Cañón de Oro

Seems a group got caught in a flash flood in the Cañon de Oro in San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico. There were 5 deaths, 5 injuries, and 2 missing (maybe the 2 missing have since been resolved). An interviewed survivor stated that there had been a "little bit" of rain, but not anything that led them to believe there lives where in danger when a surge of water 3 meters high arrived. It seems they were part of a guided excursion. Dreadful news.

I hope this is an extreme outlier and not any kind of indicator of the competence of guides we might contract in other countries (or even here for that matter). I don't want to speculate with no real information, but I can't help but suspect many of the unfortunate folks probably knew fairly little and simple had faith in their guide. While I have not done this in the context of canyoneering, I certainly have in other contexts. "There but for the grace of god go I"

Below are a text link and a news interview with one of the survivors. Both are in Spanish.

https://www.infobae.com/america/mex...de-excursionistas-muertos-en-rio-de-veracruz/

Very sad. Thanks for the report.

Tom

It was a freak storm. Heavy rain is extremely unusual this time of year in that region of Mexico. Although heavy rain is common during the wet season, they get almost no rain January through April.