Ok friends, I am now back in the USA. After 3 months of studying and running the sh!t in Costa Rica, I have finally returned home to the southeast. Costa was a great experience for me; I learned a lot and had some really good times. The day before I left, I snuck into the La Paz Waterfall Gardens for a peek around. Here's some pictures:
(el templo, the top drop, around 90 ft)
(magia blanca, 2nd drop, over 100 ft)
(encantada, 3rd drop, about 40ft, sketchy - leads directly into La Paz waterfall)
(La Paz Waterfall, prob around 80ft - I'm going back for this one)
(la paz with encatada in the background)
I arrived back in the states on Sunday night, and I was finally able to paddle back in my mothercountry for the first time yesterday, on Wilson Creek. I paddled the creek with my good friend Don, and his cousin. There were good lines and good times as Don and I showed his cousin down the creek for his first time.
There is something about Wilson Creek that will always make it my favorite river. I think it might be because of the first time I went there when I ran it at 9 inches and witnessed the same person swim twice in less than a half mile and then walk off the river. I guess that just seemed so epic to me and that is what really got me into creeking and exploring.
The creek was low yesterday, somewhere between -4 and -6, but I have run that river many times at many different levels, and I always have a great time no matter what.
(summer butterflies on the creek)
Another thing that was cool about our run yesterday was the bike shuttle that we utilized. I think I am going to start bringing my bike on every paddling trip so that we can save gas (as opposed to bringing 2 cars) as well as the cardio workout after the running of the shit. It's also good for the environment, or so I hear.
Over this past weekend, I had some strange experiences with one of my worst ever days on the river and one of my best ever days on the river. Here it is:
Trip Report: Rio Navarro
Dec. 5th, 2008
Paddlers: Me and Ferdinand Steinvorth
Epic Highs and Epic Lows
Ferdinand picked me up from my house after class to run something in the OrosiValley. For the past few weeks it has been raining and flooding a lot here in Costa Rica. All the rivers have flooded out their banks and the water has just been way too high to run anything. Because of this, Ferdinand and I haven’t paddled for about three weeks.
We decided today to drive into the valley and take a look at the Upper Orosi and see what the level was like. When we hiked down into the gorge, we found over 5000 cfs of water, where the target level is between 300-700 cfs. So it was a little high and we opted for something else.
We then drove up to the take-out on the Rio Navarro (a nearby micro creek) and the level was about half a foot higher than the one other time I had run it, so we headed to the put-in expecting to find some burly conditions.
When we put on the river, I immediately flipped in the first rapid. This caught be a little off guard, and since I had not been paddling for the previous three weeks (and I had not actually rolled in the previous two months), I missed a couple rolls.
We continued downstream and I was feeling really shaky. The character of the river is continuous Class IV(+) boulder gardens. I kept missing/falling out of eddies and rolling. Not one of my better days on the water.
Eventually we came to the second significant drop on the river, which we found to be full of wood, so we walked it. Downstream there was bound to be more wood, so we were trying to be careful.
As we rounded the next bend in the creek, we saw a strainer that choked up about half the river on the left side. Most of the water was moving to the left side of the river, so we had to make a modest effort to get to the right. Luckily it was only Class II, so it wasn’t that difficult.
Unfortunately, I was a little nervous and bumped into a rock and flipped. I was getting pretty frantic at this point because I knew that I was upside down in my boat and heading towards the strainer.
Steve Fischer once said “There are two types of fear: The first type is when you are scared looking a big drop or a big rapid and you are doubting your skills before you drop in, and the other type is much worse. There is a second type of fear that occurs when you are already in the rapid, if things don’t go the way they were planned, and that type of fear is much, much scarier.” I think it is safe to say that at this point, I was experiencing that second type of fear. I tried to roll one time, no dice, two times, no dice, three times, I muscle up to the surface just in time to see my body moving towards a tree pretty quickly.
I threw my arms up over the tree and my boat went under the tree. I screamed out to Ferdinand, who was about 25 feet downstream of me. I was stuck on a strainer in the middle of the river. This scared the crap out of me. Luckily I had a good hold of the tree and I was able to keep my head above water, and Ferdinand had eddied out and was already wading back upstream to rescue me.
I have to give Ferdinand major props here. He instantly noticed I was in trouble, exited his boat in a mid-river-eddy and waded back upstream to pull me off this log. If he were not there for me I don’t know what would have happened.
Ferdinand ended up pulling me up and over the log and the only damage done was a 5 inch tear in my drytop (which was actually free, courtesy of Subaru). I was a little shaken up for the rest of the day and ran bad lines and missed more eddies.
Overall, it was one of the crappier days I have ever had on the water. The plan was to run the Pozo Azul the next day, which is a run I’ve been bugging Ferdinand to take me to since I met him. After the incident with the log, I told him that I would not be joining him on Pozo the following day. Luckily, by the time we got back home, he talked me into going.
Trip Report: Rio Pozo Azul
December 6th, 2008
Paddlers: Me, Ferdinand Steinvorth, Miguel
Pozo Azul is by far my favorite river in Costa Rica. I came to this river one of my first days here to do a hike and huck on the rivers namesake waterfall, PozoAzulFalls. After that hike and huck, I found out that there is an entire run upstream of there that has two other good sized waterfalls, and some other Class V stuff.
After a really crappy day on the Rio Navarro the day before, we left at 6:00 am and headed up to Sarapiqui to have a look at Pozo. We picked up one other guy named Miguel, who I had met one other time, it was actually the first time I ran the PozoAzulFalls all those weeks ago.
When we got to Sarapiqui, we hiked out to the confluence of the Sarapiqui and Pozo Azul for a level check and it look on the higher side of good, WOOHOO! We drove up to the put in and started the hike. We actually hiked for about 2 miles across this farm down to the river. It was really muddy and I was really happy once we reached the river, I think that is the furthest I have ever hiked with a creek boat on my shoulder.
(this hike made me really dislike farms and all the animals that crap all over the place)
(the put-in was a sight to be seen, que bonito)
When we got to the river, we were greeted by a 25 foot waterfall that was asking us if we could please paddle over it, so we gave in to its wishes. The drop had a pretty straightforward entrance with a little 3-4 foot boof and then about 8 feet of slackwater, and then the 25 ft drop. I guess the crux was not messing up the little boof at the top. It was a little squirrelly but there were good lines all around.
(miguel rolling in to the first drop)
(the biggest thing I have ever boofed, ouch)
After the first big drop, there were a couple more difficult rapids including a really cool box canyon (my first time in a gorged out, walls straight up for the water) rapid. There was another rapid called Swiss Cheese (named by Ferdinand when he did the First Decent four years ago) which I ran half of, and then decided mid-rapid to walk the second half because I was about to drop into this nasty horseshoe shaped hole filled with potholes and other nasty stuff.
(Ferdinand dropping into Swiss Cheese)
After a little boogie, we came to the second significant drop. This thing was somewhere between 20-30 feet and also had a 4-5 boof with a little slackwater and then the main drop. The thing that was crux about this drop was a piton rock in the landing of the entrance boof. Ferdinand pitoned there and lost all his momentum, sending him penciling in, over the handlebars. He hit the bottom and hurt his shoulders, but he would be alright for the rest of the day. Miguel went next, his line was a little better but he still plugged hard and hit bottom. I went last, and luckily I entered at about 45 degrees and resurfaced upright without hitting the bottom.
(miguel on the second drop with safety in place)
(me, trying not to plug too hard)
There is a little more Class III-IV boogie until you get to the last falls, which is the biggest. This is the falls that you have probably heard me talking about before, this would be my 5th run of the falls after a few hike and hucks.
Ferdinand fired it up first, with a beautiful line, plugged, went deep, and came up without problems. Miguel went second, good line, no problems. I went last again, and with no speed coming off the lip, I leaned over a little too soon and went over the handlebars a little. It hurt, and I resurface upside down under the curtain, but rolled up fine.
(the best line of the three)
(miguel)
(my less than pretty line)
We called it a day after that and paddled out to the confluence with the Sarapiqui where we loaded up and headed back to San Jose.
Overall, this was by far the best day that I have had in Costa Rica. I am really glad that I decided to run this river, especially after such a horrible experience the day before. Another thing that I’ve been telling everyone is that now, I am finally ready to come home. Another thing that I regret to say is that my friend and paddling partner, Ferdinand, severely injured his shoulders when he landed the second drop and is off the water for the next few months. It has been great paddling with him, and if you ever plan a trip to Costa Rica, I would definitely recommend looking him up, he’s a really nice guy, a damn good boater, and he knows everything about every river in this country, mostly because he 1st D’ed most of them.
Over the past few weeks I’ve had a couple great opportunities to paddle some of the best whitewater in Costa Rica. When I left off my last post, I had just made a new friend named Ferdinand. Ferdinand and I have been traveling around and running lots of rivers all over the place.
We have been running the Upper Orosi a couple times per week. That run is getting really fun for me as I learn the river more.
(Here is a really cool little cave that Ferdinand found below Dinosaur Gorge)
(the scene from the cave below dinosaur gorge)
One afternoon, we decided to go past the takeout on the Upper Orosi and we ran the Lower Orosi as well. The Lower O is pretty much one long class III/IV rapid for about 2 miles and the entire run takes only about 10 minutes. This was really fun because when we ran it, it was at flood stage with high water coming in from the Upper Orosi and screaming high water coming in from the Rio Macho.
Another run in the area is called the Rio Navarro. The Navarro is a low volume creek that is super continuous class IV for about 2-3 miles. This is one of the most fun runs I have ever paddled. I like to compare it to Lower Big Creek with double the gradient. Here are some pictures:
(the road to the put in)
boogie boogie
(afterward, Ferdinand explained that I was supposed to boof forward, not backwards)
(serenity at the take out)
Another really fun river I was able to run is called Rio Sarapiqui. The part that I ran was called the San Miguel Section, or the Upper Sarapiqui. This trip was a lot different than any other paddling trip that I had ever taken for several reasons.
When I went to the San Miguel Section of the Sarapiqui, I went with my new friend Mauricio, and neither of us have vehicles, so we took the bus. We took a bus from San Jose to San Miguel at about 6:30 in the morning and walked down into the river valley with our boats and dry clothes in dry bags from where the bus dropped us off. We then ran the river to the town of La Virgen (luckily the river meets back with the road when it gets to the next town). Another thing that was difficult about this trip was that Mauricio didn’t have a paddle, so I gave him my stick and I used hand paddles (which I haven’t used since a low water Chattooga Sect. IV run in early May). Also, I had never run this river, and Mauricio had only run it once, a long time ago.
Overall, everything went alright, but not necessarily well. It was a great trip, but it had a lot of hiccups. If you want to hear the entire story, ask me about it, because there are way too many details to list here.
While we were on the San Miguel trip, I decided that I wanted to run the waterfall at the Pozo Azul again (Pozo Azul is a tributary of the San Miguel Section of the Sarapiqui). When we got to the Sarapiqui/Pozo Azul confluence, we hiked about 2 kilometers upstream to where the waterfall is. This was a grueling hike/swim/attainment, and it took over an hour. But it was all worth it.
After a few good weeks of paddling with Ferdinand, it rained, and it didn’t stop raining for 2 or 3 weeks. Ferdinand told me that this has been the worst flood since 2002, and that says a lot for a country where it is normal if it rains every day.
Entonces, since it rained so much, the rivers have all been way too high to run. Commercial rafting has been put on hold and the few kayakers here have been trying to find other things to do. I’ve started running and sleeping a lot more, which is probably really good for me, but I have been itching to get back on the water.
I hope all is well for everyone at home, I am starting to miss my friends in family, but I will be home soon enough. Pero todo bien. Pura Vida.
It was just about the best thing in the world when I was able to get out on the water on Saturday afternoon. I went out to the Orosi valley with my new amigo Ferdinand to paddle the Upper Orosi River.
I got Ferdinand's phone number from a friend of a friend and just randomly called him last week to see if he was paddling over the weekend. The Answer was YES and he also told me that he lives pretty close to me here in San Jose, he has an extra boat that I can paddle, and he can drive to the river. So I guess everything kinda fell into place.
We got to the river to find a medium flow and a big Class V rapid at the put-in. The first rapid is called the Dinosaur Gorge. I don't know about you but whenever I hear something refered to as a dinosaur, I automatically assume it is pretty cool, lucky I was correct in this assumption.
The Dinosaur Gorge drops about 150 in half a mile. There are about 3 or 4 main drops with lots of other little stuff in between. I like to compare this section of the river to The Five Falls section of the Chattooga River, except bigger. There were all kinds of sieves and undercuts to dodge and lots of boofing to be had. It was a lot of fun, but since I haven't been in a boat in over a month, my lines were a little shaky. I was only able to take pictures on one of the last smaller drops coming out of the gorge because I was busy following Ferdinand through the upper sections.
This rapid was pretty cool because there were two different lines that you could take, so we ran one line, then got out and walked back up to run the other line. Think alien boof and mikey's ledge on the upper o...
Here's Ferdinand on the left line:
Stylin' it as usual
And goin deep in the hole...
Rockin' out in the Pink Rocker! (enlarge picture to see additional facial hair)
Ferdinand stylin the right line
The scene at the take out, check out the pink boat, hell yeah...
I was pretty lucky to be able to borrow a boat from Ferdinand. It is a very broken, but still functionable Pink Jackson Rocker, with three cracks in the hull. The boat held up better than I did on this run.
I'm really stoked to have gotten on this run. I've heard people compare it to the Green Narrows of San Jose. Ferdinand and I are going to make a habit of getting out there about twice a week for the rest of the time that I'm here. Pura Vida mi'e.
It's been a good while since I've posted last because I haven't been able to get out on the water at all this past month. It's been kind of a bummer staying dry but I've had some time to see the country and try some other stuff.
I've been going to classes for five days a week and doing light traveling around Costa Rica on the weekends. During my first week of classes, I was able to try something I've never done before.
I don't know if you have ever jumped off a bridge before, but it's kinda scary looking 280 feet down into a canyon knowing that you are about to free fall towards a river for a few seconds.
This was my first time bungee jumping, it was definitely an awesome experience. It was cool because we were able to go just after class one day. There were about 5 of us that went and everyone had a great time. I didn't bring my camera with me because it was raining, but here's a few more pictures that one of my friends took:
One of the weekends I was able to go up to Monteverde, a national park and cloud forest here in Costa Rica. This turned out to be a pretty cool trip with a couple exciting events.
We arrived in Monteverde on a Friday and spent the night at a hotel and on Saturday morning, we did the typical Costa Rican Zip Line Canopy Tour. I had done a canopy tour previously when I was in Panama a few months ago, so I wasn't as stoked as some of the other people, but once we started rolling, I found out that this tour was waaaaay better. There were long lines, fast lines, rappels, swings, all kinds of stuff to keep it interesting and keep the adrenaline pumping...
The girl in this picture couldn't figure out how to slow down on the wire, so she needed a little help.
Here is the really long line, click the picture to see the bigger version and you can see how big it really is!!!
The Tarzan Swing
My friends got a little scared when we started shaking this bridge, they all eventually fell off. They were clipped in though :(.
After a great morning of ziplining, I returned back to my hotel for lunch. Outside the hotel, there was a sign that said "Catarata - 1 Kilometer" Catarata means "Waterfall" and since I am a kayaker, I am naturally drawn to waterfalls, so I decided I would go on an afternoon hike to check it out. I went by myself because I didn't think it would be that far away. After walking a good distance, I was pretty secluded on a gravel road on a mountain pass. I saw a lookout point and snapped a few pictures before continuing my hike.
The view was pretty, but nothing special. Just as I finished putting my camera away, I heard a loud noise. I figured it was a truck coming so I got out of the road and tried to walk along the side in the grass. The noise got louder. Ok, that must be thunder, I guess it's going to rain soon. So, I stop to get my raincoat out of my pack. When I turned around, I saw an entire mountain crumbling 50 meters away from me. There was no truck. There was no thunder. There was a LANDSLIDE. This was no petty landslide either, there were full size trees being thrown off the mountain. This was one of the scarier moments of my life. I immediately started running and screaming and occasionally looking back to see if it had ended. When all the dust settled, this is what I saw:
If you ever have trouble trying to contemplate life or the meaning of your existence, try to witness a landslide and it will definitely get you thinking. What scared me the most about this thing was that if I stopped to pee or if I left 10 minutes later or something, I would have been right under that thing and no one would have know...
After the landslide, I walked a little farther but then decided to turn back because where ever this waterfall was, it wasn't worth it. Here's a few more shots of the carnage:
This guy rolled up on his 4-wheeler shortly afterward, he also gave me a ride down the mountain and back to town, huge thanks bro...
The next weekend we went to La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano. La Fortuna is a big waterfall and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. When we hiked down to the falls, we decided that we needed to further investigate behind the curtain, so we went for a little swim, it was really cool.
Arenal is also one of the most active volcanoes in the world, so we figured it needed further investigation as well.
That sign pretty much says, "Don't walk past this point, or you'll probably die." We kinda think like elementary school kids, so that sounded really cool, and we definitely went past the sign. It was well worth it, until it started raining and then we had to walk about 5 kilometers back to the hotel.
This brings me to about 2 weeks ago, when I tried to make another attempt to go kayaking. My study abroad program was supposed to go to the beach, but due to tropical storms and hurricanes and flooding, the trip got rained out. I took this as a sign that I need to get on the water. I took a bus up to Turrialba on Friday afternoon when I got out of class and met up with a few locals and also a couple boater that were in town from Alabama. We had a good night of partying and planned on running the Patria section of the Rio Reventazon in the morning. When I woke up, I couldn't move my head. I guess I slept in a weird position because everytime I tried to turn my head to the right, it was shot with excruciating pain. Running class V without being able to move your head is never a good idea, so I caught the next bus back to San Jose and had kind of a buzz kill of a weekend. I was able to catch up on sleep, which proved to be pretty useful.
The next week went by smoothly, and the coming weekend we had planned a fairly large undertaking. My friends and I decided that we wanted to give Nicaragua a try, and we had a three day weekend, so why not?
This was our last week of our first term, so since we were starting a new term the following week, we got a little break. We left San Jose at 4:00am Saturday morning and headed for the border town of Penas Blancas.
Since we were leaving at 4am, we thought it would be a good idea to stay up all night Friday night and party and then just pass out on the bus for seven hours in the morning. This actually worked for a while, but we started the party a little too early and ended up wanting to go to sleep around 1 or 2am. Luckily someone remembered to wake up and we all made it to the bus station downtown on time.
When we arrived at the Nicaraguan border, there was a lot of chaos, everywhere. There were merchants and homeless people and people trying to get you to exchange money with them and all kinds of other shennanigans.
We went through customs, and then realized that we still hadn't decided where in Nicaragua we wanted to go. So we asked some girl, "hey where should we go in this country." And we took her suggestion: Isla Ometepe en Lago Nicaragua.
Its pretty much a big volcanic island in the middle of a giant lake in the middle of Nicaragua. We got off the bus in a town called Rivas and from there took a taxi to a town called San Jorge and from there took a ferry to the island and then from there, about 15 of us got in the back of pickup truck (he said he was a taxi driver) and went to a hotel.
We ended having about a 12 hour transit time from San Jose to the Island. Good times. I guess. We chilled at the hotel until dark and then chilled some more. The next morning, we decided to climb one of the volcanoes, "Madernas."
For me, this was the third country in Latin America that I have climbed a volcano. It was pretty fun at first until our sandals started breaking. Mine broke first, the straps seperated themselves from the soles and I had to finish climbing barefoot. Not so bad for a kilometer or two, but then when you get to like kilometer 7 and 8, it really starts to suck. Two other people had footwear issues as well, so we didn't end up coming off the mountain until after dark. We came back to San Jose the next day (another 12 hours) and started classes again.
Overall, I'm happy that I went to Nicaragua, but I would not recommend it for the wandering tourist, there isn't much there, it isn't a very safe country, and it's kind of a pain in the ass to use their transportation. Thats just my two cents.
This brings me to today. Today I am very excited because a lot of things are going on right now. Tommorow, I am going to get to paddle the Rio Orosi for the first time. On top of that, I get to do it in a Pink Creek Boat: The Jackson Rocker.
I have started to talk to some other kayakers here in Costa Rica, and we are starting to make plans, and everything is starting to fall together.
Tommorrow we are going to fire up the Upper Orosi, which is kinda like San Jose's answer to the Narrows. So it should be pretty cool. The first part of the run is called the Dinosaur Gorge, which for me, if anything is named after a dinosaur, it has to be awesome. After that, I am trying to decide between going to Turrialba for the night to run the Peijibaje or going back out to Sarapiqui for the night to run the Poza Azul again on Sunday.
More is soon to come, check back next week for an update on this coming weekends adventures. Also, good luck to everyone in the Green Race tommorrow, I wish I could be there!!! Keep that bow up!
My journey to the Poza Azul began on a dreary afternoon here in San Jose. It was raining, I had nothing to do for the next few days, and I wanted to go kayaking. I got my gear together (which was still wet from the Pacuare the day before) and set off to the bus station. The first bus I took was to a town called Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. Once in Sararpiqui, I then took another bus to a nearby town called La Virgen. Once I was in La Virgen, I took a taxi to SarapiquiOutdoorCenter, where I stayed for the night.
La Virgen is famous for two things: the first is a chuch just outside of town where Ticos from all over the country gather on the first of every month to see miraculous appearances of the Virgin Mary. The other point of interest in La Virgen is the sicko whitewater.
The Sarapiqui river runs right through the center of town, and a major economic stimulant for Gringos that go rafting every day on the class III-IV river. Besides the Sarapiqui, there are several smaller creeks that fuel the main river, and these little creeks have some of the best whitewater in Costa Rica.
My plan was to stay at the Sarapiqui Outdoor Center (SOC) Friday night and do some creeking on Saturday. So when I arrived at the SOC and found that I was currently the only customer, the owner, David Duarte offered to show me around town. This was great chance to experience the Costa Rican nightlife with a native Tico, it was a world different than the American nightlife. I found myself really tired and returned to the SOC to wake up in the morning to the smell of breakfast.
After breakfast, David and I went to La Cataracta Poza Azul (Blue Pool Waterfall). This was the closest thing to a park-n-huck in Costa Rica. Except it wasn’t a park-n-huck. It was more like a drive-n-payafarmertousehisland-n-hike-n-scramble-n-climb-n-huck. But when we finally arrived at the Poza Azul, I was awestruck by its beauty.
I had never seen such a beautiful, straightforward, clean, 30 footer in my life. When you look at this drop, it just begs you to run it. After a scouting for a few minutes, I jumped in my boat and above the drop and for a second, I just sat there taking everything in. This was definitely the biggest drop I have ever thought about running, and to be sitting in the eddy, about to peel-out, I had a crazy feeling. I thought back to when I used to go cliff jumping at an old rock quarry, when I would stand there looking down, wondering if I should really jump or not. When you peel-out of that eddy, you don’t have much of a choice to stop – you’re going to do it whether you like it or not.
David went to the other side of the river to take pictures, and when he was set up to go, I peeled-out.
When I went over the lip, I was suspended in the air long enough to process a couple thoughts and take in the experience. It was such a great feeling.
When I was about to land, I remembered that I was supposed to put my paddle to the side of the boat to plug it, it was a good thing I remembered at the last second…
After I resurfaced, I yelled a loud “PURA VIDA!!!” and I was all smiles
After I climbed back up to the top, I gave David all my gear and he suited up and ran the drop as well. When I took the picture of him, it looked like he was inside the waterfall, so it’s a little hard to see him.
Right after he ran the drop, four other kayakers showed up and they ran it as well. I ended up becoming friends with those four guys and I found out that they live really close to me here in San Jose. I also found out that they run a rafting company on the LowerPacuareRiver and they offered me a chance to go with them for free anytime I needed a shuttle. This was a good offer because the Lower Pacuare is one of the most beautiful runs here in Costa Rica.
We ran the drop again and took lots of pictures of our new friends and before we left.
(pulling the gear back up)
After we left, we paddled from the Poza Azul out to the Upper Sarapiqui river and had a short paddle down to the take out. At the take out rapid, there was a slalom course set up for a raft race later that day, we changed our clothes and watched the race before I returned to San Jose.
Overall, this is by far the best thing I have done so far here in Costa Rica. This was such a fun trip and I felt such a good vibe coming from the Rio Sarapiqui area. I am definitely going back soon.
Also, I have to throw a muchas gracias to my man David “Sombrilla” Duarte at Sarapiqui Outdoor center for setting safety and photography, as well as hooking me up with a place to stay. I would also like to throw a big PURA VIDA out to my new amigos that I met at the waterfall: Miguel, Daniel, and Albert.
(el templo, the top drop, around 90 ft)
(magia blanca, 2nd drop, over 100 ft)
(encantada, 3rd drop, about 40ft, sketchy - leads directly into La Paz waterfall)
(La Paz Waterfall, prob around 80ft - I'm going back for this one)
(la paz with encatada in the background)
(summer butterflies on the creek)
