Es el canon mas profundo del mundo con 3,535 metros de profundidad,se extiende desde las estribaciones del nevado Solimana hasta la confluencia con el rio Ocona. La reserva paisajistica subcuenca del Cotahuasi comprende doce zonas de vida y tres regiones ecologicas y a lo largo de 100 kilometros de extension se pueden apreciar distintos pisos altitudinales,cada unos de ellos poseedor de especiaes endemicas tanto de flora y fauna.
Se localiza al sur de Peru delimitada por las sigientes coordenadas UTM 683,370 y 390,415 Este y 8'275,582 y 8'380,125 Norte. comprendida entre lso 14'40''22 y 15'35''27 latitud sur 72'19''15 y 73'18''08 longitud Oeste, en la region Arequipa.
existen grandes obras arquitectonicas construidas por el hombre preincaico, conujntos de andenes que se observa en casi todos los pueblos de la reserva en Pampamarca el anfiteatro de Puyca y Quillunza.
Ademas de ser naturaleza y aventura, el lugar es tambien cultura y tradicion, su patrimonio cultural consiste en pueblos andinos que conservan aun susu tradiciones ancestrales,comunidades rurales de tejedores de alfombras,iglesias coloniales,caminos incas,andenerias precolombinas,construcciones de origen inca y wari de gran esplendor,constituyendo un atractivo singular para los visitantes, se puede disfrutar de una variada muestra de folklore y artesania ademas de deliciosos vinos producidos artesanalmente.
la mejor temporada para visitar cotahuasi es entre los meses de mayo y noviembre, meses en los que los dias son soleados,las noches frescas y las lluvias escasas,por contraparte las temporadas de lluvia van desde diciembre a marzo,debido a que la zona tiene distintos pisos y altitudes,la temperatura varia de 8 a 28 grados celsius.
PAUCARTAMBO RIVER
“Well let’s find a private ride” he said. From then on Jonathon was on a mission to find the 5 of us a ride to the Paucartambo River in Peru.
He succeeded and we left that afternoon on a 4 hour ride to a bridge just downstream of a town that shares the same name as the river.
We got there by dark and camped by the river below a small village where most of the adults spoke only quichua a native language, only the kids had learnt to speak Spanish.
We woke early the next morning and put on a fairly small river flowing at about 7 to 800 CFS.
I had wanted to run this river ever since I saw a film of the first descent completed in the early 1980’s
What I didn’t know was that this river would turn out to be one of the best multi day runs I have ever done.
The Paucartambo starts way up in the mountains at around 10 000 feet about 200 miles later it flows into the Urubamba river way down in the upper Amazon basins jungle.
On its journey it flows through remote and difficult canyons, once it gets going after a flat water paddle at the start, it barely ever stops, endless perfect white water with only a few portages mostly solid class 4/4+ with some fantastic class 5 rapids thrown in on a fairly frequent basis.
I catch an eddy right above what appeared to be a 20 foot drop, I had been leading for a while now pushing into rapids without scouting trying to move quickly, we had 7 days worth of food but were late in the season, it was November and the wet season could arrive any time no one wants to be on this river when its high and it could flash in a matter of hours.
Looking over my shoulder I realized that this time I had over committed and because I was just 4 feet from the lip of the drop I could see from my boat that the drop had no exit the whole river disappeared under huge boulders.
I gave a stop signal to my friends; Ben scouted the rapid from the opposite bank, and immediately told me it didn’t go.
There was a cliff above me making it difficult to get out, but a ledge about 10 feet up offered me my only option, I managed to climb up dragging my boat with me, and continued to climb up stream to ferried over to join the others in our first Portage.
Just downstream a huge class 5 rapid took us an hour to scout and only 30 seconds to run.
After more big rapids on the limit of being boat scoutable we reach another huge rapid where 90 % of the water slammed into a huge boulder after dropping over a evil looking ledge, we were tired and decided to camp here amounst the boulders in the heart of Orange canyon a appropriately name canyon due to all the rocks being colored orange, we were never sure why but guessed it might be some kind of mineral in the water because only the rocks that were under or had at some time been under the water were colored Orange, a weird looking phenomenon.
Orange Canyon was full of sieves but we got through it the next day and entered a flatter area for a while before entering another steep canyon.
More great white water, and a fabulous, scenic canyon, one time I remember floating between rapids in this deep beautiful canyon , I looked up and put my arms up in the air feeling the joy of just being in this place.
Day 3 on the river proved to be the biggest including a section flowing at 250 feet per mile, with what was now about 1800 CFS.
I stalled in a big hole, got threw it but had lost all my speed and I was blinded by the water, instinct and the look of the rapid from the eddy above it, told me there was another drop coming up I had time for one stroke and then I hit a much bigger second hole, fortunately my kayak went deep really deep under the hole, it resurfaced quickly but clear of the hole, I was lucky, and had time to send the other’s on a different route through the same rapid.
We reached a huge class 6 rapid that required a portage over big lose boulders at the bottom of a land slide, portages often seem more difficult and dangerous to me than actually kayaking the big rapids and here I took a big fall while carrying my loaded boat hitting my head on a sharp rock, my helmet saved me.
Shortly after our portage we were scouting once again, this time in a walled in canyon.
The first part was unrunnable but fortunately portagable, the second part looked like it was good to go but at first glance was impossible to scout.
We were all unsure how bad the holes we would have to run looked from are vantage point upstream of the rapid.
“Where do we go” asked Ben “I’m not sure but we will figure it out” I said trying to sound confident, really I had no idea and got in my boat not sure where I was going but felt if a ferried around a bit above the rapid it might become clear.
There was a small cove in the cliff wall just downstream of the eddy I was in, the water was whirling around and getting pushed around the corner into a giant hole the worse spot on the rapid, however there was also a rock ledge where I could get out and climb downstream to scout.
I managed to back my boat into the cove and found a hand hold on the ledge, Todd threw me a rope that I could attach to my boat in case it got away from me while I was getting out, getting out of your boat on to a small ledge while its bouncing around in a whirl pool that your convinced is a plughole into a sieve is not easy, at least not mentally, but somehow I found myself and my boat on the ledge.
It took a while and some rock climbing to be able to scout the rapid but eventually I came back to within sight of my friends with the good news -- the rapid was good to go.
Some of the crew still didn’t like the idea and now I was in a position to help them portage so they took that option, Jonathan and I ran the rapid and we all ran another easier rapid that allowed us to exit the canyon, out into the sunlight and to a perfect beach for camping at the end of are longest day.
Fun white water continued on our 4th day and the next day we had half a day more on the river and we made it down to the confluence with the Urubamba River.
The Puacartambo River here at the confluence had close to 5000 CFS, it was amazing to think that just 4 and half days ago we put on in the mountains with around 700 CFS!
There is a road at the confluence that eventually would get us back to Cuzco but all the locals we met said they would be no bus, however there would be a 40 foot motorized canoe going upstream at 5 in the morning, we camped in the yard of a local family living in a bamboo hut raising chicken and gathering fruit from the jungle.
The Canoe arrived just as the sun was coming up the next day, he stopped and picked the 5 of us and all our kayaks up, and there was more than enough room in his giant canoe.
He powered upstream against around 8 to 10 000 CFS, ferrying from eddy to eddy he had impressive skill, soon we reach a part of the road that the buses do drive to and then had to with stand about 17 hours on two different buses back to Cuzco, riding not far from the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.
PERU WAVE RIDER
THE POWER OF OUR PASSION
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