I
have received some flack about this writeup, please understand this is
MY interpretation of the situation. Everyone we meet in this area was
exceedingly friendly, and I am hopeful to return to this amazing
community.
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| Jared Page enjoying Rio Guabo |
Risk assessment
Over the years I have done a lot of it. Trying to figure out
what amount of risk is worth the reward is a constant in my life.
Dealing with whitewater is relatively easy; you can see the hazards.
Dealing with Guerrillas and corrupt military is entirely different.
Every one becomes suspect, and the level of tension escalates quickly.
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| pretty far out there |
Two fellow paddlers and I packed for another
sixteen-hour bounce bus ride to the relatively large city of Pasto. We
were excited to be meet at the bus station by a local acquaintance, who
is starting a tourism business in the city.
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| another comfortable ride to the river |
The goal of our trip was to head to the tiny town of
Piedrancha and paddle a couple new sections on the Rio Guabo and Guiza.
The two other paddlers had been in the area the previous year and spoke
highly of the rivers. There was also a mystery canyon downstream that
they hadn't gotten to paddle. On Google Earth the canyon looked steep
and very committing.
Guerrilla territory
One large issue with the area is
that Piedrancha is directly in the middle of hostile Guerrilla
territory. As we arranged transportation, the locals in Pasto were
asking us why we wanted to go to such a dangerous place. It took us a
while to find a driver that was willing to go into the area. Finally
Milton introduced himself and was willing to go into Guerrilla
territory.
Bribing the military
On the way to Piedrancha, the
military check points quickly increased. It was at one of these that our
truck was pulled over. The military dug through our
boats
and checked everything they could. They were looking for a bribe. My
heart was pounding as I was surrounded by late-teens with machine guns
looking for a little cash. It took a little while for this to develop,
but eventually the cash came out. We bought off the folks at the
military check point and were able to continue on our mission.
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| the team |
Upon arrival in Piedrancha we met with the local
dentist, Eduardo, who speaks fluent English. We hung out with him into
the evening, talking about logistics, Guerrillas, and joking - all while
drinking beer and listening to his ancient record player.
That
evening we headed into the center of town to grab a bite to eat and
meet up with our Pasto connection, who was coming in on a later
transport. We found a place serving an interesting version of a
hamburger and started chatting up the locals. The moon was rising
brightly over the city, so I walked down to get a cool angle for a
photo. I quickly had a laser sight pointed on me. Thankfully it was the
military, and after a quick harassment they let me go.
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| moments before being in the cross hairs of the laser sight |
After two interesting confrontations with the
military, all I wanted to do was find a safe place to pass out for the
evening. The next morning we awoke to the beautiful mountain town and
walked to breakfast. The Pasto connection had set up a meeting with one
of his childhood friends, Evan. Evan has a sizable influence in the
area. After promising Evan that we were not politically involved,
weren't members of Farc (the Guerrilla organization), and that all we
really wanted to do was go kayaking, he helped set up meetings with the
two local township mayors.
Shaking hands with the Mayor
Meeting with the mayors
(Giavanny Melo and Eder Burgoswas) was interesting. I have never jumped
through so many hoops to paddle a remote section of whitewater. We shook
hands and once again promised that we were not there on corrupt
business. Both of the mayors were more then friendly and gave us the
authorization to paddle the river. They even signed a note that we
referred to as our "get out of jail free" card. Giavanny went one step
further and donated his personal truck and assistant. We were stoked -
transportation was taken care of.
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| get out of jail free |
DRAGONS!
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| yea were in Farc territory now |
We started scouting the river; it looked great, big
granite boulders with enough water to navigate with out being too pushy.
As we scouted further down the river, the Guerrilla influence became
more and more visible. "Farc" was spray-painted on houses. We chatted
locals about the lower canyon, and all of them had a different version.
It was twelve kilometers long - no it was 2 kilometers. There are
waterfalls… it all goes into rocks… snakes… Guerrillas… coca fields…
DRAGONS! Well, maybe not dragons, but the beta we were getting was way
to loose - especially after asking the follow up question, "have you
seen it."… "Well, no. You can't see in there."
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| sketchy scouting near coca fields |
Our time was running out. Part of our agreement with
Giavanny was that we would make a guest appearance in front of the town.
We would talk about why we (the crazy gringos) like their town and
river so much. Finishing up the appearance, we shook tons of hands,
signed autographs, held babies, and got a hundred pictures taken… we
were treated like rock stars!
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| enjoying town life |
Blast zone
We piled back into the pickup and headed to a family
farm, which was only a couple miles away and adjacent to the river. Upon
arrival on the property, the one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb
was a pipeline. It went directly through the farm. The pipeline carries
oil from the lower flat lands to the west coast to be exported. One of
the locals then pointed out that this is one of the things the
Guerrillas are very opposed to. It turns out the Guerrillas are
partially eco-terrorists. They have opposed the taking of natural
resources from the country, especially when the locals are not
financially reimbursed for there losses. We walked along the pipe line
for a couple minutes, and noticed a large clearing in front of us.
"That's where they blew it up," he said.
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| the damaged pipe line |
The Guerrillas had blown up the pipe line
five months earlier, and there was a massive blast zone. The pipeline
had been repaired, the local said it probable wouldn't be long until
something else happens to it.
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| eating with the mayor |
The next day we awoke and once again walked to
breakfast; this time we ate with the Mayor Giavanny Melo. He was all
smiles, excited that we were there and that we weren't too afraid of the
Guerrillas and the reputation of the area. We finished breakfast and
packed the mayor's truck with our boats. It was finally time to go
paddling. The plan was to run a bunch of different sections - partially
to go through the city areas and appease the curious locals, and
partially to run some first-descent sections.
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| packing the mayors truck |
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| enjoying the polished granite |
Finally on the river
The river paddled really well -
fun, polished boulder gardens. We were in and out of the truck, skipping
sections that had been paddled the year before. Meeting and greeting
the locals at every bridge, with tons of pictures and handshakes.
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| Gurappo bridge meet and greet |
Half way through the day we stopped at yet another
bridge, and the locals flocked towards us. Cameras flashed, kids
climbing on the kayaks, and every lady from 6 to 60 cuddled up for a hug
and a picture. One of the paddlers turned into an instant celebrity
after giving a couple kisses on the cheek. The best was that one of the
local farmers had brought down some of his local brew (Gurappo), this
stuff was delicious and definitely potent. After a few hundred photos
and a few sips of Gurappo we turned and continued downstream.
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| sipping on Gurappo and looking for a date |
The River continued its user friendly
nature, and we quickly made miles until we were waved over by the Family
Florez, they offered us pork belly, juice, and their daughter. Smiles,
high fives, photos, and we pressed on.
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| charging into another stompy fun rapid |
Early in the afternoon we arrived at the
biggest rapid of the day. From our scouting perch it looked like all the
water moved towards the left against a tall vertical wall and dropped
into a couple large hydraulics. I thought it looked fairly reasonable
and charged in. The first major hydraulic was big, and I took a huge
stroke and found myself barely on the back side of the boil. The rest of
the rapid was pretty rowdy, and I stopped at the next possible eddy. I
tried to give the other paddlers some hand signals and set safety; it
was big. The next boater charged in, and took a hard right line at the
hydraulic, and came through relatively smoothly. His first words in the
eddy were, "damn that hole is BIG."
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| Chris Baer heading towards the big hydrolic |
Our last paddler brought up the back of
the pack and tried to get right of the hydraulic. It didn't work, and he
ended up taking a large piece of the hole. Next thing you know, he was
in for a major rodeo session. He stuck it out for a while and then
abandoned ship. The swim was brutal - ledge after ledge - and a ton of
down time. By the time he got to us, he was totally exhausted and
couldn't even hold onto our grabloops. Finally, I helped corral the
swimmer to the right-hand shore. I asked him if he was ok and he
responded slowly and weakly with "I think so?"
Urging him to get all the way out of the river, the other paddler and myself took off into the unknown chasing his gear.
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| Rio Guabo |
Things to remember... Float bags, and throw rope practice.
Unfortunately,
our swimmer didn't have his float bags in his boat, and recovering the
mostly-submerged boat took an extended amount of time. Upon pinning his
kayak, it took me three lousy throws to get the rope out to pendulum the
boat in to shore.
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| Guiza at it's finest |
Go throw your rope!
We cleaned up the situation, and
the other paddlers energy levels were dwindling. We scrapped the rest of
the day and were rather content getting some new first descents and a
great rapport with the locals.
We changed into dry
cloths and packed into the mayor's truck one more time - this time seven
deep with three kayaks for a three hour drive back to Pasto.
All
said and done, this is a beautiful and relatively dangerous part of the
country. Talking to the mayors might be the best way to guarantee a
safer visit and local cooperation. The entire river drainage looks
great. The canyon section is still filled with dragons and needs a
strong-willed crew to slay them… I want in!
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| another adventure by Chris Baer |
