The upper Mantaro is not an
exciting river opportunity due to poor water quality from the numerous
industrial sites and population centers.
The lower Mantaro
(Pampas to Canaire 144km) is a much more viable river trip and these notes are
from Richard (Harry) Pethigal who made the first descent in October 2001.
Richard owns and operates a restaurant bar on the Coast of Brazil part of the
year and spends the rest of the year in Peru boating and teaching paarapente..
The
Mantaro was quite an amazing place with a canyon similar to Cotahuasi (3,200m)
at its deepest spot but not as vertical as the Colca. The River has a big water feel (around 30,000cfs).
The only drawback is the water quality which is very murky with weird
chemical smells from the mines 120 km upstream. The smell lasted the first 40
kms then cleaned up with the many effluents.
The gradient wasn't much with 350m drop in first 44km, 100m in next 10km,
and 450m in final 100km but with the large volume it provides for lots of big
water action. The second section is the mightiest.
The majority of the 100m drop seems to be concentrated in the last 5 km(
a very nice section with two solid class V's and many class IV's). The beginning
and end of the first section had box canyons with minimal escape routes.
The first we portaged although it may have been runnable and this
involved 1-1/2 days hiking with mules. At the second box canyon (8 km) I said
goodbye to my friends since they didn't want to go into this one either.
I traded my kayak for the cataraft and took off alone.
The box canyon had 100m vertical walls 20 m apart.
I had to scout 4 rapids by doing technical climbs and had to run one
class IV blindly. The only class V during this section I managed to eddy out
right side before the exit hole (called jaws, very big) and portaged a semi-dry
waterfall on the right side. After
this 8 Km section the canyon opened up a bit and scouts were possible on the
Rocks. Nice beaches everywhere but not too many with clean water (since you
can't even cook with the river water without filtering first).
On the fourth day after leaving the Canadians I passed the first village.
10 kms downstream I rowed around a bend in the river and startled 6 sendero
soldiers on the beach. They pointed
their guns nervously at me, called me over to the beach, grabbed me, and tied my
hands behind my back all the while asking me how many of us there were. It took
3 hours before they believed that I was alone then they untied me and
strip-searched me. After organizing my stuff we went hiking two hours into the
jungle arriving at their base-camp. It had camouflaged netting, solar panels,
radios, and appeared to be well equipped. I talked to their superiors who said that they were going to
confiscate all my equipment and send me hiking to Canaire (next town 4 days walk
through jungle). I invented that I
was a journalist and that I would be willing and able to write a story about
their situation. After making some radio calls they decided to let me keep my
equipment (except my compass and monocular) and the next afternoon they let me
go. They wrote a page for me about
their current situation and let me take fotos.
3 hours later I arrived in Canaire.