Mark Hentze on the Upper Rio Suarez
photo: David Kashinski
The Rio Suarez travels 172 kilometers between Fúquene lake and the confluence with the Rio Chicamocha. Fúquene lake has an altitude of 3,700 meters and at the confluence with the Chicamocha the altitude is 700 meters. The watershed is large and there are many class four and five runs on the Rio Suarez. Cesar Diaz of Colombia rafting pioneered commercial rafting trips on a short and stout class 4+ section of the Rio Suarez. Many veteran safety kayakers agree that the Rio Suarez is one of the most difficult commercial runs in South America, certainly in Colombia. San Gil is the kayaking capital of Colombia and most foreign paddlers that visit Colombia at some point pass through San Gil. San Gil is full of Colombian kayakers. Between just below Barbosa, which is about two hours from San Gil up the highway and along the banks of the Rio Suarez, and the top of the commercial section of the Rio Suarez is a 90 km stretch of class V whitewater which is some of the finest whitewater in Colombia. Until November of 2009 this stretch of whitewater had been overlooked by foreign and Colombian paddlers alike. Ron Fischer did the solo first descent in 2 days and with no portages. In February of 2011 Mark Hentze and David Kashinski made the second descent and the entire time we were asking ourselves “How did Ron do it?”
David and I set out in the morning, purchased food for three days, found transports, meet Kees and Maud for a coffee at the bus station, waited three hours for a bus and finally at about 4:30 pm we put on. About a 20 minutes later we found ourselves at the top of a perfect bed rock waterfall with some more nice bedrock drops just below. We decided to camp on the ledge just above the waterfall and run the waterfall and the next canyon in the morning. The next morning we paddled about three hours of some of the best whitewater in Colombia. At this altitude the Suarez is smaller volume and steep more like a creek than the often paddled runs down below. There is a five meter waterfall immediately followed by a series of shorter drops, then a couple perfect bedrock slides, and even some technical boulder gardens. The upper Rio Suarez has it all. After a full day of paddling we found a nice camp with a clear side stream for drinking water. The second day was a lot of flat water with a nice rapid every hour or so, which made the flat water tolerable. After a full day of paddling we found ourselves at the top of a canyon full of some of the biggest rapids on the Rio Suarez. Ron Fischer compared this section of the Rio Suarez to a little Baker River. Lots of big class five, all runnable, at least if you are Ron Fischer. David and I portaged a couple of times. David and I paddled a couple of the rapids at the top of the canyon, it was getting late, we were tired, we still had who knows how many kilometers and according to the GPS 200 meters of elevation to drop. No choice but to camp. We were planning on being to the take-out in two days, but even two long days of hard paddling and some portaging we were no where near the take-out. That is when we really began to question how Ron did it. The third day was full of more class IV to V+ rapids, all runnable. David and I did not make the take-out until the end of the third full day of paddling.
Mark Hentze on the Upper Rio Suarez
photo: David Kashinski
The upper Rio Suarez has some of the best runnable class IV to V+ whitewater in Colombia, at least that has been discovered to date. The Rio Suarez is near San Gil, the kayaking and adventure sports capital of Colombia. Three days with some great camping and great whitewater. It will surely become a Colombian classic, hopefully paddled by many.
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