dgar Guillén hadn’t seen a standup board in his country until a week ago. The 33-year-old Guatemala City native was surfing his go-to beach-break, on the country’s west coast near El Paredon, when he noticed a group of Americans out paddling. Their charismatic ringleader, Victor Myers, enthusiastically paddled over to explain his plan to donate a fleet of SUPs to a riverside orphanage in Rio Dulce. Then he said they’d be paddling the pristine jungle river to the Caribbean. He should come along. That’s about all I new about Victor’s plans, too. In 2011, he toured Central America on a pair of dirt bikes with his brother and a couple friends, looking for rivers and waves to paddle the inflatable SUPs strapped to the back of the motorcycles (SUP magazine, Winter 2011). Victor had contacted me about his return orphanage trip, and how it would be a more meaningful, philanthropic finale to his film project documenting an otherwise beer- and petrol-fueled adventure. When he hinted he might try to paddle back home to Belize—where he’d been spending his winters working as a paddling instructor at an island resort in the cayes—I took him up on his invitation. It sounded like real adventure. What an ending, I figured.
By Dave Shively | Photos by Pete McDermott 64
65