Conditions:Rio La Venta Expedition-20211220172114
Latest: |
11 Dec 2021 (3 yrs, 5 mos ago) |
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| Reported by: | Eddyl (76 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Amazing |
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| Waterflow: | Moderate Low |
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| Wetsuit: | None |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Special challenges |
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| Time: |  6 days
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Team: 5 people with experience level Advanced to Expert
Trip report URL:
Comments: Flow was fine - 50cfs at the bridge. A little higher would mean less scraping, but much higher would make the portages more difficult. All, literally all, rapids can be portaged. However, you still should be highly experienced with all things jungle, packraft and wilderness. Not an easy trip even for experts. Lots of slippery rocks, tiny campsites, potential for injuries. Overall one of the best packraft trips in the world.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
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| Amazing | Moderate Low
| None
| Special challenges | 6 days
| 5 people Advanced to Expert | Eddyl (76 reports) | |
Comment: Flow was fine - 50cfs at the bridge. A little higher would mean less scraping, but much higher would make the portages more difficult. All, literally all, rapids can be portaged. However, you still should be highly experienced with all things jungle, packraft and wilderness. Not an easy trip even for experts. Lots of slippery rocks, tiny campsites, potential for injuries. Overall one of the best packraft trips in the world.
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| Great | | None
| Special challenges | | 5 people | Nic.Barth (4 reports) | |
Comment: Would have preferred twice the flow (IV+ packrafter perspective). Our put-in was 4.5km downstream from Aguacero on a river right trail shown to us by a local caver (the smart choice given low flows). Our take-out was at Elcajonado (Camp 5). Water and air temperatures were mostly comfortable in board shorts and shirt (occasionally one of us would get slightly chilled). Rocks are very sharp limestone except when they are very slippery limestone (bring good boat and human repair kits). Evening/overnight rains seemed common in middle reaches with some local orographic effect. Camp spots can be sparse- pass up good ones with caution and be prepared to do some sand engineering with your paddle. We found many of the Mayan Whitewater landmarks to be mislocated, including beaches, caves, and key rapids. GPS signal can be patchy at best. I would recommend only collecting drinking water from river right springs and filtering or treating it (river left springs drain from many out-of-sight towns and cattle fields). Rapid portage after Arco del Tiempo took us 1.5 hours (allow yourself 3hrs? not a great place to camp...)- start portage on river right and end portage on river left. Reservoir began 4.5km downstream from La Junta. World class scenery!
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| | | | 6 days
| Nathandonny (9 reports) | |||
Comment: I fully agree with this statement of having expert people with a good knowledge of white water - had we not had an expert on our team, our descent could have been very bad. We descended in December and the water level was high due to a lot of recent rain. The last portage was washed out and the last half of it had to be ferried and floated this section is considered class V/VI. It was no joke and we had one person injured when he was sucked through a sieve. Fortunately he had a helmet on and was only blooded and bruised. Please be aware of the final portage and how you plan to handle it. We entered from Aguacero and paddled to the Ranger station on Malpaso lake, we put in Monday afternoon and exited Saturday. 5 or more days seems to be a good amount of time. Below are the main points for our trip based on the advice from the 2018 notes:
For our trip Romeo was not very helpful. He sent his brother to pick us up. His brother did not speak english so we were stuck using our Spanish to try and figure everything out. This was a challenge for the permits. We attempted calling the number for Lupita as mentioned above but it was disconnected. You will not be permitted to enter el Aguacero with out a permit from Bioshpere Reserve Selva Ocote in the town of Ocozocoautla (located here) which is on the way to the put in. You have to sign a waiver. The people there couldn't tell us the flow, but told us the water was high. To enter el Aguacero it was 30 pesos/person We arrived at night at the ranger station, and Arulfo, the person in charge of the station, was very friendly. He offered to take two of our group in his motorboat canoe to his town of Carricel, where there is internet and cell phone reception. We didn't have to call anyone as there was someone in the town that would give us a ride. I don't know if the numbers for the boatmen above work as we didn't have to call them. If you want more restaurant options in Malpaso go to the city center. They can arrange the public micro-bus (colectivo) to bring you back to the lodging in Tuxla. Prices above are all updated from our trip.
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| Amazing | | None
| Extreme | 5 days
| 3 people Intermediate to Advanced | Nwiaderny (1 reports) | |
Comment: We went in October of 2020. The second portage was non-existant. It was rainy and it turned out that there was a hurricane in the Caribbean at this time (near Mexico). The water levels were significantly high. We are all class 4 boaters and we were not ready to encounter a class V/VI rapid. It was an uncomfortable situation for us to negotiate this rapid while running out of daylight. All 3 of us swam and we were all uninjured. One paddle was lost and we highly recommend bringing an extra paddle on this trip.
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| Amazing | Low 
| None
| Special challenges | 8 days
| 1 people | Felixrulz (76 reports) | |
Comment: Started at Aguacero. Water very low. Mainly used my inner tube for floating gear.
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| Amazing | High 
| None
| Special challenges | 96 hours
| 9 people Intermediate to Expert | Tiffanie (139 reports) | |
Comment: We did the 4 day trip (includes 1 day exploring Cueva La Venta) and exited at the lake. The setup was that each person would paddle in their own inner tube (not raft) with their baggage strapped to the inner tube. The scenery is dreamy - the canyon walls are hundreds of feet high and covered in rainforest. At night time, fireflies prance around and raccoons come foraging for food after you've slept. No signs of big cats though. There are rapids and 2 large rock breakdowns that you must cross. Some rapids you'll ride down; some you'll walk around. Walking with luggage+ inner tube is not easy. Do not underestimate the 2nd rock breakdown - it is nothing like the first. It's difficult and you will need to sequence your team to pass the gear assembly line style. Then you'll need to cross strong rapids where it is critical to think ahead which side of the river you want to stay on. As you approach the end of the 2nd rockfall/rapid, stay DCL. The last day we woke up early, ran through the 2nd rockfall, and paddled 10 miles to get to the lake. It's a long day...try to even out the distances during the day if possible.
Our group found 4 days to be just enough (borderline almost too much) and we were happy to be back in dry clothes by the end of it. Be sure to double bag any thing you want to keep try but expect that sleeping bags, clothes will always be somewhat damp no matter how well you seal your dry bags. It's a beautiful expedition and highly recommended!
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