John Foss Tampopata River July 1994
This web site has been produced in the memory of John Foss
John was pinned and drowned on July 5th 1998 on the first descent of the Rio Huallabamba in Central Peru.
John was an adventurer, an amazing kayaker and most importantly a great friend. John was founder of Adventuras Andes and his guidebook “Chile Whitewater” was not quite completed before his passing.
Some of his notes can be found at www.riversofchile.com
We will all miss John and hope that his spirit lives on with the next generation of explorers and fun seekers.
I just found your website while researching the Colca River out of curiosity to see if there was mention of the death of Gonzalo Pizarro’s girl-friend. I am re-living my time in Peru, preparing a talk. I was in Cusco and heard about the first descent of the Tambopata and was immediately intrigued. I had begun an adventure travel business in 1984 and in 1982 had taken my first ever rafting trip on the Vilcanota, which hooked me on rivers. So I immediately wanted to run a group trip on the Tambopata for 1985. There had not been a commercial trip on the river at that point. But after a lot of work, 3 outfitters, Mayuc, Apu and Rio Bravo, pooled resources and put together a trip for my group. My guides were Tony Ugarte, Pichicho, Gonzalo P. It was a fantastic trip. I wanted to repeat it the next year. It turned out to be a trip from hell.. I wrote a story about it, which if you are curious, I will send to you. Chando was the lead guide in the oar boat, Gonzalo was on the paddle raft. A guide from Chile, Luis, went with Chando in his boat.
Then a year or so later I did it again, with no bad incidents except getting lost from the other boats in the braided section and some of us had to camp without much food or our sleeping gear. It was a Sierra Club trip I was leading.
Anyhow, I very much enjoyed your website and wish we had met way back when. I took up kayaking after that first Tambopata but never got to be really good. Class 4 was it.
Thanks for a great website!
Sally