The beauty of the Shumuljá River

Words: Karla Held
and Rocky Contos

Photos:
Karla Held Photography
and Rocky Contos

Bio

Karla Held is a photojournalist, ACA kayak, and SUP instructor based in Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico. She offers adventures in Huatulco, consulting sessions for paddling in Mexico and Central America, and photography assignments. You can contact her for more information about getting on the Shumulja River. Contact her at KarlaHeldPhotography@gmail.com

Karla Held

The beauty of the Shumuljá

As Greg Schwendinger, Guatemalan resident, author, and founder of Mayan Whitewater, says, “Paddling the Shumuljá is a water-borne version of hiking to hidden Mayan ruins. You paddle along, enjoying the beautiful jungle, when suddenly it appears: the temple. In this case, the temple is the majestic staircase waterfalls of the Agua Azul River.”

Undoubtedly, seeing the infamous waterfalls of Agua Azul is a highlight of running the Shumulja River. As a paddler, the beauty of the Shumulja River – deep in the heart of Chiapas, Mexico – is two or three-fold.

Firstly, the 14 km clear turquoise water section of the river surrounded by lush jungle is nature at its purest. You’ll mostly have the quiet of the river to yourself, save encountering a few locals swimming or enjoying the tranquillity of its river banks and beaches.

Secondly, it’s a perfect river where you can choose your adventure via raft, duckie (inflatable kayak), whitewater SUP or whitewater kayak. This, to me, is a major bonus.

The third aspect of this river I greatly appreciate is that you can have a peaceful class II-III ride and portage the class IV-V (depending on water levels) or take the plunge and paddle the big one (See attached page for more information about the rapids).

I’ve run the Shumuljá twice. The first time was after running the Usumacinta with one of SierraRio’s seven-day river trips in 2019. The 14 km section of the Shumuljá was offered as a day trip to end our time together in Chiapas, and Rocky Contos was our lead guide, and I opted to join a raft. A highlight was watching Contos, owner of https://www.sierrarios.org/, run the last set of Agua Azul waterfalls in a whitewater kayak, I also loved floating down the emerald waters of the river.

Agua Azul and the Shumuljá have a high calcium carbonate content and other minerals; therefore, the water is a perfect shade of turquoise. Paddling the next five kilometres of class I and II water, you can take a dip and cool off. During the 2019 trip, it was January, and the water was a great temperature for swimming. For Jaguar Encajaulado, the toughest rapid, some of us in the raft opted to walk it and watch the marvels of the other rafters and whitewater kayakers run the section.

More recently, in April, I again paddled the Shumuljá as a day trip during one of my recent trips to Palenque. I was in Palenque for a few days leading another trip for a travel agency I work for. I called my friend, Beatriz Urbina Cortes, a guide and logistics person for SierraRios who helped out with the Usumacinta trip in 2019. By sheer luck, she was helping coordinate a day trip on the Shumuljá the next day – of course – I jumped at the chance. Luckily, the full outfit of gear was at her nearby ranch so that we could choose between a raft, inflatable kayak, or whitewater kayak. I chose the IK option this time, having seen the river before and knowing it’s a perfect inflatable kayak section.

Beatriz Urbina is one of my all-time heroes. More affectionately known at Miyaya, she was one of Mexico’s first female river guides who guided dozens of multi-day river trips on the Usumacinta River (and many more) in the 1980-90s.

Urbina was our shuttle driver that day, and she tells us, “The Shumuljá is a very scenic river and an experience you will never forget. Visiting the lower Agua Azul waterfalls and paddling the rapids on the river is very exciting. I’ve paddled the Shumuljá for over 30 years.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Urbina and Schwendinger and suggest you find out for yourself. It’s a river you won’t forget or regret.
Rapids

After putting in at the Venustiano Carranza bridge, the Shumuljá is mostly mellow with some riffles for 3.3 km down to where Río Agua Azul tumbles into the Shumuljá in a spectacular series of waterfalls. Just past the waterfall spectacle are a series of rapids. First up at km 3.9 is El Coquetón (del Gallito), a class III rapid with two general lines to run: either a steep drop on the left or a chute on the right leading down to a dividing boulder that is best to get to the left of.

Just past here, make sure you stop because coming up right away (km 4.0) is the biggest rapid on the run: the Jaguar Encajaulado (‘Caged Jaguar’), which is generally rated class IV or V (depending on the flow and how you look at it). A class II-III entry leads into a steep drop with a big hole backed up on the right by bedrock. There’s a line on the left, but it’s a bit tricky to get there because an upper wave/hole is extending from the right that you have to hit the left part of – too far left, and you’ll hit the shallow rocks that screw up your entrance; too far right and you hit the upper hole that slows you down and can send you out toward the meat of the main hole. Despite the nasty look of the rapid, many kayakers and rafts have glided through on that left line, and many others have flipped going down (everyone I’ve seen has flushed out).

At slightly higher water levels, a far-left drop opens up, shooting you out at the base of the pile. Unfortunately, at all river levels, the sight of the rapid and the roiling hole with potential consequences prompts the majority of boaters to walk this rapid, which can be done on the right over relatively level limestone with a crossing of a springwater-fed pool.

When we take paddle rafts down, we usually portage the rafts (relatively easy carry).

However, a couple of times, I sent a raft ghost-boating instead. One time that led to the raft perpetually stuck sideways in the hole – we waited and waited – over 15 minutes. It was fun to see it upright in the hole, wavering about and seeming like it would pop out occasionally, but it never did. Eventually, we got it out by tossing in throwbags many times and having one snag inside enough so we could give it enough of a pull when it was popping up on the pile to get it out.

Below the Jaguar rapid, you pass through a beautiful short gorge with spring, then come out and to another fun rapid that is usually class III: Afuera (km 4.5), which generally has a hole on the left and a wave on the right (this rapid gets much funner at medium to higher levels). Finally, there is the class II-III Canales rapid (km 5.3), where the river has several channels through various drops, some wider and mellower and some short and steep.

Past here, there’s another kilometre of mellow turquoise blue river floating to a potential take-out where there used to be a pedestrian bridge (recently washed-out, but possibly rebuilt to some degree; km 6.2). A steep dirt road allows access here, but it’s sometimes too difficult to pass on the road, especially after rain. More often, we do the longer run to the Agua Clara take-out (km 14.0), which involves a pleasant float on the blue water with lots of little riffles, a series of class IIs starting at km 8.1 with some surf waves, as well as a pretty gorge the last kilometre.

Blue water

Although this river is stunning, when the water is low and runs a turquoise blue from Agua Azul entering, it can run more green or brown after rain. The best time to get on the river when it’s blue is during the drier season from December through May – and within that timeframe, March, April and May are when it’s running blue almost all the time.

Villager approval

Another important aspect to note about paddling the Shumuljá and most rivers in Chiapas is that it’s essential to respect the local communities and their rights to allow access to the rivers near their villages. You always should ask permission from the local villagers before running a river in Chiapas unknown to you since the local villagers will often be suspicious and want to know what you’re doing and why you’re there, and also sometimes demand payment to be passing through their land and can detain paddlers, confiscate gear, and/or kick them out.

You can avoid many of these potential problems by making the trips with an outfitter in the area, such as SierraRios, which has a base in Palenque and regularly organizes groups on rivers like the Shumuljá. SierraRios has worked with the local people to get approval for paddlers to be there and often gives financial support to the villagers (it’s required from many villages), which does keep the good relations between the communities and paddlers and is a way they can see some tangible benefits to the tourism coming into their areas.

There are a bewildering array of fun day trips to do in Chiapas, and this can easily lead to a week of fun kayaking near Palenque on rivers such as the Shumuljá, Chocoljá, AguaAzul, Tulijá, Chacamax, Bascán, SaltoDeAgua, and Jataté. Better yet, do one of the week-long expedition trips on Ríos Usumacinta, Jataté, Lacanjá or LaVenta.

IF YOU GO

GUIDEBOOKs:
MAYAN WHITEWATER: CHIAPAS & BELIZE
www.mayanwhitewater.com/
www.mayanwhitewater.com/rivers/chiapas/chiapas-new/dir/shumulja.html

SIERRA RIOS
www.sierrarios.org/

AZUL PADDLING ADVENTURES
www.facebook.com/AzulPaddlingAdventures

WHERE TO STAY
Maya Tulipanes:
http://maya-tulipanes.hotelespalenque.com/es/
El Pachan: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057287776130

HOW TO GET THERE
Fly to Villahermosa, Mexico, and take a shuttle to Palenque. Alternatively, take a lot of buses, travel by land from Guatemala, fly into Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, rent a car, hitchhike – do what you must do.

Videos
Shumuljá Video1:

Shumuljá Raft Stuck!:

Shumuljá Video Morrison:

AguaAzul Kayak Guide:

Agua Azul+Shumuljá 2019:

SierraRios
SierraRios offers guided day-trips by raft, ducky or kayak on the Shumuljá and other rivers close to Palenque, as well as raft-support week-long trips on Ríos Usumacinta, Jataté, Lacanjá and LaVenta. Also, groups of experienced paddlers can arrange to contract just the basics to do private group expedition trips (or a ‘week of kayaking’ using their outfitting service.

Email reservations@sierrarios.org (easiest to arrange for groups) to arrange a trip.