Sunday, June 29, 2008

El Canon Del Sumidero

This was my first weekend outing, El Canon Del Sumidero.  I caught a colectivo on Saturday morning, and headed out toward the canyon.  Once you arrive at the river, you buy a ticket and then join about 30 others in a boat like this one above.  A guide takes you through this beautiful canyon, stopping occasionally to let you see waterfalls or even crocodiles!  The tour was a little under 2 hours.

A view of the canyon

One of the beautiful waterfalls

This waterfall was my favorite.  It looks like a Christmas tree from the distance.  They call it el arbol de Navidad.  

The crocodiles... we saw four on our tour.  The best  one was at the end as we saw a mom with some of her baby crocodiles.  You could just see her head, but the babies were sitting out on the rocks.  They were very small and our driver told us they were just 20 days old.  At one point the head of the mom disappeared and I leaned back from the edge of the boat just a bit... moms can be protective you know :-)  

I met a couple from Belgium on the tour, so they kindly let me ride back with them in their taxi.  Many people from all over the world visit San Cristobal.  They spoke three to four languages each.  That surely is motivation!