The turbulent Rio Grijalva twists through the mountains of Guatemala and coils north through Chiapas, Mexico winding amidst steep chasms flanked by lush green, dense forests. Gushing through the narrow passages of El Sumidero Canyon, the river drops over 1,000 feet in 16 miles as it spews foaming white water into snarling rapids and tempestuous waterfalls.
As early as the sixteenth-century Conquistador Hermando Cortez attempted to run what the locals named “The Drain,” only to be defeated. Since its discovery in 1518, hundreds of adventurers have struggled to master the churning, carnivorous rapids, yet El Sumidero Canyon defeated them all and swallowed the lives of over 70 would-be conquerors.
Then at last in the winter of 1962 under the leadership of Jack L. Currey, an expedition of 16 tough, resilient river explorers set downriver to triumph over one of the world’s most violent stretches of white water, test their mettle, indulge their adrenaline rush, and bridle the wild river no one had conquered.
This is their true and inspiring story.