The Usumacinta Canyon

The Canyon San Jose is a gap cut by the river in a line of mountains running perpendicular to the river. The walls of the canyon rise a thousand feet (333 meters) vertically for at least a mile or more across this range. It must be some sort of geological wonder. It is as though a huge damhad a gash through which the river flowed unimpeded. I have yet to learn how his could have ocurred. Did the river just find its way through cracks and crevices in antiquity or did the range push its way up though the surface after the formation of the river? If the former, was there a great lake? Most of the rock seemed volcanic. In fact, the base rock seemed volcanic from the very start ten days earlier.

In places in the canyon, the river is narrowed and the current correspondingly faster. It has it share of rapids and fresh springs coming out of cracks in the rock walls. And oddly enough, Spanish moss hanging like some bizarre Babylonian Gardens. At points the irregularities in the canyon afford a still place in the eddys out of the main current. We were able to pull up to one of the springs to fill one of the five gallon water carriers

By the way, we were almost at the end of the trip. With my digital camera out of action having gone for a swim and fresh film used up, I turned to the outdated stuff. My personal recommendation: If it's a critcal shoot, you may be disappointed with the results using all film as these photos illustrate. Unless, of course, you like the effect.


Holiday pordes find on this river, boat skills, spas, swimming pools, fishing, where we can spend catering facilities and comfortable holiday.