The Jungle and Amazing Rivers
Last year
after completing the Argentinian-Chilean kayak tour, which was accompanied by a
very nice weather, some rain and clouds we decided that our next year adventure
is going to be somewhere in the tropical climate! At first the dice fell on
Costa Rica but a week later we decided for Colombia, mostly because of the
connection there-the French Jouls Domine and his stories about epic kayaking adventures.
Once we had
our minds set on Colombia it was time to collect the remaining information
about how, where, when, put ins, take outs, shuttles, maps, etc. Then finally we packed and left! Two months
later we found ourselves at Medelin’s Rio
Negro airport with a good classical crew consisting of me, Igor Mlekuz , Jernej
Mlekuz and Fabian A. Bonanno (ARG) who came to pick as up with a non-kayaker
Erik Sturm (SLO). They were already 10 days in Colombia before we arrived! We
met the rest of the crew in the legendary Casa Kiwi hostel (in Medellin) lead by
Jouls Domine (FRA), Ben Marr (CAN), Eric Parker (USA), Todd Wells (USA).
We were
ready to paddle and challenge some of Colombian tropical jungalised rivers, but
our “boats” were stuck in Miami because American Airlines screwed us and left
our “preciouses” there. One more day of waiting and we were ready to attack the
rivers. Jouls already organized a van and a Colombian driver Carlos, who was waiting
on standby for action!
Jules
Domine spent the last few years in Colombia exploring new rivers and made the
plan to go towards our Colombian first descent, Cauca. Jules and the N. American crew got the beta
with GPS coordinates and with Jules’ knowledge we were ready to start!
Cauca is
one of the two largest rivers in Colombia. It lies between the Occidental and
Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in south-western Colombia near the
city of Popayán, it joins the second biggest river in Colombia, Magdalena River
near Magangué. We put in in Santa Fe de Antioquia, 120km from our take out
point in Valdivia and we packed for a 4 day multi trip. The boys planed that we
will be able to do it in 3 days and had 1 extra day of food just in case. The
last day supposed to be the hardest, because of the canyon and steepness. We
put in late and after 2 hours of easy paddling we found a sweet camp-site where
we made a fire, nice dinner and took time to chill during a nice clear night. I
was stoked that we were finally on the river after all the preparation and non-paddling
days! 
The next morning the sun woke us up and after breakfast it was time for
action. Cauca started to offer the first good rapids with big and clear
wave-trains, lots of fun, we were all fired up! At the first bridge we stopped
to rest, we have found our first perfect wave with a big eddy on the right
side. Amazing spot, I enjoyed it even with a full boat of gear! During the way
down the river many nice rapids followed there were no rocks in the middle,
just water and astonishing land scape. After many kilometres we saw lots of
mining caves and some coca fields, which is one of the reasons why this river
was never paddled! At the end of the day we past the future dam, that is under
construction and is about to destroy another amazing valley. Just after the
bridge that followed, we found the best camp spot ever, after the full moon and
fire we enjoyed the Colombian night!
Next day was the highlight of the trip,
amazing canyons with countless waves. We stopped many times and had surf
sessions on stout places, so much fun! It was a full on day with many long and
big rapids all in the same friendly stile open big stoppers, waves and lots of
water. The last 15km the river calms down and all the way to Valdivia it is
flat. In Valdivia we took out and had some beers while we were waiting for
Carlos.
At first the
boys planned to do our second descent on Nechi. When we first talked about it,
no one thought about dropping so deep in the guerrilla zone. Just after we started to drive down from
Yarumal on a dirt road to the bridge near the town of Anori, we realised that
this is pure guerrilla zone. The next day we packed for 5 days, with one extra
day of food and headed to the river. One good sign was that some people from a
grocery store down at the bridge gave us milk and bread for free, like a sign
that we are welcome and of no threat to them! We started to paddle from the
edge of civilization towards the unknown. The start was intimidating after a few
km, coca fields started to appear on left and right but just surprised farmers saw
us. 
After 25 km of class 2-3 we came into a canyon with colourful side creeks, a
very nice scenery. After some more flat
water we dropped into a class 5 granite section. Just when I got some decent confidence the
river dropped into a chaos of boulders and turned behind the right corner. It
was a portage! We started to scout the portage and soon realised that it is
going to be a portage fest. That day in 2hrs we were able to do 200m, the only
way to advance was to make a path thru the jungle with machetes. The first
night we camped high above the river in the jungle, with no fire, just humidity
and little bit of intimidation. We started the next morning with scouting and
searching for a decent way to portage to the river! Machetes were cutting 2hrs
before we found a solution.
There was an edge just under a granite wall and had
enough trees to make an anchor point, for rappelling on a granite block in the middle
of the river, 7m lower down. We had a plan but it took us a whole day of
climbing and walking and an extra jungle camp site to make it over. On the
third day we finally found what we were searching, big granite boulders and big
California stile rapids put on big smiles on our faces. Another full on day in
class 5 rapids, gave us motivation and lots of good lines. Camp site 3 was
close to perfect, except the lack of warm fire. 
The fourth day we started on
class 5 rapids, after lunch the river slowed down and was getting wider and the
first signs of population started to appear. Coca fields were above us all the
way down the river and surprisingly a lot of people were mining along the river
banks. Miners had their families in shanty towns above the river banks in the
middle of nowhere. Nechi was getting totally flat, wide and slow, luckily we
got a shuttle from a local boater to the town of Zaragoza, where our driver
Carlos was waiting for us!
After the
first shot of white-water, we went back to Medellin in Casa Kiwi, to get the
second round of shots in the local disco. Meantime Ben, Igor and Jernej were
about to leave Colombia and Andraz Krpic (another Slovenian) flew in and joined
our crew. Three days of resting and we were back in action, this time down
south-east of Medellin, on Samana, on a super classic 2 day run. 
Again the
river was amazing with few class-5 rapids but a lot of great class-4
stuff. At the take out I felt a bit sick
and over the night it became really bad. The boys went paddling on the stout
Caldera, and I only saw the pictures. I took the first morning bus to Medellin’s
hospital. Doctors had found a no-name
virus, that was a pain in the ass for 6 days, with high fiver and cold at the
same time. They thought it was Denge but the blood test on the sixth day
confirmed that is a no-name virus. The same day we packed and moved to Carlo˙s San
Gill on far east in Santander region. Ten hour drive followed and Carlos-our
driver, had to leave us because of work at home and dropped us off in the
hotel. 
San Gill is
a beautiful town, nature there is switching from jungle to cactus vegetation and
rock canyons. For a warm up we did Fonze, a local river that is flowing thru
the city, our only 1 day run. In the next few days Jules showed us his
organizing skills one more time and organized a unique adventure, Para- kayaking.
We paraglided in a tandem from a cliff above
the Cichamocha canyon and landed at the river put in. Our kayaks were waiting
there, ready for a 2 day trip down the river. It was easy paddling, with
beautiful views of Cichamocha canyon, the contrast in comparing with the other
rivers was astonishing, big walls of dry vegetation and relaxed paddling. We
slept in the middle of a small village forgotten by time in a warm Santander
night.
A day after
we came back in town, most of the crew was ready to say good bye. Erik and Todd
went home, Fabian found a job in a local rafting company and Jouls started to
work for his new outdoor company. Me and Andraz had different plans! The next
day we packed for a 3 day mission on Suarez, we have found a shuttle to the
90km far put in and went for a new adventure. Water was high!
We started at the
bridge before Barbosa at 3 p.m. with a fast rhythm, and pushed it down all the
way to the dusk. We were able to past the first nice section of slides and
stoppers and paddle over a steep continuous section. It was hard, a combination
with steepness and lots of water gave us some hard working to do but we loved
it! Late in the afternoon we hated the flat part of the river and just before
dark found a sweet camp spot!
After dinner we fell in our hammocks and rested
for the next day’s action. I woke up early in the morning and Andraz joined me
just when the breakfast was ready. At 7 a.m. we were already paddling, after 1h
of flat water the sun was slowly coming up in the sky. Suarez was collecting
water from side creeks and gradient started to be aggressive. The first rapids
were full on, the river was raging and we just dropped in “read and run stile”
from eddy to eddy. We did some rapids
that were scary and decided to slow down. Countless hard class 5 rapids
followed, we knew that mistakes are not an option in these conditions. Suddenly
in a long right turn, where I passed on the left side, Andraz made a small
mistake and a stopper got him. With some bad luck he was back washed vertical
in a stopper and was not able to roll, he had to eject. When I saw that from an
eddy below, I stopped to breathe for a while.
I started to paddle towards him,
he was able to save himself in the right eddy, I luckily saved his boat. The
paddle and the water case were dragged into the eddy on the other side. Andraz was
injured, while he was swimming, the water pushed him to the bottom and he had
an ugly bruise on his back, that forced him to take pain-killers. We agreed
that we were lucky and needed to slow down. We had a wild rhythm before the
accident and after 2hrs we were already at the finish which is where the
rafting section begins. In a few days me and Andraz were on our way home,
Andraz had just a bruise and was feeling ok.
Colombia
was a special and a wild adventure, it is rough and savage paddling in a jungle
with poisonous bugs and insects, animals and guerrillas. It is an ultimate, astonishing
and breath tacking experience. Hope I will come back one day with the same special crew (Igor Mlekuz, Jernej Mlekuz, Fabian A. Bonanno, Ben Marr, Todd Wells, Eric Parker, Jules Domine, Erik Sturm, Carlos-driver)
Thanks to
all the sponsors that make it happen, Alpin Action, PeakUk, Ophion paddles,
Different-eye, Liquidlogic, Jung avtoodpad, Plineks, SitGo, EKS-expedition
kayaking Slovenia.
See you out
there!
Text: Andrej Bijuklic
