Camu

The Mata de Platanos access point is the farthest upstream point to which a road comes. The rock bed rapids one sees coming to the river here are typical of the next 1.2 miles downstream. As the 'good' water levels for this riverbed put things on the high side for the canyon downstream we have been passing on this section in favor of a put-in at paso de Mata Gorda/El Faro. Should one run this section, be forewarned that one or two barbed wire fences spanning the river are fairly common.

Using the put-in below Mata Gorda leaves one with a 3.6 mile run. The river takes off at a fair clip through fairly straightforward rockbed rapids. A couple of bends downstream the river enters a short, boat scoutable, bedrock section. A rapid with a longish split channel comes a few drops upstream of the first notable drop, a twisting flume dropping 12'-15' then ricocheting off a wall below. This drop signals the start of the canyon section. The early part of this intimate canyon is mostly read and run though by all means take some time to enjoy the scenery. Soon enough the bottom will drop out again at the second notable drop. The narrow channel zig-zags down to bounce off one boulder then drop off 8'-10' to run into a wall with a pocket hole in the outflow ninety degrees right. Set safety below here as the next bigger drop is out of sight just around the next corner.

The third notable drop is at a choke point between vertical rock walls where the river has cut a pair of channels through bedrock. At low to medium flows one can scout/portage by taking out right and then wading across the entrance to the right hand channel to the rock in the middle. At higher flows this is not possible so you'd best be planning on running it and have a fair assurance it's clean. Should you come down to this point and decide you have too much water, there is an exit from the canyon river right just upstream of the drop above this one though it could be a bit of a walk before you find a

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