In the South Western corner of Peru, the Rio Cotahuasi carves the deepest canyon in the whole of the Americas, through the Andean Mountains, and the Atacama desert, and into the Pacific Ocean.
In order to raise money for charity I am going to solo-paddle as much of the river as possible.
I will be paddling a catraft as it is the best vessel for transporting myself and all my gear for a 2-3 week river trip.
The river has a commercial rafting section( which is 6 days on the river), but this is such a remote canyon that it is run very rarely.
My plan is to run the river from above the commercial put-in, through some long stretches of class 4 and 5 (there are a couple of canyons which I may portage), and 1 definate portage around Sipia Falls (60m waterfall, and cataract). Then raft through the commercial section and on down to the Pacific Ocean at Ocona.
Thats the "plan" (for want of a better word).
The trip is about challenge.....my skills and experince agains the environment.
The image below is taken from space, of the Rio Cotahuasi,and its neighbour The Colca Canyon (the 2nd deepest in the Americas). The Cotahuasi is the gorge on the left. The snow covered peaks are 2 volcanoes (from left to right); Solimana 6,093m, and Coropuna 6,425m. These mountains are the highest points of the plateau which the Cotahuasi has cut its way through. At the deepest point in the valley the river is 3,354m below the summit of Nevado Coropuna (over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). This was once thought to be the deepest in the world (that was recently changed to the Yarlung Tsango in the Himalayas).
The Rio is still one of the deepest and remote places on the planet, at over 2 miles deep, on the Southern end of the Atacama desert (the driest place on earth).


The white in the bottom left corner is low level cloud on the Pacific Ocean coastline

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Back from the deep!!!

7 days later, and I´m back in Arequipa.
It was amazing in the canyon for 6 of those days.
The waterlevels were low, which is why I planned to go this time of year, but the white water was good.
There were 6 portages made in that time, mostly around very tight narrows, I´m talking just a few feet wide....for those in Scotland, a bit like the Narrows on the Tummel, but way harder.
The river is steep, you look down into every rapid no matter what class it is. It just depends on how steep, how many rocks and how wude it is.

The Inca ruins are everywhere, terraces round every corner....lots of them, and old mines, which were holes in the cliff sides....and you can spot the old path walls hanging off the cliff sides. They were amazing at building these things.
There are also people still down there.....mostly growing grapes for wine! Theres not a lot of people, I can count all of them that I saw on all my fingers and toes.

There will be more updates coming, and photos. I´ll do that once I get back to Lima in the next day or two. It´ll take time as there is a lot of stuff on camera, and wee mpegs.

At moment I am in Arequipa, enjoying the sun and a couple of beers

Ta ra the noo
Bruce
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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Donation links

Hi thre to anyon trying to donate money for CLAN in scotland. There is an easily solvabl problem with the link.
When you get transferred to the "just giving"site, do a search for my name BRUCE LOW, or the blog name raftcotahuasi.blogspot.com, and you'll find the right page to donate.

hope it doesn't put anyone off giving a bit of cash, and thanks for th thought anyway
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In Peru

Well I finally made it it Peru, and so did all my gear. Thanks Amrican Airlines.
In was a bit worried as I didn't catch any plane that I was booked onto. Thanks AGAIN Amrican Airlines. Th first plane broke down on the runway at Minneapolis airport. All passengers were unloaded and told to rebook new flights. I got an extra flight to New York.....YEAH, and an extra 4 hours hanging around airports before I got to Lima at midnight.....then got to the hostl and had a couple of beers before bed at 1.30 am.....a lovly 23 hours of travel.

Anyway less of the complaining, especially since I've got 2 marathon bus journeys to go. Tomorrow I have 15 hours, and 1000km to get to Arequuipa, then the same day I have another 10 hours to get to Cotahuasi town, then I'm nearly there.....just a short walk down 5000ft into the gorge before finally being able to get on a river!

Speak to you soon
Bruce
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

HOW LONG TO GO?

THREE DAYS.....3 sleeps left....NOT LONG!
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Thanks NRS

I would like to give a big thanks to NRS, particularly Terry, for hooking me up with a fantastic frame for the cat. I had a great time at the warehouse in Idaho, I have never been to Moscow before and was surprised at the lack Russian spoken there!
The frame has been put together, and taken apart several times (just so I know what do at the side of the river.....)I even did it in the dark while being eaten by mosquitos, that was for that extra realistic feel.
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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Here we go!

So this is it. After a few days of getting this blogsite together I am ready to get myself out there and see where it goes.
I've been sitting in darkened rooms in Minneapolis for several days, and everyone here probably thinks I've been porn surfing. I haven't wanted to say anything to anyone til I got it done as good as I could.
Its got all the basic information I need to passs on to people who would be interested in sponsoring me for this "little journey", but I am sure it will change as I keep writing posts.
I fully intend to use it to keep people up to date about what is going on, and also when I am actually in Peru I will fill it in as often as I can. Which would be very intermittent since I am going be either 6000m up a volcano, or 3000m down a gorge, and various places, and heights in between in a desert.

Well thats it for now, a bit brief I know, but its time to get some sun-light and speak to human beings again!

A the noo......Bruce
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