It had been at least 2 days we had been held hostage at this point, possibly 3, really not sure as the time bleeds when you are under heavy anxiety with fear of the threat of imminent harm from our captors.
One of our group had been removed and was being held in the local village’s jungle prison, and we did not know much about his well-being.
It was in the midst of this that we heard the rumble of the Mexican military convoy doing a patrol of our area of Chiapas, just north of the border of Guatemala. This is the literal middle of nowhere, deep in the steep jungle mountains, many hours on one-lane washed-out dirt roads of a rocky mess.
Our captors made it clear that we were expected to hide and make no sound and draw no attention to ourselves, or the predicament that we found ourselves in, backed up by razor-sharp machetes and a look of serious intent in their eyes.
This is a situation where it is a massive advantage to have a man like Bob Daffe leading an expedition. Bob paid no attention to our captor’s instructions, and walked defiantly to meet the camouflage humvees of military vehicles and got them to stop.
In fluent Spanish he made them aware of our situation–that we were multiple days held hostage after being captured by overt threats of physical harm by machetes and violence during our peaceful river trip on the Rio Jatate.
The military commander said thank you for this update, that he could not intervene at that time, but that he would make his superiors aware of our situation, and they continued on their way.
This left us again alone and vulnerable with our captors and intensified an already very bad situation. The village leader became highly aggressive with Bob, further threatening violence, and that he was contemplating lighting all our kayaks and gear on fire as retribution for Bob not acquiescing to their demands that we hide our presence from the military.
I can remember Bob going literally nose to nose with the village leader in the hot sun, saying “Mate you do not understand, you are on the cusp of creating an international incident that is going to transcend your authority in this area and create a major problem for you and your village“.
In the end, by Bob finding the courage to walk with the threat of being taken down by a machete and talking directly to the military convoy, our release was secured and we escaped a very dangerous and tense situation.
For all time I will remember Bob being one who had the courage to defy our captors and face extreme personal danger in order to facilitate our release and safety.
I have years and years of memories of travel to the far-off corners of the world to run frothing white water rivers, and Bob Daffe to thank for including me in his group of friends and taking me under his wing
Bob Daffe, We will miss you for all time, but as I am sure you know, we will continue to live a life of adventure in your honour.
Thank you, Bob
