488 - Cascadas Roberto Barrios
Today we got the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever had. I’m not joking. In the past 3 years living in a vehicle, 6 of those months in Mexico and Central America, it hasn’t been worse.
It all started at a waterfall by the name of Cascadas Roberto Barrios. (You know, I wouldn’t mind having a waterfall named after me.) Although the moment we pulled up, we knew we were in for a fun night. The thing about “free campsites” in “the middle of the village” is that they’re usually free for a reason.
Let’s briefly go over the top five annoyances that can happen at a campsite in Central America:
Loud Music All Night
Burning Smoke All Night
Sketchy People Loitering All Night
Kids Begging for Things Outside
A Village “Wakeup Horn” At 6AM
All of the above occurred last night. Beggars can’t be choosers, eh?
Needless to say, I barely slept through the night. And when our alarms went off at the butt crack of dawn, there was nothing I wanted to do more than sleep. But something in me is trained to rise like a zombie for photos, even if all other systems in my body don’t want to respond.
15 minutes later we were stumbling through the village to the waterfalls. It was at this point that I realized that the entire village smelt like smoke. Not just our parking spot. Welp, I’ll be adding this to my list of places I’d never live in my life.
We arrived at the waterfalls, which were completely empty except for a few locals doing laundry with the water. Damn, what a laundry machine though.
Although we’d scouted the place the night before, it took me a minute to get warmed up. On days where I’m half asleep, the warm up process is real. I took a few bogus shots and moved on. Maybe I shouldn’t even shoot today, I soon thought to myself.
But I couldn’t just skip the place. Through all the complaining about the night before, this place was absolutely incredible. There were dozens of world class waterfalls to choose from… And the lighting was starting to hit just right. People would kill to be in my place with a camera right now. I’d better get in the mood- fast.
I tried some more shots on the sidelines but realized I didn’t have much composition space to work with. I wanted to get in the river, but it looked almost too treacherous to navigate. Especially with an (almost recovered) broken foot and $3,000 camera.
Then as if on cue, an old man wearing a backpack full of sticks suddenly walks right into the waterfall beds and crosses the massive river like it was nothing. It appeared as though he and his dog had probably done this hundreds of times, and today was just another day. He was probably laughing at us foreigners on the sidelines.
Haley and I looked at each other, realizing what we had to do.
To help you visualize the river, let me take a moment to describe it. Imagine an entire stream made up of shallow moss waterbeds surrounded by strong currents and suddenly deep pools. It would take strong balance, careful steps, and a little luck to make it in the center without taking a dip.
I took my first step, slowly but surely. Then another step. And another step. Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the river, wondering how I’d get back. I lined up a few more practice shots, but eventually landed on this bad boy:
“Mossy Gal”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 50 ~ 17mm ~ f/10 ~ .4s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Well, I was awake now. That shot came out freaking awesome. It’s honestly a miracle I didn’t slip. Now you can SEE the kind of rocks we were walking across. Speaking of which, they made a killer foreground.
I’d say the biggest realization that I had with this adventure was that it took some commitment on my part to have the desire to take a photo. Since I took the time and energy to get myself out on the slippery rocks, I felt like I needed a solid photo to make the effort worthwhile.
Thus, I forced my mind to get in the mood to shoot- even if I was morbidly exhausted. So if you ever aren’t in the mood to take photos, put yourself in a situation where you have to expel significant energy to get somewhere. Trust me, you’ll make it worth the effort… Tired or not.
As we walked back to the van, I realized that this would be our last adventure out of the country for a long time. Despite the spicy farewell, I was going to miss this place. These beautiful lands had become our home the past 6 months, and I’d learned more about the world then I’d ever thought possible. We’d survived the immense culture shock, and come away with some incredible insights about our planet.
I knew in my heart I’d be back one day. That’s the true magic of photography- it lets you gloss over all the difficult details you have to go through to get the photo, and just leaves a single breathtaking image to remember.
The ultimate positive note of otherwise insane situations.
NEXT UP… Big Bend National Park in Texas, baby. We ain’t finished with this trip yet- we’re milking it for all it’s worth.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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