Rio Cotahuasi

The team amongst Inca ruins deep in the canyon

05/08/12 - 10/08/12

The Rio Cotahuasi flows through the deepest canyon in the world and offers a phenomenomal kayaking expedition experience. Great whitewater with historic Inca ruins. From Arequipa the whole trip took us 6 days - 2 days of travelling and 4 days of kayaking.

Day 1-2

We got the interestingly named "Immaculate Conception" bus from Arequipa to the town of Cotahuasi, leaving at 4.30 in the afternoon and arriving a full 12 hours later at 4 in the morning. The boats were not able to come on the same bus as us and had to come on a seperate cargo transport. This created some confusion as Tom´s boat did not arrive with the rest of ours! After a worrying few hours it transpired that his boat was stuck in the Cotahuasi bus depot and we were reunited.

A few hours sleep in the square and a breakfast of "pan con huevo" later we continued our journey down the valley to the put-on village of Vellinga (where the road ends) in a pick-up truck which we hired in town.

Kayakista tramps

Alby letting the girls in on his little secret

On the way to Vellinga we made a quick detour to visit the spectacular 150 metre Sipia waterfall.

Contemplating Sipia falls

Once at Vellinga we carried our boats the 100 metres or so down town to the river. By this time it was 4 o´clock so we paddled a kilometre downstream to find a nice beach to camp for the night.

Day 3

Alby on a typical Cotahuasi rapid

A great first day of paddling in which we covered approximately 20 km. The first 5 km started out as grade 3 read and run, progressing to grade 4 read and run later in the day. We inspected and ran a few harder grade 4/4+ rapids. After a lunch of tuna and pittas we paddled the first named rapid - "The Wall" a long rapid against a left hand wall with a tricky boof half way down.

Alex between a rock and a hard place

Adam

Tim

Alby

Tom boofing the "Wall" rapid

Tim posing for Typhoon´s next drysuit catalogue at the camp on day3

We set up camp above a hard grade 5 rapid which none of the team decided to run and quickly relaxed into the multiday routine of pasta and sausage in tomato sauce before an early bed at 7 o´clock under the stars! To save weight we opted to only take the tent inners and leave the pegs, poles and flysheet in Arequipa - this proved to be a good decision as the moscas (flys) were relentless and the night was warm.

Day 4

This was the best day of paddling on the trip. The day started with several hours of high quality grade 4/4+ read and run rapids until we reached a long technical rapid called "Marpa". The rapid was perhaps 200m long with a number of must make moves and a sweet boof half way down. Alex and Adam elected to paddle the whole rapid with the rest of the team putting in half way down. The final drop catapulted the paddler into an impressive walled in gorge, which three of the team rolled on!

Adam paddling "Marpa" one of the best rapids on the trip

Alex on "Marpa"

After lunch we reached "Metre Canyon" and "Centimetre Canyon". Each of these rapids are given their name as the river passes through a narrow slot at the end of the rapid. Metre Canyon was particularly impressive as it was lined with ancient Inca ruins which the team had a careful peek at.

Metre Canyon

The canyon´s walls started to open out slightly and we began to see sparsley spaced houses with vineyards now growing on the ancient terraces. The wine made from the grapes of the Cotahuasi canyon is a local speciality. A roaring fire fuelled evening was enjoyed before another early night.

Day 5

Today was also packed with lots of great grade 4 read and run, with 3 (runnable) portages. We spent a while looking at the rapid called "High side for your life", but in the end decided to walk it. All the portages involved some interesting seal launches back into the river!

Walled in gorges are a feature of the river

High side for your life

At lunch time we reached the confluence with the Rio Maran which signalled the end of the seroius whitewater. Ahead of us lay 70 km of grade 2-3 on the Rio Ocoña to the take-out town of Iquipi. Here we faced a strong head wind blowing up the valley, which made the paddling particularly arduous.

The confluence with the Rio Maran

Our final camp on the banks of the Ocoña

Day 6

A full day of paddling and a 1km walk out across farmers fields saw us reach the small fishing town of Iquipi mid afternoon. We travelled the bumpy road along the remainder of the valley to Camana in a local bus which took us 4 hours. After some time was spent hunting down a bus to Arequipa we ended up getting a ride in a brand new Mercedes Sprinter still with the new car smell and an owner who fancied making a quick buck. With boats and all stuffed in we made it back to Arequipa at 3am!