Thursday 6 September 2012

Rio Urubamba - Hydroelectrica to Santa Teresa

06/09/12

"Don't forget your handbags and makeup ladies... today we paddle class 5" exclaimed Gian Marco as the remaining kayakistas prepared their balls for this difficult section of the Urubamba. Steep, high-volume, continuous rapids provided the most intense and difficult river experience of the trip.

After visualising some fantasy lines on the enormous man-made waterfall which marks the end of the Hydroelectrica section it is then possible to paddle to the confluence with the Santa Teresa. We paddled the run in about 3 hours, though without Gian Marco leading us it could have taken twice as long as inspections would be necessary.

GM and el Mono just after Hidroelectrica
With Gian Marco demonstrating some big lines, eddies were only available every hundred metres or so: arrive in the eddy, get your shit together and then quickly turn to see how GM avoids the next set of big holes!

The river didn't let up so we couldn't even think about taking any bank-footage or photos. Check out this quick edit of my Go Pro footage to get a feel for the beast instead:


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