The Rio Colca was an epic adventure. Each day had its own, unique, epicocity. Here is a brief until I have time for the rest and pictures:
10/16- We had to travel overnight into the putin. After loading up 23 buros with gear, we hiked 20km into the bottom of the deepest canyon on earth, nearly 6800 vertical feet. Hotsprings at the putin and bugs eating us alive made this day epic.
10/17- River Day One complete with the Rio Mamacocha doubling the flow of the river, ritual sacrifices of coca leaves to the river gods, and unbelieveable rapids. Rapids One, Two and Three were stompers for the first part of the Colca Canyon. We camped in the middle of a giant landslide above the biggest rapid on the river. Incredible views of the canyon, superb geology, unreal. Epic.
10/18- River Day Two began with Emily swimming the largest of the Class V rapids without serious injury, which was amazing (video to follow). More incredible canyon and scenery as we entered the Chocolate Canyon. We ran into ‘Double Trouble’ with TWO raft flips in the same spot, off the same wall. Impressive winds kept us paddling, but also kept the bugs off us at camp. Camping in the Chocolate Canyon ended this day, from a spot where we could hear the rocks tumbling into the canyon at night.
10/19- River Day Three began with some intense rapids, and Drew swimming super deep with at least 5 seconds down time. Huge boulders blocked the river twice, forcing two portages. The first potage was novel, going under house-size boulders, the other more typical, carrying around the gnar. We slept well at a very windy, sandy beach before the paddle out the next day.
10/20- The final river day on the Colca Canyon was short and sweet. Easier rapids as the canyon opened up into a huge valley. Rigging the MicroBus was epic, with 8 kayaks, two rafts and 13 people’s stuff, but we got it done and now we’re on the way to Rio Cotahuasi… Epic.
More to come…
10/15
The Colca trip began with everyone arriving in Arequipa on the 15th and getting the logistics together for the trip. We had to buy food, gear, arrange shuttle, finances, everything! It was quite an ordeal for 13 people to go on a multiday expedition in a third world country. Highlights included rope shopping at a sweet store that only sold rope with Roberto, Gian Marco’s assistant (IMG4678).
Roberto and I were responsible for rigging the rafts with ‘Maya’ netting and getting them to Gian Marcos house for the midnight shuttle. (4681). We managed to get a kayak, two rafts and all the other gear from the wearhouse to Gian Marcos in one Tico! It was impressive to say the least.
We had an interesting shuttle to the Rio Colca. We had arranged transportation through Gian Maro with his fearless driver, Elard Garabato. Unfortunatly, this driver didn’t have a tourist licence that permitted him to operate where we were going, so we had to drive through the night. We loaded the bus around midnight and got rolling on the road at 1am! An epic start to an epic trip.
10/16
We drove through the night, about an hour down the Panamerican from Arequipa and then right towards the Andes and the town of Huambo where we met the hired buros and got our stuff together for the hike in.
We also enjoyed a local breakfast before the hike:
(4685)
Burro with kayaks
(4693)
Burros with canyon
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The hike into the Colca Canyon was impressive beyond belief. We dropped into a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, passing through millions of years of geology on the way. The hike took about 6 hours and was probably close to 20km.
We arrived at camp to great hotsprings and swimming in the river.
Lots of bugs eating us alive. Big days up ahead.
10/17
Day 1 on the river began with the low flow of 500cfs for the first 5km. Barely raftable
Mamacocha doubles flow coming in from river right. We gave an offering to the river gods of Coca leaves.
Had lunch, scouted, Gian Marco portaged Wairo around Rapids 1, 2, and 3.
Scouted on loose rocks, old landslide. Cool sofa rock.
Good lines throguth the rapids.
Last rapids before camp were sweet. They had changed because of landslide, there was a huge pool where Gian Marco had said a big rapid used to be. Dust all over everything from rock fall. Amazing campsite in fall zone of rocks. Small beaches river right.
10/18
We broke camp and went right into the first rapid:
Rhodes Rhodila – First rapid right after camp, Class V rafting, IV+ in kayak, Ben ran upsidedown, good boof on left, Andy ran right down gut. I fucked it up badly but was fine down left sievey line. Emily had gnarly swim, ouch. Hurt left knee landing on rocks in main drop. Gian Marco got her with a bag and Andy with kayak. Probably the biggest single rapid on the river.
Below Emily’s rapid we cruised to lunch quickly, breaking for lunch at the Shower of the Condors, an impressive cascade coming down on river left. We ate lunch on the right below the shower, arnicaed Emily’s knee, and layed in the sun.
We camped at a sweet camp on the right amongst huge boulders. Big open canyon with lots of rocks. We lost some stuff amonst the rocks because they had lots of gaps and if you dropped stuff, it would fall 5 feet down. We could hear the river running far below us. Drew and I swam the rapids above camp and Gian Marco went with his mask looking for crawdads. There were some perfect rock seats and the camp was spectacualar view of the canyon. A great camp and great night.
10/19
Our third day began with great Class IV rapids, narrow chutes
Drew swam deep on bouldery rapid, missed Andys rope and had lots of down time.
Narrow chute drop that looked impossible, down and to the right
Huge drop with hole in front of whale sized rock
2 portages, first was on left through caves, took 1 hour and we ate lunch on rocks up high
Second was 40 minutes later on right over rock wall, good teamwork. Polish canyon. Rock fall area. first decent ran out of food here and thought they’d never escape.
After second portage there was a fun rapid with holes going into a spectacular canyon with steep walls.
Camp was shortly after with high winds filling food with sand. Kitchen behind big rock but still sand everywhere. Anticipation of final day, lots of wind! Ugh, wind or bugs!?
10/20
Day 4 on the Colca began with mellow Class III boulder gardens and shallow rapids for a few hours. We began to see signs of civilization including some bridges, concrete constructions, and people fishing in the river. It took about 3 hours to reach out takeout on river right. We had to carry all the gear up a steep hill to Garabato who was waiting for us with the Garabtomobile.
Our next stop was in town for food for the long ride ahead to the Cotahuasi.
After our first food stop we climbed up a huge mountain pass to a small town. We stopped in this other town to pick up avocado and bread for the last haul across the altiplano. It was stellar.
We crossed over a high pass right next to Coropurna, a huge volcano close to 20,000 feet high. Our pass was in the 15k foot range, cold, thin air. We saw packs of wild llamas, and Todd was really sick from the altitude.
We arrived in Coatahuasi around 10pm to an expensive hostal, unrest with group about sleeping arrangement and accomodation, and finally settled with great soup in the hostal.
