The expedition to Guatemala is now less than a month away and in this article I’ll be discussing what we have done planning-wise over the last few weeks. I will talk about our training in the Alps and how we’ve been preparing kit, among other things.
Further Preparation
River mapping may be a major part of the expedition, but there are a lot of other details to figure out. First, travel to this part of the world requires all of our vaccinations to be up to date (eg. Diptheria or Tetanus) and also some additional injections such as Rabies and Typhoid. As of now, all of the team have either been vaccinated or will be in time for departure. There are also additional considerations such as clean drinking water (tap water in Guatemala is a no-no), for which we will require water purifiers. As regards travel insurance for Central America, we needed something a little more beefy which covered the costs of emergency care, evacuation and encompassed various activities including kayaking (obviously), climbing and abseiling etc.
This brings me onto perhaps the most important part of the expedition – actually getting to Guatemala! While some previous expeditions have played it a bit fast and loose with flight booking, Alastair did a great job of researching this months beforehand. Flights have since been organised and seats booked – we will be flying from London through Canada. Due to the availability of boat-space when flying we’ll be going out in 3 groups over the course of a week, which gives Matthew and Alastair time to contact our fixer and get transport sorted before the rest of the team arrives. This aforementioned fixer has organised several previous non-kayaking expeditions to the region and is currently helping to arrange our accommodation (when not hammocking in the jungle) and transport for the duration of the trip.
Training
Over May and June most of the team got to paddle in Slovenia and the French Alps with their respective universities, which provided the perfect training ground for the expedition. Camping in Briançon put us at an altitude of 1,326m, and after 3 weeks of hiking and paddling at even higher elevations our bodies are as ready as they can be for the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. It was our first opportunity to paddle as a (mostly-whole) group, and was an important step in getting to know each other and testing our techniques and gear.
Safety is a vital aspect of expedition paddling and while the team already shares a range of skills it was important that everyone had the necessary first aid and rescue training. All team members currently have a valid First Aid certification (and several have the advanced version) but our rescue work needed a bit of a refresher. At the beginning of June four of us travelled down to Wales for a week of canyoning, Tryweryn laps and courses. We now have our Whitewater Rescue Technician (WRT) qualification, into which was incorporated relevant aspects of the advanced WRT course. Canyoning practise was vital as many rivers in Guatemala may require some degree of climbing and abseiling ability – luckily, Alastair and Osian are experts, and when combined with knowledge from our courses we got to have some fun and implement our new techniques on the Cwm Dyli and Upper Cynfal.
Last Steps
During our time in Wales we also sat down and created a complete kit list. While the majority of the equipment consisted of items we already had, it was a good way to assess what needed to be bought (eg. medical supplies) and who needed to bring what. Many of these items – such as a drone, multi-fuel burner or GPS device – will only need to be brought by certain team members. With flights less than 2 weeks away (from some of us), we are now in a great position planning-wise. All that remains to be done is to collect the last few items of kit we still need, to announce the final expedition sponsorships and to pack everything away ready for Heathrow!
I hope you enjoyed this article, if you’d like to keep track of our progress then check out the BUKE 2024 website or subscribe to my blog. If you’d like to support the expedition team our Go Fund Me is linked below, alternatively to support me and this blog you can use the ‘Donate’ page at the top!
BUKE website: https://www.buke2024.co.uk
Patrick Kyak 