Rio Apurimac

The Rio Apurimac was by far my favorite river we ran in Peru.

We decided to do the Black Canyon section as well as the commercial section and went shopping for 6 days of food for the trip. We left Cusco around 2 or 3 pm, with 7 people, Andy, Emily, Ben, Scott, Me, Hootie, and Drew. We had one raft, with Drew, Emily and Hootie in it. I riverboarded, Ben, Scott and Andy kayaked.
We drove into the town of Naiwa. The drive was spectacular and we had an awesome sunset on the descent. It was dark when we got into the tiny town, and we were greeted by the entire town.... really wasted drunk. We lugged our gear through town and to the soccer field next to the school. We had a palta and pan dinner and went to bed.
Day 1:
We woke up in one of the most beautiful places. It must be awesome to live in Naiwa. It was a bit of a walk from the soccer field to the river, so it took us a while to rig and put on. We put on around 10:15. It wass a pool - drop river, with class 2-4 stuff throughout the day. The pools were long. The first day was really leisurely, stopping for lunch on a nice sandy beach, while a local watched from a rock above. We were on the water about 4 hours, then found a nice campsite. We made a fire and had rice n veggies for dinner and some delicious pudding for desert. Num num num.

Day 2: In a nutshell.....
Lots of flatwater. I started out riverboarding and got tows on the back of Andy´s kayak... which was really fun. I got in the raft after the SOOOOPA long pool.. I was over it. At lunch, everyone but Andy got in the raft and we towed the kayaks. There were some fun rapids, so we all got out and into our respective crafts for a while... then it got flat again and I got back into the raft and Andy came too. So everyone spent time in the raft on day 2. Ha ha. We found an awesome huge sandy beach camp... we were loving it!


Day 3:In a nutshell.....
I rode in the raft because all we could see was flat. It was pretty much flatwater all day so I was stoked on my decision. We reached the orange bridge around noon, which meant we were out of the Black Canyon and at the start of the commercial section. There was a little tienda at the top of the bridge, so we went up and got some arroz con huevos (eggs and rice) and bought some firewater... I think it was straight up alcohol... like rubbing alcohol.. ha ha. We bought some Coca Cola too... which is the most best tasting here.
We headed downstream like 20 more minutes and found a nice sandy beach on river right. We set up camp super early. We flipped over the raft and were doing otter slides.... super fun.

Around 10 pm, it started pouring rain and kept raining till 7 am. The river didn´t really come up at all though.

Day 4: Best Day Yet!!

We had a slow morning and put on around 9. It was a super cool, super chill trip. No expectations, no rush, nowhere to be. It was great. The vibe and the energy of everyone was just awesome!! It was a great escape from party central Cusco.

The river got more constricted, steeper, and there started to be huge granite boulders everywhere. The canyon changed from the black, conglomerate rock in the Black Canyon, to this beautiful, white granite cliffs and boulders. The rapids got progressively bigger until we reached the big one.

The water went along the right wall with some slots at the top, then into two big holes. The first, a huge diagonal hole, and the second one considerably bigger and stompier than the first. I started far right, working to the middle, hitting the first hole and going kinda deep. I resurfaced just in time to go into the big munchy one. I went deep. I was underwater for a few seconds... came up upside down and rolled back up. It was awesome!

Ben and Scott also got flipped in that hole. The raft styled it. We found out later that was the Portage rapid. Ha ha. So much for portaging it... huh. It was good to go.

Just below the portage rapid was another big one. It was a steep drop with just a HUGE hole in it. Everyone ran it and disappeared and then came up upside down. I ran it and was underwater for quite a bit of time.... about 8 seconds.  The video´s funny.... all you see is me pop up at the bottom. Ha ha.

There was another rapid with a steep drop with a bunch of rocks in it. I dropped it and hit a rock with my left hip. I hovered on the rock just long enough to think to myself... "Am I body pinned?" which was pretty freaky. I kicked myself free. I got a really purty bruise and it was pretty tender for a day or two. That was my most freaky experience on my board.... maybe ever.

We got to another big rapid called Purgatory. It´s the one all the pictures of the Apurimac are of. It was all up on the left wall and there were some huge holes and pourovers. Andy got a little worked, which was entertaining because it´s so rare. At the bottom of the rapid, the river went through 2 small slots. Both about the width of a kayak. The raft had no way through. We had to portage it. It was quick and easy.


Another 1/4 mile downstream we found a great camp on the right, acrossed from a side creek with a beautiful canyon. We found a little cliff with some trees to chill out on and watch the sunset. It was awesome. The Apurimac is a beautiful river. I think it is my favorite just for it´s beauty. The white granite boulders are so amazing. The water is so clear you can see the bottom and every rock underwater.


Day 5: My parent´s Anniversary, 11-17
While we were rigging the boat and getting ready to put on, a commercial trip floated by. The guide came over to our beach and said hi, and that Gian Marco told him we would be there. Ha ha... small world. They kept going down river. We put on and had some pretty mellow rapids until we ran into those guys eating lunch. We stopped to say hi and get some beta about what was downstream. The nice guide gave us some paltas, naranjas, and platanos. We floated a little further downstream and ate all our yummy food we just recieved. ¨
"After lunch, the fun factor went to 10." - Baker. There was a rapid with a NICE 4 foot drop at the bottom and a few more class 3 rapids until we got to what looked like the place to scout the big one.
It was big. It was called Tooth Ache. It had a 5 foot boof at the top. The water all went into a rock on the left side, then into a huge hole, followed by a pourover, followed by another pourover. It was BIG and pushy. I walked it. They lined the raft. Only the kayakers ran it.
We started looking for camp after that, but we didn´t see a beach before the next rapid.
The next one was cool. It was called You First. All the water went into 2 huge boulders in the middle. There was a line to the left, squeezing between one of the middle rocks and a rock on the left shore. Everyone styled it. It was a sweet one.
Right after that we found a beach on the right. We ate well that night. We all sat and stared at the fire for a while and said what we were grateful for.... a Hootie original that I love.... it´s a great way to reflect on the wonderful trip we had. Yay.

Day 6: Andy´s Birthday!
We got up at 7... which was early for us on this trip.. and did yoga with Andy for about 45 min... until the bugs tore us up. We got out of camp early. We were trying to get to the take out before the commercial trip so we could be all packed and ready and try and catch a shuttle out with them.
The first big rapid we got to, the river split. We went right, which was shallow, but at the bottom, the 2nd half of the rapid was awesome. Steep with nice waves and holes.
Right after that was another big one. There was a steep line on the right with a big hole at the top and a huge pourover in the middle at the bottom. It was sweet!
From there, the rapids mellowed out. I started getting tows from Andy again in the flatwater, and then got in the raft for 30 mins till the take out. We got to the take out at the same time as the gear boat from the commercial trip. We unloaded and rolled the raft. The commercial trip said they had plenty of room for us on their bus... sweeeeet.... free shuttle.
We ate lunch there at the take out and then headed back to Cusco with the numpty´s on the bus.
They dropped us off right in front of Pierro´s house... he owns Terra Explorer Peru... where we rented the raft from... he´s also Gian Marco´s brother. Cool dude. Pierro wasn´t there... we were locked out... all our stuff was inside.... so we got a hostal acrossed the street and waited for him to come home. Ha ha. He didn´t come home till the next day. We returned the raft n gear and got all our stuff and hung out with Pierro the next day.

The Apurimac was AWESOME! I have some of my fondest Peru memories from the Apurimac. Chill vibes, great whitewater, awesome people, positive attitudes, everything made the trip magic. None of us wanted to leave once we got to the take out. Good times. Nothing but smiles from everyone all 6 days.

I love these pics of us all doing our own silly things and loving life!!

Drew Hootie ScottMe AndyBenEmily

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was AWESOME!!!!

We got up at 4 am to hike up there.,.. and ended up leaving at 4:40. The hike up was pretty long and pretty hard. Lots of stairs and lots of vertical. We got to the top at 6 am. It wasn´t open yet, so we waited till 6:30 and then went in.
We got grouped with all the kids on the other treks that we met on our jungle trek for our Machu Picchu tour. So that was cool we knew some people. Our tour guide was pretty funny. He kept talking smack about Japanese tourists and making us laugh.

When we got there, the clouds were really low, there were no tourists, and it was all surreal. It gave it this cool feeling. It was sweet.
We got through half the tour and got to the Waynapicchu trailhead. We broke off the tour and decided to hike up there because they only allow 400 people a day, and there was no one there yet.
The hike up to Waynapicchu was REALLY vigorous, but it was SO worth it. We hung out up at the ruins at the top for like an hour and a half. There was really not a lot of people up there, which made it a really cool experience.

We hiked back down and finished the rest of tour on our own. The Temple of the Condor was my favorite part, I think. It was just really cool and had these tunnels and secret passages in it. Sweet.

We spent about 5 hours there, then got hungry and needed to use the bathroom, so we began the hike back down to Aguas Calientes. We got there just in time to catch the train to Ollantaytambo, and then a bus back to Cusco.
Machu Picchu was a surreal experience. I´m glad I went, and I would go back in a heartbeat!!

Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu

We decided to go on a 4 day jungle trek to get to Machu Picchu. We went to BioCustoms and haggled and got a trip for $160 US. So that was a pretty good deal. It was 1 day of mountain biking, and 2 days of hiking, then 1 day at Machu Picchu. Good stuff.


Day 1 toward Machu Picchu:

We met at the agency in the morning and got in a cab to go to the bus station. We got on a bus for 4 hours and headed into the jungle. At one point we were at 14,000 feet. It was a pretty cool ride.






We got off the bus and got our bikes. They didn´t have enough helmets for all of us... so Drew and our guide Gabriel went without one. The bike ride was just on this bumpy dirt road. I got 3 flat tires, Hootie had 1, and Drew had 1. Fun stuff. We´d just stop at a bike repair shop in the next tiny town we got to and fix it. Not a huge deal.


While we were riding by, all the kids would run out to say hi and give you a high five. The kids here are super cute.

We got to Santa Maria about dark (5:45) and found our hostal, showered and had a great dinner. It was the town´s anniversary so we went to this big fiesta and hung out for a while. Soaked up some local culture and some drunk guys breath. Good times. Ha ha.


Day 2 Toward Machu Picchu:

Coca leaves are God´s gift to man. It´s SO GOOD and SO GOOD for you. We suck on the leaves, and drink MAD maté de coca, and buy things with coca in it like candy and granola bars. There is a possibility that it´s addictive..... nah.


We started hiking next to the Rio Vilcanota. It´s a pretty cool river. We cut off onto a smaller trail and went STRAIGHT UP the mountain for a while until we connected with a piece of the inka trail.


We stopped at a hut with free bananas and cold drinks. We were hanging out with another trekking group and they were pretty cool. Some from Canada, some from Florida, some from Amsterdam. Good times. We also stopped for lunch with them in this really cool village with puppies and chicks and roosters and tons of fun animals. We lounged in hammocks for a while, then kept going.




The trail finally went down and we got to Aguas Terminales around 5. The 7 hours of hiking was worth it for these hot springs!!! They´re pretty much in the middle of nowhere.... which makes them cooler. It was 7 soles to get in... that´s less than 2 bucks. They were AWESOME. There was flowing water through all of them so they weren´t stagnant or anything. Perfect temperature, and a cold waterfall just in case you got too hot.


We hung out there for a few hours then got in a kombi and went to Santa Teresa where we stayed the night in a pretty ghetto hostal. Ha ha. I mean ghetto.... but the bed was cumfy and that´s all that matters.


We went to dinner with the 7 of us.. Me, Hootie, Drew, Brian, the two italians with us, Marco and Sara, and our guide Gabriel. Good times.



Day 3 toward Machu Picchu:
Best Day Yet. We got up early and got into a kombi and went to a really cool waterfall. I guess not many tourists go there, which was cool. Our guide Gabriel was good for stuff like that. We spent about an hour there and then headed out.


We stopped at another waterfall which was a diversion tunnel for a hydro plant. It was pretty cool too. We got to our lunch spot early and had a nice early lunch. We stopped at some old Inca ruins after lunch that were really cool. There was a sundial, and I guess there were only two or something... the one there.. and the one at Machu Picchu. It was cool, standing on the sundial, you could see Machu Picchu way up on the mountain far away.


From there on, we walked along the train tracks all the way to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu.


When we got to Aguas Calientes, we put our bags in our room and left for Putucusi, the peak acrossed from Machu Picchu so we could watch the sun set over the ruins. OH MY GOD! I haven´t done a hike that hard in a long time. It was straight up. Literally.

We climbed up ladders and steps to go straight up the mountain. Gabriel said it would take us at least an hour. We mobbed it in 45 minutes. Me, Brian and Gabriel were up at the top for about 45 minutes before Hootie, and the frenchies (the french couple Vincent and Lucy) got to the top. It was spectacular. We watched the sun go behind the clouds behind Machu Picchu. It was so cool.



The hike down was pretty sketchy in the half-dark. Ha ha. Hootie lost his wallet on the way down too... but that´s another story... a long one. ... On the way down we descended 2,000 feet in 20 minutes. Good stuff.
We went back to Aguas Calientes and had some pizza and Hootie, Brian and Gabriel went back to look for the wallet.. like I said... longer... different story.
We went to bed around 11.. without the wallet... and planned to get up at 4 am to hike to Machu Picchu.

Rio Cotahuasi

The Cotahuasi was EPIC!!!! It started out epic... and continued to be epic.. until it had an epic ending..... this one´s gunna be a long one...

We started out in the town of Cotahuasi and went on a day trip to the Upper Cotahuasi. We went to go to some hot springs while the kayakers went to go yakin. It was pretty big sievy class 5 stuff, so we dropped them off and watched from the road like 2,000 feet above the river. The first rapid, Brian swam and ended up hiking out this pretty agro hike to the bus again. We ended up watching them run the entire section from the road and not going to the hot springs because they wanted to overcharge us because we were gringos. We got pissed off and left.

We left Cotahuasi for the Cotahuasi river on the 22nd, I think. We hiked in with mules again, but this hike was much mellower than the Colca hike, and way less scenic. It was 16 km, I think. We did go by Sipia Falls though, which is a 400 ft. waterfall. That was pretty scenic. It was very desert-y and cactus-y. We got to the river and then ferried all our gear acrossed and spent the night.

We decided to have a layover day there so that the kayakers could run another section of the Cotahuasi that day.. and we hiked into the town nearby. It was really cool. We went to the school and hung out with the kids and Brian (Dos Metros) picked papayas out of tall trees for this dude. Good stuff. We also hiked up this cool flash flood run out that went straight up. There was a dead rattlesnake up there.. .kinda creepy.

Day 1.... crazy day number 1.
In one of the first rapids... Hootie lost an oar. Gone. We tried to get it out from some rocks but we couldn´t see it.. and then eventually gave up because we had to keep moving. So they paddle rafted from then on. In one of the next rapids, Hootie´s raft (Hootie, Sara, Emily) flipped and we lost some food. Gian Marco got all pissed and decided he should guide the raft, so he hopped in. They got through one rapid and then flipped. Gear was floating everywhere, people too. I was the gear fetching riverboarder for a bit.

After that, we got our shit together. The river was really low. It was steep, technical, and continuous. It was a challenge for sure. There are 2 rafts, one raft with 4 people, gear, and a kayak strapped on it, one gear raft, one ducky, one riverboarder, and 8 kayakers. It´s a lot of boats on a technical river. So we sent out 5 kayakers, and me riverboarding out front to scout and give signals, then 2 kayakers, 2 rafts and the ducky in the back all running together.
Drew was killing it on the oars. I ´can´t tell you how impressed we all were with his rowing ability. He´s styling everything.

We camped the first night at an inca ruin. It was sick. Took some cool photos I´ll put up on the blog when I can. There´s a lot of inca ruins on the Cotahuasi. There´s also some civilization unlike the Colca. It´s cool.

Day 2.... The wall.... not as agro as the 1st day....
We got a later start in the morning. Ben threw up and I had poop urgency. We got on the water and had some bigger rapids right away. We scouted probably 7 times today.
Around noon we hit the biggest and longest one, " The Wall". It was, long, technical, narrow, and BIG... and it was all against the left wall. Everyone styled it. We went down half way and set safety for the rafts, then ran the rest. No prob.All the rapids had some pretty fun moves to make in them... with big consequences. Lots of undercuts.. lots of sieves. We had a portage after lunch. They lined the rafts, the ducky and I walked it. It was gnarly.

DAY 3... one word... MARPA.
We left camp a little earlier in the morning. We didn´t make it to the camp we wanted to get to the night before, so we were trying to make up time and catch up a bit to where we should be...
There was some steep read and run stuff until we got to Marpa. This was the big one. We all got out and scouted it and it was longer and stouter with big hydraulics. There were moves you HAD to make.

The paddle raft went first and made it look easy. All the kayakers were placed along shore with throwropes near all the big hydraulics. Then Christina and Roberto went through. Next up was me. It went so well. Hit all the lines I wanted to and caught the eddy I needed to catch. Plan A.. sweet!

Next up was Drew in the oar rig. He dropped in and all I heard was whistles and people running upstream. He had pinned his boat in the top drop right above the rapid between a rock and the undercut wall. UNDER WATER. All the gear. This was around 10 am.

Then all the gear started slowly washing downstream... a barrell... a cooler.. a dry bag.... lots of gear and food running the gnar. All the kayakers ferried acrossed to river right and set up a z-drag. The boat didn´t budge. We snapped ropes, we snapped D-rings.. boat didn´t move. Around 2 pm we gave up... we decided to camp on shore next to the pinned boat.

They unloaded all that we hadn´t lost from the gear raft, while we unloaded all the stuff from the paddle raft and hiked around and up the rapid. While we were hiking, the boat came off. Amazingly, the boat was fine!

We were all run down and tired and had lost a lot of gear. We lost quite a bit of food, some of Gian Marco´s gear, Emily´s water filter, my spare flippers, the stern frame, raft repair kits, ah geez. It wasn´t looking so good for us.

We ate soggy pasta for dinner because that was all we had. It was a quiet night at camp. Drew kept apologizing even though he didn´t need to. Wasn´t his fault. Shit happens. The Cotahuasi was laying the smack down on us again. We have to get outta here in 2 days or else we run out of food.

Did I mention that Gian Marco had never seen it this low? So we didn´t know how long it would take to get out. Yee haw! Day 3.. Marpa... wha´d I tell ya.

DAY 4.... More big stuff... Less Drama...

Drew finally ran Marpa at the beginning of the day. Styled it. For some reason, Gian Marco decided to jump into Marpa and swim the last drop.. and I guess he hit his head in it.
All the biggest rapids were on day 4. We had Meter Canyon, a steep drop into a slot smaller than a raft, followed by a steep left to right drop. Then we had Centimeter canyon, which was one of the harder rapids. An S-turn move into the center drop with a giant wieve at the botton left and a tiny slot on the right with crazy boily water at the bottom. Had to roll off the wall at the bottom of that one. It was kinda gnarly. They lined the rafts.

We had another rapid called Orange Juice with 3 flakes at the top and a HUGE flake/ pourover tombstone at the bottom in the center. We all styled it, and they lined the rafts. There was another rapid called Highside for Your Life. There was a GIANT S-turn move with a giant hole above a big boulder. I went super deep in the hole and when I came up, all I heard was Scott yelling " That girl´s crazy!" It was a fun one.

There was one huge one that most people walked and they lined the rafts through, and Drew´s raft flipped while lining it. Only Jonathan, Scott, and Andy ran it. It wasn´t very fun looking.
The river changed character after that one and it widened out and got very shallow. Not fun for riverboarding.

DAY 5... The longest day yet....

We got up at 5:30 and were on the river by 6. I was pretty sick in the morning so I got into the gear raft and hung out with Drew for a bit. It was really shallow Class 2-3 stuff. The wind kicked in at 10:30 and life started to suck. The rapids got so shallow that we had to walk the rafts and we blew upstream all the time. They had these fish traps... without the traps in them so there were just large sticks blocking the channels. Good times avoiding those.

We ended up being on the river for 6 hours before we got to the takeout. When we got there Gian Marco hopped a ride into town to arrange a van to pick us up. The van came pretty quickly and we loaded up and went into town. We ate a real meal. Ahhhhhh. So good.. and Coca Cola too. Ahhh so good! The town was really cool. The town centro had a giant statue of a Camarone. They´re the shrimp you get out of the river and they´re gooooood. Everyone was drinking beer and hanging out in the town square and we were there chillin with them and all our gear.

We unloaded the van and loaded onto a bus. We drove for like 6 hours or so till 9 or so and got to the town of Camana. We were supposed to switch out busses and drive all the way to Arequipa... but there was no bus there to meet us. So we convinced our driver to drive us all the way.
Once we were out of Camana, the driver asked Gian Marco if he could drive because he was tired. He was having trouble figuring out the gear shifting and I guess it was hard to drive. About 20 minutes into it, it started making this horrible noise and Gian Marco alerted us that the accelerator was stuck and he couldn´t stop accelerating. Sweet. Isn´t that what you want to hear. There was lots of yelling and swerving.. and finally they opened up the floor and did something to the engine to stall it out.

Now we were stuck on the side of the road. Sweet. An hour or so went by of them trying to fix it... finally they jerry rigged it to make it work with string or something, and we turned around and drove back to Camana. Now it was 1:30 am. We got into town and found a hostal that would take all 14 of us and all our shit for 60 soles. That´s cheap. So we crammed 7 of us into a tiny room with 4 beds, and the rest slept on the roof with the roosters and goats. Good times. We got probably a solid 3 hours of sleep.

Day 6.... still technically day 5?....
We got up and had some awesome smoothies, cafe, and empenadas, and then Gian Marco found us a huge ass tour bus that would take us. So we loaded up all our shit into the huge ass bus and off we went to Arequipa. We got here around noon. We´ll be here for a day or two and then it´s off to Cusco for Halloween. Woo hoo.

The Cotahuasi adventure was a long, epic one. I´m kinda glad it´s over now... but it was awesome times!!!

I got a first descent of the Cotahuasi on my riverboard! That´s pretty sick! I´m stoked about that one. I think it definately was a difficult river to riverboard too. I feel like I gained a lot of respect for riverboarding on this trip. People didn´t think a riverboarder could run the lines I did and that´s awesome. I also feel like I didn´t run that gnarly of lines and I never went out of my comfort zone. I pushed it, but not too far. That´s exactly what I wanted to do on this trip. Hell yeah!

Colca Thinking

Bugs galore- never stopped gnawing at my ankles for 4 days.
Rockfall death at any moment - kinda sketchy.
WIND!!! Moving upstream in rafts
SWIMMER!!! Emily, Drew, 2 rafts flipping, Wairo
CONDOR!!!! The condors are amazing.
I´m grateful night.... we all said why we were grateful while getting sandblasted on the last night... good times.
Chocolate Canyon
Green Canyon
Slightly hungry all the time
Cankles and Wrarms
Hiking in
Baby in the microwave joke and kid in the trunk joke
Pumping water
Hot springs
Cafe´ y hot chocolate y mate´
First dog descent of the Colca
Cathole poop station
Highside!!!!!

Colca Quotes

"It´s class 2 till camp." - Gian Marco right above a huge class 5 rapid.

"Please do this for me!" - Hootie begging Ben to crack him over the back with a giant bamboo stick.

"COLCA!!!" - Everyone, every few hours or so.

"Holy Chit!" - Gian Marco

"Wairo, echese!"- Drew, Sara, and Christina because they had the squirly dog in their boat.

"It´s just a bunch of dirt."- Scott Baker.

"CONDOR!!" - Gian Marco

Rio Colca

I just got off the Colca yesterday, and now I´m in the town of Cotahuasi getting ready to leave for the Cotahuasi river tomorrow. We hike in with mules tomorrow and camp at the put in.This is either the deepest canyon on earth, or the Colca, which we just did is the deepest canyon on earth. Either way, they´re both pretty friggin deep.

The Colca was awesome! First we hiked in with mules for somewhere between 14 and 20 km... there was a discrepancy in the distance.. .it felt like 20. We descended 6,000 feet in 8 hours. My knee was buggin by the bottom. It was one of the most spectacular hikes I´ve ever done.

We spent the night by the river the first night and were anxious to see what we just got ourselves into. It was pretty bony and shallow until we reached the confluencia with the Mamacocha river. That added about 500 cfs, which was just what we needed. We stopped and offered some coca leaves to the gods at the confluence for a safe trip. From that point, the rapids only got bigger.














The winds picked up at 10:30 on the dot and they were a gustin´. Our first rapids we came to were 1, 2, and 3, and the scout took about 40 minutes of gnarly hiking about 1,000 feet above the river. So we scouted and then ran it, and everything I had planned to do wasn´t actually possible to do.. ha ha. We were relying solely on kayakers paddle signals. It was awesome! This was class 5 rafting!

We spent our first night above what was the biggest rapid yet of the trip in the middle of a tight gorge. The whole river had changed since the last time Gian Marco was there and we were in a new set of rapids, with the biggest one being the newest one.

I guided most of the time with Hootie and Emily up in front paddling and a pile of gear in the middle. It made it hard to get used to manuvering in the technical stuff. It was so sweet though! Emily fell out on the second day, in one of the biggest rapids on the trip. She swam over a 3 or 4 foot ledge onto some shallow stuff and messed up her knee. She just got bruised up real good. We named that rapid Rhodes Rodilla (Rhode´s knee). (Hootie was guiding that one... ha ha).
Later on the 2nd day, we hit a wall and flipped. The other raft flipped in the same spot. 2 upside down rafts and 6 swimmers.. ha ha... and a dog. Wairo the dog got the first doggie descent on the Colca.

Things move fast in the Colca. Lots of blind droppy stuff on the 3rd day. Drew had a gnarly swim too, in another bigger rapid on the 3rd day. Tons of excitement. It´s basically like rafting with 7 safety kayakers though, so it´s cool.The whole trip was pretty epic. We entered Chocolate Canyon on day 3, then went into Green Canyon, where all the rocks were green. So cool.

We had two major portages on the 3rd day too. There was nowhere to go in the first one, except down. We portaged under the rapid! All these huge boulders had fallen in, making the whole river sieve out into this huge cave. The whole left side was under rocks, so we portaged under them. It was epic! The second portage was really long. We had to do 4 fire lines of gear, and it took us a little over an hour. That section of river was all sieved out too, but we had to go up, over, and around the rapid.

The last day, we had a short paddle out, and the Garabato (our shuttle driver´s name was pasted all over our vehicle) was there to pick us up. We drove into the town of Cotahuasi all night, up over a pass over 15,000 feet. We drank rum, pisco, and cervesa from like 10 in the morning when we got off the Colca, until around dinner time, so we were all hung over by the time we went over the pass and finally got into town. Good times.

Now we´re leaving for the Cotahuasi river at 6 am tomorrow. I´m riverboarding for 6 days now, and I´m really excited!! Should be epic too!