{"id":20608,"date":"2019-02-11T12:15:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T12:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/?p=20608"},"modified":"2019-02-19T09:19:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T09:19:12","slug":"below-and-beyond-the-grand-canyon-of-the-andes-or-spikes-on-the-source-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/below-and-beyond-the-grand-canyon-of-the-andes-or-spikes-on-the-source-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Below and Beyond, The Grand Canyon of the Andes or: Spike\u2019s on the Source Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Rio Maranon; a couple of (probable) facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The\nRio Amazon used to be called the \u2018Maranon\u2019.<\/li><li>The\nMaranon is the primary source of the Amazon.<\/li><li>It\nis 30% deeper than the Grand Canyon.<\/li><li>It\nis the longest river drainage in the World.<\/li><li>It\u2019s\n(currently) the longest un-dammed river in South America (some say in the World).<\/li><li>There\nare currently 21 sites that are threatened with dams.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8637-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8637-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8637-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8637-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This river is all about the journey<\/strong>; it starts high in the Andes near Huaraz in Central Peru. Initially, the Rio Maranon falls in a series of desperately difficult or impossible cataracts, and by the time it reaches an altitude of around 2100m it has calmed down sufficiently for the mortal to consider getting afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8541-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20610\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8541-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8541-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8541-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The river flows North through a vast canyon up the centre of the Andes chain, the scenery a mix of the high Altiplano (where the Puma, Condor, and Vicuna scratch a living), and desert canyon (Cactus, Lizard, and Vulture). Eventually, a geological weakness allows the river to flow East towards the Atlantic, a mere 2000km away; by the end of our journey, we are at 350m and camping in the Rainforest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8630-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8630-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8630-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8630-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of Whitewater up to Grade 5, 15 days, and 650km of kayaking are the raw figures, but this river is so much more than that.<strong> If it\u2019s hardcore whitewater, and tales of daring feats that you\u2019re after, this is not the river for you.<\/strong> Every bend in the river reveals another breath-taking view, the geology is simply bonkers; the (few) locals you meet are delighted to see you, and gifts of bananas and pineapples appear; the water is warm (though muddy); the beaches are perfect; the river is rarely descended, so you\u2019ll see no other paddlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8681-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8681-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8681-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8681-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>As days pass, the rhythm of life slows; soon there is only Eat, Sleep, Kayak, Repeat.<\/strong> Contact with the World becomes unwanted, the desire to be back on a pristine beach, staring into the fire tears you away from the treats, the plastic litter, the fumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedro Penia, Ben Muniz, John Vincent, Paul Cripps, and Spike\nGreen, collectively known as \u2018The Team\u2019, would like to thank\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peakuk.com\/\">Peak UK<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mountain-equipment.co.uk\/\">Mountain Equipment<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wernerpaddles.com\/\">Werner Paddles<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/amazonas-explorer.com\/\">Amazonas Explorer<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/\">Pyranha Kayaks<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8568-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8568-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8568-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8568-768x1152.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A little about the kayaks\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Amazonas Explorer hold the Pyranha \u2018Peru fleet\u2019, it made sense to use these boats. I was pleased to be paddling an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/kayaks.php?kayak=Everest\">Everest<\/a> (one dating from the first Below and Beyond trip in \u201909), and even after nine years of use under the blazing Peruvian sun this boat was still bombproof. Paul was also in an Everest, while John and Ben \u2018hot-bedded\u2019 in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/kayaks.php?kayak=Burn%20III\">Burn III<\/a> XL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much as I liked the Everest and trusted it on this and every other trip, paddling it reinforced my love for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/kayaks.php?kayak=Machno\">Machno<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/kayaks.php?kayak=9R\">9R<\/a>! Hopefully, we can get some of these out to Peru for next time! John and Ben both looked very smug in the Burn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Initially, the Rio Maranon falls in a series of desperately difficult or impossible cataracts, and by the time it reaches an altitude of around 2100m it has calmed down sufficiently for the mortal to consider getting afloat&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8944,"featured_media":20610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,273],"tags":[732,1117,1118,1116],"class_list":["post-20608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creeking-articles","category-expeditions-2","tag-dams","tag-expedition-kayaking","tag-kayaking-in-south-america","tag-kayaking-on-the-maranon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_8541.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9tk9G-5mo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20642,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20608\/revisions\/20642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}