After arriving back from the jungle we started canoe training, ready for the start of La Ruta Maya, the second hardest canoe race in the world.
After learning basic paddling techniques we went on to learn how to deal with the inevitable capsize. This ended up as an absolute shambles with our group managing to sink the rescue boat as well.
Any how two days later, and slightly more competent we woke up at 5 am ate as much porridge as we could and then headed off for the start line in San Ignacio.
There was a great atmosphere at the start with over 75 boats in the water and the banks lined with spectators all cheering. At 7 am the claxon went and we were off, there was absolute chaos with all the boats heading for a natural bottle neck in the river resulting in many collisions, and lots of the super fast, thin, lightweight boats capsizing. after an exciting start it all calmed down and we soon settled in to a steady count of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 switch which had become very tedious as we crossed the finish line 9 hours later, which was such a pleasant feeling to finally stop paddling. we all got as much food down us as we possibly could then headed off for an early night, under our makeshift tent which was a tarp tied between the Land Rover and a telegraph pole.
The next morning was an even earlier start as day two was to be the longest day of the race. The day had been rather uneventfull until about mid day when we hit a section of rapids where due to a misunderstanding Sam and john stopped paddling causing the boat to steer violently towards an overhanging branch which John managed to duck under, rather comically Sam did not see the branch until it hit him causing the canoe to capsize. We were soon back on track and cruising past the finish line 11 hours later. Day three became more interesting when jade became ill, however Colin and Josh carried on without her and showed there superior paddling skills by setting of at an awesome pass which unfortunately they couldn't keep up, so Colin decided to take a nap in the back of the boat instead and left Josh to paddle on his own.
Finally the last morning came and it was the shortest day in the race so far, all the teams set off at an incredible speed which they all managed to keep up all the way to the finish line in Belize City, where we were greeted with burgers, chips and cold beer which all went down. We then set off to a guest house overlooking the sea where we had plenty of beer, rum and pizza to celebrate our amazing accomplishment of 170 miles in 4 days.
