Mike and Ram, swimming out the remarkable exit of the second cave.

After the second cave, we pause for a quick snack. The river exits out under the ferns and waterfall behind. Beautiful!

Now for some story. Last day of the Rendezvous. Karl, John and I do a second lap on Matacanes, because it is just so good. Ram and a bunch go to Chipitin, to retrieve Koen's stuck ropes, among other things. When done with Chipitin, the agile canyoneer hikes up the trail back to Portrero Redondo, where the van is parked. Problem is, about that time the skies opened and it rained really hard for an hour or so, then less hard for another couple hours. Not that big of a deal, but it does make it very difficult to drive down the mountain in our 2WD giant rental van. Anyway, John, Karl and I come out of Matacanes hiking hard in the rain and arrive at Ajuntas, a cantina where the road to Portrero Redondo crosses the river. No van. Uh oh! We had hoped that the Chipitin gang had made it out in time to drive down before the rain hit. No such luck. So we're sitting around in our wetsuits, trying to stay warm, drinking Cervezas and, at least for me, eating the local frijoles y aroz, con pollo. After a bit, we realize THEY might not make it down tonight - Hey, I wouldn't drive down that road wet! So maybe we oughta figure a way out of there. We glance around at the available vehicles - not too promising. There is Sunday afternoon traffic heading back to the main highway, but they are all full. We inquire about the taxi sitting out front, a cute little car, not really an ideal 4x4 Jeep Road basher type - but the taxi driver is not interested and claims to have had too many cerrvasas, and... besides, it cannot climb the hill to the highway to get us out. We start to walk, as much to stay warm as anything else. Only six miles to the highway, then a few more to the hotel. Honk, Honk - wait! The taxi will take us, with a vehicle switch... yada yada yada ... no problem. We pile in.

We ramble off down the road in the little car. Turns out, that little thing has the huevos! It's also got about 160,000 miles on it, and John and his son are taxi drivers in Santiago during the week. At one short hill, we have to get out , and John (the driver) takes a running start to get up the hill. A couple river crossings later, and we arrive at John's wife's family's house. Time for the car switch. The new vehicle, that CAN make it up to the highway, is the VW bug in the background. Which has not run for about a year, is all torn up inside, but used to be tricked out. A couple of pushes to get it started, and... we're off.

Push push push. It starts, it runs, and it makes it up the hill.

Back at the hotel, John and his son, and the mighty VW. We make it back to the hotel and go in to take a shower. Rich wants to know where the other team is with HIS rental van. I just finish explaining to him that it rained hard and no SANE person would drive down in those conditions, when Denise bursts in the far end of the hallway and yells: "We didn't mean to do it!" Rich goes pale, making the same assumption I did, and rushes out to go check the damage. I'm thinking, at least they made it down OK, but Rich is going to be really pissed that they messed up the van. All's Well that Ends Well - no damage to the van. Denise just meant that they did not mean to take so long. They drove down, often creeping down at 1 mph; sometimes all but the driver walking 'just in case'. They missed us by a half hour at Ajuntas, and came on out. No damage to the truck, no problemo. And then we flew home.