Paddlers’ Stories

For all those anticipating results, the final word is 1st place on the last day, but 2nd overall – women’s division. We think we were around 24th out of a total of 86 canoes that started the race. Crews from the UK, Texas, Portland, and even 7 crews from Japan. But that doesn’t really tell the story.

Last race email we spoke of the race start. Well that’s just the way it is. Once we realized that it actually became quite a rush. Everyone just goes for it. Canoes flip, canoes get t-boned, sometimes you just hold your paddle in the air, keep your boat balanced and go along for the ride. One day we were beside our competition in the pile up and their steers woman looked at me and said “don’t worry, you won’t flip” with a big smile. Sabrina heard another of their crew member say “we get up this early for this?” as the big guys with little paddling experience all around us were creating huge wake and lots of chaos. By the time we escaped the pack, rode all the wash and started passing those guys the first hour of the day would be done.

Speaking of hours, here’s the count.
Day 1: 50 miles – 7 hours
Day 2: 60 miles – 8.5 hours
Day 3: 36 miles – 5 hours
Day 4: 25 miles – 3 hours

Approximate total: 23.5 hours racing in 4 days. We were some of the lucky ones, there were crews out there for well over 33 hours.

The slogan for La Ruta Maya is “it’s more than just a race” and boy did we learn to appreciate the truth in this. The river this year was the lowest it’s ever been. Even though they let water from the dam, significantly covering lots of rocks, we still managed to punch a hole or two in the hull early on the first day. The biggest hole (the boat was already weak here) was 1.5 inches long and .25 inch thick, under the front bulkhead along the spine. Although we tried patching it the first night, we ended up paddling two days (15.5 hours – 110 miles!) with a bulkhead full of water. I mean full. So full it was overflowing from the top into the canoe. My bailing related injuries (BRI) include one smashed knuckle and wrist tendonitis. Okay so it took me a day and a half to learn that I can always bail with the other hand. Ingrained outrigger techniques are hard to break. Besides, I thought the knuckle bash was a result of one of our many spills into the river.

With a bulkhead full of water, our beautiful Baracuda became a bit unmanageable. The swims were refreshing though, especially the deep water ones. The water is so warm and just stretching our whole bodies was a treat. The problem was, we had to get the canoe to the side of the river bank and figure out how to get back in.

On our star tour last week Allie spoke of Atlas and Hercules, Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders – well, we designated a self appointed “Atlas division”. A class for paddlers carrying canoes with bulkheads full of water. There’s lots of ways to pass the time in a canoe when things aren’t going as planned. Once we figured out what was going on, we were able to leave the frustration behind and realize, “it’s more than just a race”. Allie was a champ leading us in gospel songs loaded with Hallelujahs. I tried a round of “If you’re happy and you know” but when we got to the it “clap your hands” part … .

Our boat was patched for us by a well meaning fellow paddler the first night. Unfortunately it didn’t hold. When we figured that out on the second day, we tried to help the trim somewhat by putting the lighter Allie in front. Sabrina gallantly took the stern. Or in her words “sacrificed her nerves”. She did an amazing job, and the trim was a little better. As a matter of fact, she was so amazing that we left her back there for the rest of the race. She learned very quickly how to read the rapids and eddies. In the end we found them a nice break both physically and mentally. It sure broke up the monotony.

By day three the canoe was fixed. Our bodies were exhausted, but we were stoked. Finally an even playing field, although we had no chance left to win the race. We were already almost an hour behind our competition. The race start was good, we were relaxed and rolled with it. They came out ahead but we caught them 20 minutes into the race. Here’s where our river inexperience shows. The girls came up beside us as we were passing on the inside and gave us a bump. No problem, bumps happen on the river. But when they engaged our canoe and kept forcing us inside things got a bit hot. We were ahead slightly and weren’t going to give way. The only place we had to go anyway was backwards. Anytime we could get space between the canoes we ended up with paddle loads full of water in ours. There was a big wide river on their other side. By the time we were disengaged, after what felt like forever but was probably around 3 minutes, we were left with a canoe full of water. We were bumped by another crew before we had a chance to bail and ended up swimming again. By the time we swam the boat to shore and got back in, the day’s race was over – and it was only the first half hour.

We spent the next 4.5 hours passing 15 canoes and had a great day after all. This was the day of the howling monkeys. We didn’t see any while we were racing but they sounded like a stadium full of football fans. Their roar was as big as a lion but these cute little guys were about the size of a beagle.

The people of Belize love this race. It’s the photo on the front of their phonebooks, it’s a place to take your kids, cheering the paddlers and providing local heros and role models. When we came to the finish for the third day we could hear the music escorting us in from down the river. The banks were lined with people and vendors in their throw together grass huts selling local food and drink. Cameras flashed, mothers wanted to introduce us to their daughters, and everyone shook our hands.

But the forth day was out of this world. Our competitors are called Cayo Gial and they’ve been the defending champs for years. This day we left them 4 minutes behind. The river was lined with fans shouting for the Barracudas but we heard their name more than ours. “Cayo Gial behind?!” was our favorite expression of the day. We sprinted them to the first station prize, took it by a nose and never looked back. Well, we looked to the side once – a huge splash scared the hell out of us. We didn’t see it, but it was a crocodile big enough that we surfed his huge wake as he disappeared. We won four or five station prizes that day (they seemed to save them all for the city) totaling about $400 belize. It was three hours of magic paddling. Everything clicked. Even the dead water of the mangrove canal felt good. And when we burst out of it, back to the open river lined with fans all the way to the finish line, we just got stronger. The media were on the finish line, hauling us over for both radio and T.V. interviews. It was something else. Those who couldn’t be there to watch the race, were following it at home on their radios.

Another beautiful story we want to add happened in the mens division, where the top three teams were within a minute (top two with in seconds) after four days. The top canoe bumped the second canoe, causing them to flip. These guys epitomized the words “good sportsmanship” when they stopped their canoe and helped right the second canoe to get them racing again. It’s more than just a race.

It’s been a trip of a lifetime. Again, we can’t thank Allie, Joe, and our sponsor Wendy of Auxillou Beach Suites enough.

See you on the water,
Colleen McCarthy and Sabrina Schwanebeck.

The last week has seen us paddling lots of different boats, doing some technical practice as well as a couple of long paddles. My favorite was the 5.5 hr day around 5 different islands. It’s so beautiful here, and such a treat to be back on the ocean again. Both Sabrina and I, and I think Allie too, are so much more at home on the ocean. That said, we’ve had a river boat prototype we’ve been doing some technical work in, and are getting much more comfortable in. We feel more confident with our balance in the washy water (like that last race start) and have been working on turns and getting out and running through the shallow water. The boat we’re using for this was a bit of a challenge, nothing that a big brick in the back couldn’t help though, once we figured it out. It will make the Baracuda canoe feel stable by comparison.

We’ve also been able to do some great tours. My favorite was the star gazing tour Allie took us on. We took the power boat to a dark, quiet spot on the lee side of the island, tied her up and Allie took us though all the constellations in the sky. She was amazing, filling in the details with the Greek myths that accompanied each constellation. We also took a day tour to the Manatee reserve and have been out snorkeling on the reef. I feel like I’m on holiday!

We’ll be practicing on the river tomorrow, a couple of days off and then it’s the race. We’ll need all the juju you can send, it’s going to be a long race!

Love to all,
Colleen McCarthy and Sabrina Schwanebeck

A few hours later we arrived at Aunt Helen’s in Georgeville in the north western Cayo district – close to where “La Ruta Maya” begins. Aunt Helen welcomed us with a big plate of rice and beans with deer stew. We spent the evening watching the parade of family members coming and going.

Aunt Helen is the matriarch of a rather large family with 31 grandchildren. Not bad for a 61 yr old. She is not only the matriarch of this beautiful family but also provides many things for the rest of the community as well. Being a forward thinker, she provided a hot lunch program for the school kids as far back as 20 yrs ago – feeding over 100 children. She’s also built them a library and a catholic chapel where the priest comes once a month to say mass. Throughout the almost 4 days we spent there she took it upon herself to introduce us to the local flavours and fatten us up for the big race. Never before have we eaten so much beans and rice, meat, powder buns, johnny cake and fry jacks. Here Sabrina met her new boyfriend, 7 yr old Devon, who followed her everywhere. And the evenings were beautiful. One evening we took a sunset walk up the lane and were guided home by the light of the fireflies.

Day 2 we met up with our toughest competition, Ana and Coy (sisters) for a 2.5 hr river paddle. The canoe is a few years old, and like everything else here, looks beaten up by the elements (but she runs beautifully!). We got in, watched by Ana and Coy’s whole family – and like we said before, families are big here. Aunt Helen’s family are Creole. Ana and Coy’s are Spanish. All the children are beautiful with big smiles, beautiful skin and curly hair. This family has 7 kids, small by Belizian standards. We managed to get in the canoe without tipping it over and off down the river we went. Our goals were to learn the canoe and how to negotiate the little rapids. We did pretty good. The river is low and we are a heavy crew. We didn’t tip over until we were 100 yds from the end and had spectators. Then we bottomed out under some bamboo and got dragged enough to carry scars. The 2nd attempt wasn’t much better. The bamboo wrapped around my arm and we were over again. Looks like we will be portaging some of these low spots.

Day 3 started with a cave tour – done in a canoe. Except this time we got to luxuriate in the middle. The only things we had to negotiate were the flashlights so we could see this sacred mayan place which included burial pots and skulls.

In the afternoon we were back on the river for another 3 hours. this time we went to the race start in San Ignatio and paddled from there. Only one little crisis, it’s a very shallow start and there’s some fancy negotiating under a couple of bridges. We took it a couple of times, trying to find the deep spots without hitting the bridge pylons. They’re talking of releasing some water from the dam on race morning, but it looks like we may be running our canoe through this part too.

Day 4 – Saturday was the day before our first race “Boom to Belize City”. No paddling. Instead we were tourists for the day, visiting the ancient Mayan city of Xunantunich. This was a fairly large city from 400 – 1000 AD, uncovered by archaeoligists within the last 60 yrs. You wouldn’t believe this place. Like Egyptian pyramids, it makes you wonder how a culture could build such amazing structures, 13 stories high with 9 foot high rock sculptures. The pictures we took do a better job of explaining this wonder. The top of this ancient city gave an outstanding view of Guatemala on one side and the Belizian country side on the other.

That night we headed to another friend’s house closer to the next morning’s race start and were in bed by 9:30. People get up early here. The city we were now in was Belmompan – the new capital of Belize. 30 yrs ago most of Belize City was wiped out by a hurricane so they decided to more the capital further inland to keep official documents safer.

Day 5 – Race Day!
We met out canoe and Wendy our sponsor at the site at 8 am after an hours travel in a cushy, comfy truck – in the cab this time. Gave the canoe some lovin and jumped in for a warmup to get rid of the shaky leg syndrome – still getting used to the canoe. 27 canoes lined up on a very skinny start line. We had canoes within 12 inches of either side of us when another one decided to sneak up in between. There is no ama on this canoe, greatly adding to our stress levels. I regretted this mostly when the thought of having no space between the canoes to put the paddle came to mind, but soon found a solution. That boat that squoze in and chocked us on the start line mustn’t have seen our logo. With the horn it was “take it away” paddles clashing, and I’m happy to say we came out the winners. You see our logo has a picture of a Baracuda snapping a paddle in half and that’s what happened. That dumb guy ended up holding two separate pieces, his paddle destroyed and we wwre off. Didn’t get very far though, a couple of strokes and there was another pile up. Our competitor and friend Ana was swimming in the water beside us. Someone had jammed the back of their canoe and she was catapulted out. The boat was upside down and needed to be swum to shore. It was all we could do to stay upright with all the wash and fury. Again, we started and this time broke through. It took 5 minutes for my legs to stop shaking so the boat could settle down.

It didn’t take long to pass a half dozen crews, mostly men, and find our spot in the pack. Strong head winds, deep water and current made us feel at home and happy for our training at Jericho. We did pieces for all of you and felt your energy and well wishes helping us through the first 2.5 hours. Could have used a little more help though during that half hour piece through the mangrove covered canal with its shallow still water. No worries, we got through it, and stretched it out as we hit head winds again for the final stretch to the finish line. Thanks to our support crew cheering us along the race course, we kicked some local butt to give our sponsor another 1st place trophy and ourselves $200 Belize. Not bad for the 3rd time in that canoe. The girls who flipped on the start line were less than 2 minutes behind us, so I guess we better keep training. Our time was 3 hours 6 mins. We will do this race again as day 4 of la ruta maya. Wonder what our time will be that day. By the way we were 12th overall out of 27 teams – mostly men. Not bad.

Today is day 6 and we are sitting on our sarongs sipping a cold beer at the Lazy Lizard watching the tourquise colored water drift by at the split. The reggae boys are seranading behind us.

Allie has been amazing, teaching us about the local customs, flora and fauna. Guiding us on our tours and planning the perfect pre race agenda to set us up for first place. She runs a tour agency here on Caye Caulker so we look forward to our unlimited access to the tours and the first class accomodations our sponsor Auxillou Beach Suites has provided us right on the beach. Check out coverage of Boom to the city at her website www.auxilloubeachsuites.com/BoomRace.html

Allie’s husband Joe is also a godsend putting us up in his hotel for two nights, feeding us frozen yogurt and fresh squeezed orange juice while teaching us how the locals wash their clothes. We are booked here for a week but will go back to the river if need be. La Ruta Maya calls.

Lots of Love,
Colleen McCarthy and Sabrina Schwanebeck