Cañon del Cotahuasi

Having had enough of Peruvian "Chicken Buses" we decided to pimp our  journey from Lima to the southern city of Arequipa to a flight!

In Arequipa we met up with Kent Miller, caught up on some 10 years and then gave him a 5 day break from Derek, Crystal and Anne plus with Carlos too we had a group for the Cotahuasi Canyon, reportedly the deepest in the world!!

Gustavo styled us to the put in, a grueling journey that took us on the Panamericana, crossing several passes most of which were dirt tracks and the rescuing of a car that was pitched on the canyons rim!!

After about 4 hours of sleep we left the village of Cotahuasi and were heading for our rendevous with the mule herders!!

The usual trek to the put in of Velinga was closed, so we got an amazing trek down to the river.  

The views were amazing!!

Check out the mules down below!

Anne↑

Derek ↑

Just some of the ruins that are in the Canyon

Crystal↑

Carlos ↑

John & Crystal↑

John dropping in↑

Heading towards another set of ruins!!

Campsites in old terraces

John styling it!!

A bed of Robsons!!!!

It was certainly an amazing trip and without doubt a great way to finish off our Peruvian adventure.  A big thanks goes out to Gustavo and Expediciones y Aventuras, La Casa da Sillar, El Turko the kebab shop and everyone who boated with us or helped us out throughout our time in Peru!

  

Pozuzo and a First Descent on the Rio Santa Cruz

After a brutal bus journey out of the jungle to Lima, we headed on another 12 hour bus journey to the remote colonial town of Pozuzo.

Here we had the opportunity to test out our local German dialects with the relatives of the Austrians who founded Pozuzo.

We made some friends ate some decent food, drank the best coffee in Peru and John even got a cake for his birthday from Maria!!

We paddled the Rio Pozuzo a couple of times.  This is one of the best class V- day runs in Peru.  Easily accessible once you are there and the run finishes right in the centre of the village so a 2 minute walk with our kayaks brought us back to Maria's.

What we also managed to do was to put in a "First Descent" on the Rio Santa Cruz.  Planning and organizing this was no that easy.  There are no topo maps for this part of Peru and so you need to get in there yourself to check it all out.

The locals were absolutely amazed that 2 "Gringo Kayakers" were running the river.  As we passed under a wooden footbridge, the locals all ran to the otherside and nearly flipped the bridge and spilling everyone into the river!!

The rest of the village who had some form of motorized transport kept following us down the river!

The Rio Santa Cruz turned out to be our easiest river of our Peruvian Adventure, a cheeky little class III down the middle with a nasty class VI rapid to keep you on your guard!

A great way to get ourselves ready for the next river, the Cotahuasi Canyon (regarded as the worlds deepest).

A big thanks must go out to Maria Egg for really looking after us and to Ludwig and his family for some great hospitality but also for finding my camera halfway down the Pozuzo!!!!