Well, we finally did it this time! The staff at Go Light Outdoors (Neil and Lacey) are off on another grand adventure. We will be heading into northern Mexico to run some rivers in the Copper Canyon area before heading south in search of other rivers on our way to Mexico City. Once in Mexico City, it’s hop on a plane with all our gear headed for Peru for a 30-day trip down the “Grand Canyon of the Amazon” on the Rio Maranon. While on the river, we will be documenting the current state of the river, promoting non-consumptive use of the river canyon through eco-tourism and raising awareness of threats to the river corridor from hydroelectric developers.

Once we return from Peru, it will be more adventures in central and southern Mexico as we work our way south to Guatemala. There we will hopefully run some rivers, but even more importantly we will be able to catch up with our friend Max and see what is up with the conservation efforts of Association RIOS Guatemala. RIOS Guatemala fosters the enjoyment, preservation and restoration of Guatemala’s wild river ecosystems primarily through sponsoring responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of the local people. Thank you to all of our supporters through Go Fund Me that have given generously to help offset the cost of travel to Guatemala to work with Max and others. Funding will be an ongoing concern for us, so please consider donating through Go Fund Me to help with our travel and living costs while in Guatemala working with RIOS Guatemala.

We also hope to visit Ak’ Tenamit and represent the US arm of RIOS Guatemala in their efforts to fund and carry out Project Acacar. RIOS Guatemala has identified Acacar, a Q’eqchi community in Eastern Guatemala along the Rio Sauce, that it would like to work with for the purpose of preserving and restoring the jungle habitat, including the river, in the Rio Sauce river valley, creating community economic development opportunities through eco-tourism, and generally improving the health and well-being of the community. Because Ak’ Tenamit has unique expertise and extensive experience in working with indigenous communities for these purposes, RIOS Guatemala is raising funds to pay for an Ak’ Tenamit student intern or graduate to work with the Q’eqchi villagers in Acacar to analyze the area and determine its suitability for preservation, restoration, alternative agriculture, and ecotourism initiatives. If the Acacar community is willing to work with RIOS Guatemala and Ak’ Tenamit, RG will continue funding an Ak’ Tenamit worker to continue their work with the community.

We may be a little hard to reach on the road and internet access may be hard to find in the remote areas in which we travel. Therefore, these posts and updates will likely be infrequent and e-mail correspondence may take a while. Hang in there, we are doing good things, I promise!