*Our apologies to those email subscribers who received this post prematurely a few weeks ago*

We were stuck in Puerto Escondido, waiting out yet another norther (the one that clocked in at 39 knots), and we had to fill our days with something other than slamming around in the boat and fretting about chafe. We looked westward and saw rising above us the Sierra de la Giganta, the “Gigantic Mountains.” Aptly named they were. From afar they remind me of the jagged peaks of Glacier Park, and the chasms between the peaks were reminiscent of the canyonlands of Utah. So in we went.

We picked the steepest, darkest canyon we could see and started walking. A gravelly arroyo with huge trees eventually pinched into a boulder field, which eventually gave way to hundred foot deep slot canyons ten feet wide. Fresh water flowed in the bottom and led us to a waterfall, a trickle no doubt, but a beautiful trickle that cascaded down a finely carved cave and filled a life giving pool in this harsh desert. It was a truly amazing place.

And then we met the two guys from east Tennessee. “Pretty pathetic waterfall” the older one said. The younger guy agreed but at least he had taken a few photos on his iphone to show his friends back home. They were probably evidence to prove just how pathetic it truly was, and hopefully his photo captured just how boring and uninspiring this place truly was.

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