Ruta Maya kicks off from Cayo

Ask the three hundred or so entrants in this weekend’s Ruta Maya canoe race why they subject themselves to four days of punishment and you’ll get three hundred different answers… but at the end, virtually all will say that they’re glad they did it. This morning News 5’s Patrick Jones was on hand in Cayo as the unique event kicked off.

Patrick Jones, Reporting
Most residents of the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena are just waking up from their slumber… But the banks of the Macal River near the Hawkesworth Bridge are teeming with activity.

Hundreds of canoeists, with adventure in their eyes, are making last minute checks of their equipment, stocking up on water and snacks, and just plain calming their nerves before taking to the waters in the eighth running of La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge.

Tsyushi Nakajima, Captain, JOCV 30
?I?m excited, so I was practicing every weekend for one month. I?m very far right now.?

Nilton Rivas, Captain, St. Ignatius School
?Well, me and the boys we no really…we di try fi we best and thing because this da fi we first year and we just wah do all we got and that?s it.?

Yuri Kaneko, Captain, Thirsty Turtle
?After paddling maybe I can feel achievement and feel so great thing, yes.?

Lorenzo Valdez, Captain, Fruit A Plenty
?We?re just going to give it our best and we?re just doing it for the pleasure and experience.?

Patrick Jones
?How long have you been preparing for this race??

Lorenzo Valdez
?Not very long, just days before the race really, the final came, we decided to get into it.?

Ninety teams of three paddlers each bolted from the starting line at seven sharp this morning, but some teams faced challenges right from the opening horn as hundreds of people flocked to the low lying wooden bridge to get a close up look at the men and women who are taking part in the four-day event. And the field is littered with past champions as well as young upstarts hungry for a taste of the spotlight. Pope Awe is captain of a team from Washington State, who spent the last six months preparing to take on the challenge.

Patrick Jones
?Why are you taking part in the canoe race in Belize??

Pope Awe, Captain, Pop?s Pirates
?Because we are old men who don?t know how to grow old; plus, I have done the races, this is my third time on the river and it?s been a fantastic experience and I brought some more people to share that experience with them.?

Kevin Sammy, Captain Ket Ch?u Lata
?Well we?re just going for the fun of it, not going to win, we just want to have fun.?

Patrick Jones
?Have you ever done something like this before??

Kevin Sammy
?No, it?s my first time, never canoed before actually.?

Patrick Jones
?Why are you taking part??

Kevin Sammy
?We?ll actually I?m here working on assignment for a year. I?m from Trinidad and Tobago and we just decided that we want to be fit, and we want to try it.?

Participants this year hail from as far as Japan, as volunteers stationed here have donned the wet suit and taken up the paddle, if only to have a great story to tell when they get back home.

Yuri Kaneko
?For this year I haven?t done anything. Three days ago just…we decided to enter, so I haven?t anything.?

Patrick Jones
?So basically this is for fun??

Yuri Kaneko
?Yes, yes, yes that?s right. And so this month I?m leaving here, so I?d like to have great experience here. That?s why I participate.?

But even last minute entrants know that it will take more than just desire to make it from San Ignacio to Belize City by boat. Nilton Rivas, who is leading his high school team in a bid to unseat the guys from U.B. as champs of the intra mural division, says technique is what it is all about.

Nilton Rivas
?Well for our takeoff we?ll just do three big strokes and some short sprints from here to the board bridge.?

Kevin Sammy
?We plan to stay behind and let the faster crowd go up to the front and then gradually make our way back up.?

Tsyushio Nakajima
?We have a team work. Yes, we could sing Japanese songs.?

(Team singing Japanese song)

By the time the first boat made it past Esperanza point about an hour after the opening horn, the team from Koop Sheet Metal in the ?Come Get Mi? boat challenged the field to do just that as they had opened up a commanding two minute lead. There were no shortage of cheer leaders on the riverbanks as villagers left their morning chores to watch the canoeists go by.

The ?Cayo Gyal? team were the first all women?s team past Esperanza, putting them in a good position to repeat in the female division.

By day?s end, each of the participants will have a good idea whether their strategies are working or if they need to make adjustments, literally in midstream.

Patrick Jones, for News 5.

At the end of stage one this afternoon at Banana Bank, ?Come Get Mi?–sponsored by Big H Enterprises–pulled in first with a time of five hours, twenty-four minutes and thirty-four seconds. Second was Pine Lumber’s “A Got Yu!”. The other three top finishers were Atlantic Bank, Boomers, and Koop Sheet Metal. The overall winner of the race is expected to paddle under the Belcan Bridge around noon on Monday.