transit police. We sat around for a half hour. Edgar was arrested for no reason (extortion, corruption, even the beaners get it. I think the people in the police are those guys that got picked on at school). So without Edgar we went to the hospital near Monterrey. 2.5 hours later (I slept a little), we headed back, Chuy paid off the police ($1500 pesos) and Edgar was free, and we went to eat. Free Bungee jumps for clients!

So the good news: I don't have to drive that pinche caminetta anymore.




Yesterday, Paulo and I put up a new zipline in Monterrey. This park where it's at is pretty amazing. It's all on this old industrial area, so all of this machinery is around. Then there's an art cinema, which has great pictures from the '20s and '30s of Cola de Caballo (where the hotel is) and all of the mountains and everything around Monterrey before they decided to put unfinished buildings everywhere. I'm planning on going back for a day to get pictures...

Off to Guadalajara (the town of Tequila is right nearby) tomorrow. One week.