Kayaking In Peru
Peru is a beautiful place: safe and stable with some good paddling. Quite different paddling from the UK, it usually takes you as long to get to the river as to actually paddle it. The river character is siphon-y: instead of the river carving down into the rock and making rapids, massive boulders tend to fall in from the sides... But don't let this put you off! However, I cannot really stress enough how quickly these rivers change in character, usually from year to year. The information on this page is from Sept 2003, it would be wise to check with the local rafting outfits and kayakers if possible for more up to date info.
Rivers
Logistics is a major issue. Can often hook up with raft companies for lifts to and from the main runs, and sometimes even get paid for a spot of safety-boating, but otherwise its a battle with a series of buses/collectivos. Paddlers tend to base themelves in one of the three main tourist centres: Lima, Cusco or Arequipa.
| Name | Grade | Length | Centre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colca | 3-5 | 70km | Arequipa |
| Cotahuasi | 4/5 | 90km | Arequipa |
| Chili | 3(4) | 7km | Arequipa |
| Apurimac | 4(5) | 50km | Cusco |
| Urubamba | 4/5 | 12km | Cusco |
| Lunahuana | 4/4+ | 30km | Lima |
| Surf | Big! | - | Lima |
Colca (Gd 3-5, 70km)
Getting on and off the river is a mini expedition by itself. Starting from Arequipa the first step is to get to Huambo, the nearest village to the put in. This is approximately a 5hr straight drive if you hire a van and driver, or the overnight bus is a much cheaper alternative. At Huambo there is a small hostel to stay the night and the lady at the tiny local shop is more than happy to serve some food. Need to set off early morning (7am-ish) to undertake the 8hr walk in from Huambo to the river at Canco. You'll need donkeys to carry your boat, food, etc. which are best organised in advance - we got them sorted out through Gian Marco Vellutino who is based at the Cusipata rafting company in Arequipa. The trek in is beautiful, and a little scary as you have to pick your way across some really steep scree slopes, and I recommend making sure your helmet is easily accessible when you pack the donkeys (we got caught in a mini-landslide). There is a beach by the river at Canco where you can camp the night.
The Colca walk-in is... Scary.
At the get on at Canco the river is small volume and fairly dirty and the first 4km are grade II/III before a tributary joins from river right doubling the volume. The difference in water quality is very obvious. A few km downstream of the confluence the river picks its way through a fairly recent landslide. When we were there these rapids were a fairly pushy class IV+ with some bank scouting needed. At higher levels I can imagine these rapids getting harder, but scouting and portaging would be possible. These form probably the hardest rapids on the run and the main difficulties last for possibly a km or so.
Once past the landslide the river drops to its normal III/IV grade. The next obvious landmark is about 8km downstream - 'Ducha Del Condor' is marked by a small stream that shoots out of the cliff high up on river left and the water becomes a cloud of mist before it reaches the river. Directly opposite on river right is a rock shelf which is a good place to stop and spot condors. We saw two circling around. Another 8km of III/IV water downstream marks the start of Chocolate Canyon. The canyon itself lasts for approx 7km and the scenery is fantastic, with the shear walls a kaliescope of browns. The rapids within the canyon remain a mixture of grade III & IV and there are several good places to camp by the river.
Paddling out of the bottom of Poles Canyon.
At the end of chocolate canyon is the first of the two portages Reparaz. This is a sieve-like true grade VI as none of the channels are really wide enough for a boat. Reparaz can be recognised from the river as a large triangular shape rock is situated mid-stream with a cushion wave leading into two small channels left and right. The portage is possible on river left where it you can eddy out at the start of a small stony beach. Its not an easy portage. Following Reparaz is the 4km long Green Canyon where the barren landscape is broken up by a few green trees & bushes. No problems here as the water drops to a mellow grade III. Halfway down the canyon is a beach on the left and with plenty of driftwood and caves into the cliff which makes a very good camping spot. After Green canyon is Poles canyon where the rapids pick up slightly before reaching the final portage. It is possible to get out either river right or left, but the portage must be made on river right and requires ropes and a bit of boat hauling. The rapid itself possibly deserves a V+ grading - a line exists the consequences of a screw up are pretty severe. We portaged the bulk of the rapid and paddled only the final smaller slot and drop. After this portage the power of the river backs off and the canyon begins to open out.
After 70km of river, the canyon visibly opens out and a dirt track drops down to river level on the river right. Get out here and catch a collectivo for about an hour (in the downstream direction) to the town of Aplao. From here there are several buses back to Arequipa (approx 4hrs I think). We got off the river at about 12, and made it back to arequipa late evening.
Cotahuasi (Gd 4/5, 90km)
I don't have much info on this run, as I arrived out in Peru just after my buddies paddled it. By their account however, this river is a gem: it lies in the deepest canyon in the world (over 1800m deeper than the Grand Canyon) and contains some great whitewater. The usually paddled section can be divided up into two bits: the first 10km of quality class 4(4+), and the remaining 80 or so km of continuous 3(4) are divided by a significant obstacle known as Sipia falls. Sipia is a huge waterfall that has cut its way into the valley as the river plunges 150m in height over three tiers. My buddies paddled the top few km of the section above the falls, got off the river in plenty of time, and met pre-arranged donkey transport to help with the monster six hour portage around the falls.
Good luck!
Chili (Gd 3(4), 7km)
This is a commercially rafted section and can be done as a day trip out of Arequipa. To get to the get-in/out, best bet is to try to hook up with a rafting company in Arequipa. We went with Gian Marco at Cusipata Rafting. The river is not too far from Arequipa - put in just below a power station and paddle down until a approx 2m weir (runnable), where you get out to a track on river right. Hold on tight for the lift back from here to the main road...
Apurimac (Commercial section, Gd 4(5), 50km)
It is easiest to go with rafting companies for this run, and if you want you can probably get paid to do some safety boating. The raftings season runs from April to Nov with high water at either end of the season. In high water apparently very good run. We paddled at approx 20-30 cumecs flow at the lower end of the flow scale. We hooked up with Chando at Mayuc Rafting (good reliable company who run lots of trips, but mostly with Israeli punters so a knowledge of Hebrew is helpful, and if you don't enjoy singing round a log fire you're buggered), and Willi at Southern Rivers (not as busy as Mayuc but run trips for mostly English/Aussie punters).
The get in is a 4hr bus ride from Cusco along a mainly dirt track with a sheer drop on one side. Not for the faint hearted. The road comes down to a bridge over the river where you get on. The get out is the next road 50km downriver, and then its a 2hr ride back to Cusco.
Nearly backlooped at the bottom of "Last Laugh".
About an hours worth of grade III leads up to the first drop, ominously called the 'the portage' by the raft guides. In low levels the drop itself looks easily runnable grade IV water but the hugh siphon river left halfway down the rapid discouraged us enough to follow the rafts on a portage on river left. We got back on the river in a large eddy just above the siphon, ferried across the top of it and ran the second half of the rapid. Mayuc camp on a beach just after this rapid.
The next rapid, Space Odyssey, is straight after the portage and is a fairly simple grade III/IV eddy hop affair, although by virtue of a swimming rafter disappearing under the big rock in the middle, the rafting punters walk round river left while the guides paddle the rafts down. More grade III leads down to where the rafters get out for a 10ft rock jump.
The next main rapid is Purgatory. At low flows this has quite a steep lead-in and then you can eddy out river right to have a look at the 'harder' bit of the rapid. A big boulder that has split into two sits in the middle of the river. The channel far river left paddled fine at low levels, but was fairly tight and I imagine become more retentive in higher flows. The 'crack' flowing between the two split halves of the boulder is even tighter, literally a boat width, and has a munchy looking stopper at the entrance. Safety not easy either. Still, apparently they used to 'body-raft' (swim) this with all the rafters so it can't be that bad. Purgatory is the second raft portage, with the empty rafts squeezed sideways down the left channel.
The river continues on its III way until the next names rapid Zambezeta ('mini-Zambezi'). Big waves and holes, but not really a problem to run blind and avoid on the way down. After this comes Trencher - again not a problem to run blind it has a sizeable pourover river rightish and a small siphon on the far right at the bottom. The final named rapid on the second day on the river is Batcave, although this does have a really good beach for camping just above it. Batcave itself is an easily run set of waves and holes, but can't be mistaken due to a great playwave on river left at the bottom with an enormous eddy river right. Mayuc tend to camp 10 mins beyond Batcave at 'La Mesa' although I think Southern Rivers camp just above it.
The 3rd day on the river brings Manwella ("toothache") so named due to the uncanny resemblance of a rock in the middle of the rapid to a molar... This is technically the hardest rapid on the run at grade V. It is possible to get out and inspect river left. At the low level when we were there there's a line down left or right of the 'tooth', but its fairly serious due to a big siphon river left behind the large eddy in the middle of the rapid. We ran both lines fine. Rafting punters are told to walk, but the raft guides usually padle the rafts down.
Cat raft takes on "You First".
The rapid after Manwella is "You First": there's a sneaky kayak line river right with a 1m boof through a small slot, or a larger more interesting line river left of the large central boulder. Again, swimming rafters have been sucked into the green room, so punters walk, raft guides run. Not long after is Babalooba - rocky for the first half then a big wave train to finish. Straight after is 'Last Laugh', a very photogenic two tier drop run down the channel river right. From here its about 1hr mellow paddling to the take out where a road comes in on river right. Then back to watch the video in Mama Africa!
Above this commercial section is apparently another great grade IV two or three day trip, which can be paddled right down to the commercial put-in. Below the commercial section lurks the Abacomba Abyss, a section of hard grade V/V+.
Urubamba (Gd 4/5, 12km)
It is a bit tricky to get to the put-in but well worth the effort. The river runs alongside part of the railway track from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, and thus position down the river can be judged by the railway 'km' posts. Aguas Calientes is a small very touristy town only reachable by train that is a base to catch a bus up to Machu Picchu - very famous inca ruins. The section described here is from Chilca (km 76.8) to km 88. Chilca is about 2hrs from Cusco ($20 in a taxi, or bus to Ollantaytambo and then combi or something the last 7km to Chilca), and has only one, unfortunately expensive, place to stay - Nustayoc Lodge @ $15 a night. Very nice though and off season as it was, the owner, an english speaking architect from Lima, even sat and had dinner with us... From the Lodge it is possible to walk 2 mins to the river.
The get-out is at km 88. This is a train stop with shop and generally people around. The local kids might want to play with your boats, but you can catch a train either way (back upstream or downstream to Agues Calientes). We caught the 8.30pm train to Agues Calientes and made a bee-line for the hot springs.
We paddled this river at at low level (approx 15-20 cumecs) in Sept and I imagine this run gets pretty mental when the water is higher.Km 76 (Chilca) to km 79 is a nice easy grade 3 intro to the run. At precisely the km 79 post the river visibly steepens for the next km. Several hard pushy rapids, mostly 4+. Awesome section. Km 82 is one of the starting points for the Inca Trail, and a train stop is visible on river right. More obvious perhaps is the bridge over the river. About 30m beyond the bridge on a left hand bend is a nasty grade V river-wide pourover. Can inspect (and portage like we did) on river left.
The river then carries on at fast and hard grade IV up to about km 83, where the river mellows fractionally and becomes a little less pushy, finally with some braething space between rapids. Don't let this deceive you however, as at about Km 84.5 there is another grade V rapid where all the water pours down a slot straight into a large boulder. Inspect (and portage?) river left. Km 85-86 is a long river km as the river meanders in a large U shape away from the railway. Towards the end of this section is a riverwide IV+ pourover.
Boofing a pourover on the Urubamba.
Just over a km later just before km 87, two massive boulders on river left mark the beginning of a grade V/VI canyon. The easiest way to portage this is to break out river right, carry up to the railway tracks. Portage down the tracks past the km 87 post and through a tunnel. 1 km walk gets you to a small path back down to the river. From here the last 1/2 km to the get out at km 88 is grade 4-ish. When you see a big scree slope river right, hop out and carry up to catch the train.
A little way below km 88 the river is dammed and most of the water is taken out and pumped down beyond Machu Picchu. There is a radical looking section in Agues Calientes town itself, although you would need more volume that when we were there. The section below this looks pretty hard too... This lower section of the river can be scouted by continuing to walk down the railway tracks from Agues Calientes. Mandor waterfall (not really kayakable) is down here too, although in higher water the creek might be good. There are also apparently waterfalls on the tributary above the hot springs at the top of Agues Calientes.
Lunahuana (Gd 4/4+, 30km)
The Lunahuana flows down into San Vicente de Cañete, just south down the coast from Lima. Get off the bus at Cañete, and make you way (taxi/combi) to Imperial which is just on the outskirts. From here it is possible to get a local bus or combi (about 3 hours) up the river. The river section described here is 30km long - get-on at Catahuasi and take-out at Pacaran. There are various ways of doing shuttle - we caught a combi up the river from Imperial to Pacaran and stayed in a hostel there for the night, in morning left our stuff in the hostel and caught a bus up the river and paddled down in the afternoon, staying at Pacaran again in the evening. Be warned though, it takes longer than you think to get around - after we stayed in Pacaran we got up really early the next day and were out trying to hitch a lift up river at 6.30am. Caught a combi at 8am halfway there and although we tried to bargain they wouldn't take us the rest of the way. Ended up catching the local bus that left Pacaran at 10.30am and got into Catahuasi about 12...
In Catahuasi walk upstream past the police station and you can get down to the river just past the school. The get-out at Pacaran is obvious and is marked by a large red iron bridge. The first km out from Catahuasi is explosive, rocky, and very steep but due to the low volume most of it can be run blind, with only a couple of rapids we jumped out to have a look at. After this the river mellows a little, but the gradient is pretty unrelenting.
A little way down you pass under the bridge high above that takes the road from river-left to river-right. A little further on and the river steepens perceptably again as it passes under a footbridge. My memory gets a little blurred after this (we were paddling fast to make it down before dark), but I think the river mellows a little before entering a small canyon, and finally a white cross becomes visible in the mountains ahead. Beneath the cross is Pacaran, with the get-out from the river obvious due to the whopping red iron bridge. All-in-all we managed to paddle the 30km in just over 5hrs, without even the consideration of a portage. Magic. Don't forget to visit the 'Pisco' distillery in Pacaran after the run either!
Surf
There is some great surfing in Peru. Can go either in Lima, which has some really nice clean breaks, or we found a lovely spot at Punta Hermosa, about 40 mins south of Lima along the coastal road. Can jump off the bus on the main road and simply walk 15-20mins down to the beach, or a taxi is easier on the shoulders. A variety of waves to chose from, including 'Pico Alto'. 'Alto' sounded too ominous for me and I was happy with massive unintentional aerial bounces off the 'smaller' waves.
Logistics
How to get there
From the UK its a case of flying with your boat. Three of us flew out in Aug/Sept 2003, one with BA and two with Iberia. BA were, as usual, brilliant with boats but Iberia gave us some grief, although they did upgrade both of us to business class on the way home. Cost of flights were approx £800 each, although we were flying peak tourist season.
When to go
The season is virtually all year round, and it depends how scared you want to be as to when you go. The rains come in Oct/Nov and last to about March, and the water gets gradually lower and lower from then on during the year. We went in Sept, when the water was almost at its lowest, but if we were to go back I think we'd be tempted to go a bit earlier.
Getting Around
You'll spent a lot of time in Peru simply getting from place to place but I was surprised at how easy it was to get the kayaks around with you. Peru is undoubtably a big place, and flying is the fastest option and fairly cheap. Local airlines like Lan Chile and Lan Peru fly regularly from Lima to Cusco or Arequipa. A good alternative for long trips are the overnight buses - these are very cheap (even with the extra bribe to get the kayaks in the hold) and actually quite comfortable, often with a english film subtitled in spainish to keep you occupied. For shorter hops you can grab a local bus (kayak on roofrack/hold), taxi with roofrack (negotiate a fare before you get in!) or a collectivo (which is basically a small minivan that acts as a shared taxi). The collectivos are great, the record we had while out there was 29 people crammed into what is basically a Toyota HiAce van.
Weather
Obviously depends on what time of year you're out there, but basically pretty mild. In September when we were out it was sunny nearly every day and rained only twice. However, you're often at quite a high altitude (e.g. Cusco = 3500m alt.) so don't make my mistake and just bring out a thin sleeping bag and one fleece. You'll need warm stuff.
Accommodation
Hostels, hostels and more hostels. They are everywhere, and at what is the equivilent of about £2 a night, they're bargain. I'm sure that there are plenty of nicer and more expensive options, but financially broken after paying for our flights hostels are all we tried.
Costs
The cost of living while you're out there is very cheap. I went for a month and spent £800 on flights and £350 while I was there, and there was a lot of eating out in cafe/restaurant for breakfast and dinner, huge amounts of travelling around, etc. The peruvian currency is the Sol, but if you're going to take any cash or travellers cheques get them all in dollars, the 'unofficial' currency. Can just take a visa card and find a cash machine in most main centres.
Resources
- The undoubted bible of peruvian paddling can be found at peruwhitewater.com. An excellent site run by Kurt Casey with a river index that puts the stuff here to shame. Essential reading, although some of the river descriptions seem to be quite out of date.
- Tom Huges' "Take on Peru" made me chuckle too...