Eric Hertz, Personal Reflections
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Late one April after the rafting season, I was at the Cave Camp building a trail around Laguito Azul to Lost Beach with the caretaker of the camp, Checho. Earth River had been using the camp for three seasons and yet the top of the 300 foot granite monolith that rose straight out of Laguito Azul and could be seen from everywhere in the camp remained a mystery.
Stopping to rest, I looked over at the granite tower, tracing the sheer, unbroken 300 foot north wall to the top. I turned to Checho and asked if he had any idea what was up there. We communicated in a cross between Spanglish and sign language, yet we always seemed to know what the other was saying. For years I had wondered about the mysterious tower but the foreboding walls guarding the top had always seemed insurmountable. Checho gave me an odd sort of look as if to say, why would anyone in his right mind care. After all, you couldn't graze sheep or cows up there and it certainly wasn't worth breaking your neck to find out.
Things had remained pretty much unchanged at the Casa Piedra farm for the four generations Checho's family had homesteaded it. He was born in the primitive turn of the century farmhouse his great grandfather had built on the plateau overlooking the river about a mile from Zeta Rapid. Cut off from the outside world, they lived subsistently off the land without electricity, running water or indoor plumbing. Checho's children, starting at age six, rode three hours by horse, in all weather conditions, to reach the nearest public boarding school where they lived for a week, returning only on weekends.
Nothing much had changed at Campo Casa Piedra until the day Checho saw a strange yellow raft pass by. In the ensuing years, Earth River purchased the property around Zeta Rapid including the strange tower for their wilderness camp and Checho became the caretaker. He took tremendous pride in his work as the camp's handyman, builder and guardian. He was a gracious host with a wonderful smile that filled the camp and everyone who met him liked him.
Checho's relationship with me grew as we spent countless days in the off season designing and building trails while exploring every nook and cranny of the property looking for things river guests would enjoy seeing or doing. Every nook and cranny with the exception of the top of the mysterious tower which was never far from my mind and the furthest from Checho's.
