Peru is an extremely diverse country. The rocky desert highlands of the Andes mountain range is extending from the north to the southeast of the country. It separates the desert habitat on the west Pacific coast, and the tropical Amazon basin in the east.
As different is biodiversity in the country as different are rivers. There is a big choice of rivers for paddling all year, depending of the region, snow pack and monsoon. The best time for kayaking classical expeditions in Peru is October.
We arrived in Peru at the end of September, after long hours of airplains, buses, shuttles and rent a car ride, me and my girl Nika met with the rest of the crew in Santa Maria. This is also the best place to hike Peruvian most known historical site, the ruins of Machu Pichu. But it is just one of the many. There are other more exciting and less croudy ancient Inca towns in the country.
The boys Jure Stan, Jan Praprotnik, Matjaz Luzar, Austrian Kristos Sturza and Jan`s girl Tina Silic were already settled in Marko`s campsite. It’s a perfect place to reach really nice and dynamic worm up river Urrubamba. The second river we paddled was Paucartambo and the last for me the Acombamba Abyss- Apurimac, both reachable from Cusco. The boys-bastards, had enough time to kayak Pachacacha river, when I had to run to Arequipa to catch Nika. There we did the nice round trip on the coastline to Lima and back home.
PUCARTAMBO Was a big surprises for me. It is a beautiful river with a changing character. It comes from the Ausangate mountain range and it drops into the Amazon forest, where it joins Urrubamba. It is the last border between the high and cold mountains and the Amazon forest, so more that you advance on the river, wormer and greener it gets. In three full days of kayaking we run probably the longest class 4+ section in my life, with additional spicy class 5 rapids and we saw also some of the most astonishing canyons. We were lucky enough to meet the Quechua people on the river banks. But even Manuel the Argentinian that joined us in last second, could not understand them, while trying to get our location in the valley. From start to finish we dropped around 1600m of elevation and found some of the bestcampingspots! We didn`t have enough time to paddle to the confluence with Urubamba, but we were lucky enough to find a secondary exit and catch the only truck, that drove the road in a week.
ACOMBABA ABYSS - APURIMAC The Abysimo as it is called between kayakers and it is true Andean queen. It makes one of the most imposing river canyons on the globe and it narrows just when there is enough water for supreme kayaking!
We got kicked out of the bus late at night on the start in Banos Cconoc .The next day we woke up early in the morning, anxious to start the run. After a worm up, we dropped in the first class 5 rapid and we were already walled in. We were overwhelmed by the beauty of the river. The first day turned out to by easy and comfortable, in comparison to next two days, when the real kayaking started. The weather didn`t make it easier. The rain has risen the water level and gave it a brown colour. But we got what we were looking for. A top class pushy run, full of various combinations, surrounded with amazing canyons and non stop action. There was nothing to missing: continuous rapids, drops, big boulders and lots of slaloming, surrounded with astonishing vegetation. Just as expected from the source of the Amazon river!
Thanks to Alonso Campana – Rambito for coordination help, accommodation and shuttles!
And for final see this amazing video:
This is Peru from CINElineFILM on Vimeo.
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