Anyone Familiar With the Macal Gorge?

[cayo]

Anybody on this forum boated the MACAL GORGE ,Belize/ Or better yet been a guide for Slickrock or Island Expeditions? I will probably be soloing it at low flows,know where 2 possibly 3 of the portages are need info for upper part of gorge,from the hydro to the 20 fter on river left about 1 1/2 miles above Martz farm.also do you know if Privassion creek has been 1st d'd,i once heard it described as like Vallecito crk. the parts i've scouted all have class 5 and falls out the ass and i found a 'Norway 'section,i just want to huck the easy ones. thanx

[deepsouthpaddler]

I am not familiar with it, but I did go on vacation to Belize in the dry season for diving, but spent time in the mountains. We stayed at the five sisters lodge in the Cayo section, which is on the privassion river. Talk about awesome! The river was low and we hiked up the gorge. It would be an incredible run with water in. Big rock falls is a 60 ft falls into a deep pool that you'd have to be insane to run, but from there on down looked like balls to the wall action.

I am semi-ashamed to admit that I had a beach inner tube along with me from our beach portion of the trip and I did a few personal tube first decents on a few of the drops.

[goingsouth]

I know the Macal has been run- I think it is a big hike up and most people use burros- I think either paddler or AW has an article about it-
I was there a long time ago but not kayaking- it looks sick-

[cayo]

deepsouth the 5 sisters is one of the parts i scouted ,did you hike upstream or down,the part i am calling norway like,a big bony slide like Nick Turner ran inVallhala is upsteam 1/2 to one mile where's the 6o ftr,there are several big falls onthis creek.Did you tube any of the actual 5 sisters?I scouted up by Blancaneaux too but i think the part the guy said was Vallecito 'ish is where it drops off vaca plateau into Macal gorge.
GOING SOUTH, IT,S RUN COMMERCIALLY BY slickrock i have run the bottom 2 miles the one with mules was the Moho or Swasey branch,just wanted a private boaters version thanks though

[deepsouthpaddler]

I hiked from five sisters lodge heading up. The water was really low in may when we went. Five sisters was really more of multiple trickles and braids of water over the rock into little mini pools vs. a full flow of water. Hiking up there was a really narrow slot that looked meaty even at low flows. A bit further up was the " norway" section. I think that the big slides were at the confluence of two rivers forming the main channel. It was an awesome place! The 60 fter was another 1/2 mile or so up. Its called big rock falls and you can hike in on a good trail to get just below the falls from one of the logdes there. I have some pics at home, but not digital. Its a really deep but small pool. I jumped off the rocks about 35 ft up. Incredidle place. I tubed over two of the sections of the five sisters falls as I was freaking on the coolness of the place and wanted to take a ride on the water. The guys that worked there said that in the rainy season the river gets really high and washes over the island, it must get absolutely huge! I too wondered what kind of kayaking had been done there, but I think slickrock is one of the few crews that have been there, and I didn't get much info from them.

[cayo]

deepsouth,
Thats about what i thought,let me clarify about SlICKROCK,THEY RUN THE gorge but only as part of a very cool but super expensive multisport package deal ;boating thru caves ,caving. mountain biking,1 day whitewater,scuba or snorkeling,archeology, and ocean kayak surfing off thier semi-private island ,I EVEN SAW A PHOTO OF WHITEWATER LEGEND/OWNER FOUNDER CULLY ERDMAN DOING UNDERWATER KAYAKING WITH SCUBA EQUIPTMENT!
Many of the lodges say they offer rafting, but it's difficult to arrange unless your throwing money around,i THINK THEY MOSTLY BROKER IT OUT /MARK IT UP THRU SLICKROCK.Slickrock used to do day trips from San Ignacio,not anymore.My dream is to open an outfitter down there,but money is a problem.