25 Miles On The Sacred River

After a few hours exploring the ruins at Yaxchilan Willie Fonseca met us at the landing with two out board motor boats and we began our trip to Piedras Negras. This was billed as a three hour trip down steam but the time passed with out noticing the hours. Steve was taking pictures from the smaller of the two boats and we wondered about his sanity for standing while the boat was in motion.


Below shows the full route between the two sites.

The water was quite smooth but we did hit some minor rapids which were rough enough to make you hang on. The collage below shows scenes along the way. The first picture is of the landing at Yaxchilan where we boarded Willie's boats.


Piedras Negras is on the Guatemalan side of the river. We had to stop at a guard station at El Cayo (bottom of map) to secure permission to visit Piedras Negras. We beached on a sandy bank where the official came down to the boats from his guard station located above the high water mark. Permission required that we each sign the official book documenting our visit. This sign in required names, home address as well as tour company and there was a discussion as to which tour co. should be listed ( Steve's or Willie's).


Willie had brought lunch and as we completed the book signing he gave the guard a can of pop as a friendly gesture. This does not sound like much but the remoteness of this guard station made the gesture a big item.

We proceeded on to the Piedra Negras take out point where Willie had his crew bring out the food and we had lunch right there on the bank under the trees. Beer, pop and bottled water were first priority. He served sandwiches of barbecued chicken, ham, and black bean burritos along with trimmings consisting of hot chillies, salsa, mustard, catchup, pickles. Dessert was canned peaches and chocolate cookies. Willie made sure that every thing packed in was packed out --- no wayward plastics at this site.