Mexico - Two weeks in.

We've been here a couple of weeks now, training hard is a variety of weather conditions. The first week was warm with bugs and the last few days were cold (actually cold) and rainy. Now that Paul, Connor and Alex have left the clouds have parted and it is beautiful again. The air is clear and everything is drying out after what seemed like unstoppable rain. So what do we do here?

Get up to the sound of the noisiest birds ever at 6:38am. Try and sleep till 7:30 for breakfast. Wrestle with the Czechs for fruit in the breakfast line, and dig in to an amazing feast of fruit, Juice, eggs, sugar toast and banana wrapped deliciousness.

Time to go paddle. First we have to drive down and crazy little road to the river. 9min in the jeep, 15-20 in the car. The pics don't really do it justice. Then we get to paddle. The course is about a 5min paddle downstream. We have roughly 30 gates and it is possible to do fulls, loops etc. The river level fluctuates little (Except yesterday due to the El Norte that blew in and raised it by 1.5meters!). If you've seen Paul's waterfall video on facebook you'll know how high it got.
After the session we either paddle/walk back to the cars or run a shuttle to the takeout 10min below. Lunch is another delicious smorgasbord at the Palapa. A brief rest and we're back at it again.

The biggest nuisance is the bugs. Liberal application of bug spray does work though. Lina managed a week here without a single bite! Forget to apply and your legs will look like Grahams. Paul has a great solution, his skiing tights!?
To stay strong you must work out! What to do without a gym?
On our days off we've had a few adventures.

Ancient Ruins at Tajin, 1.5hr away.

La Costa Esmeralda, 1hr away.

Connor on the Alsesseca in flood, 30min drive.

While is isn't as easy to train as say, Australia, it certainly is a good option. At about 1/3 of the cost of Aus it isn't to be disregarded. The locals are great, and we haven't felt unsafe anywhere. While a slightly higher vehicle is nice, cars can do the job. The accommodations are perfect and the people here at Aventurec are great. With the Czechs and Americans we were 26 this year, and it wasn't a problem coordinating sessions. There is also the possibility of setting another moving water site if needed. We will leave our gates here at Aventurec. Maybe PanAms should be in Mex in 20??