Our traveling caravan, or circus if you will, rolled into the tiny Mexican town of Jalcomulco yesterday to welcoming cheers from locals looking forward to another year with WILD gringos. Jalcomulco will be our basecamp for the next three weeks. This Mecca of Mexican whitewater is a small town of about 5000 people located directly on the Antigua River. There’s plenty of friendly people, great food, mucho cervezas, world-class hiking, rock climbing, and of course, amazing whitewater.We are participating in a cultural homestay during our time here in Jalcomulco. All the WILD participants are paired up and sent off to live with a local Mexican family. Each pair will sleep at their host’s house and eat breakfast and dinner with them everyday. I was paired with a Danish student named Alan, and we’re a bit of the exception to the rule. We were placed with one of the richer families in Jalcomulco and as a result, Alan and I enjoy breakfast and dinner with our family but live in an entirely separate house. Our place is great. It’s a two-bedroom house with a living room, dining room, kitchen, full bathroom, and a very pleasant rooftop patio. This transition back to house-living will take some getting used to after weeks of camping. I was thinking just the other day whether this trip could get any better, and, well, it just did.
