Fluid Kayaks Team

Just north of the Colombia-Ecuador border the Andes mountains diverge into three distinct cordillera which sprawl across the western half of Colombia and continue north to the Atlantic Ocean. The whitewater rivers that drain the snow capped peaks, cloud forests and jungles of Colombiaʼs three cordillera are some of the most spectacular rivers in the world. However, few have explored the rivers of Colombia, because for years Colombia has endured a bloody civil war which is primarily fought in the jungle and remote mountains. The rivers of Colombia are some of the worldʼs last virgin and unexplored rivers and was one of the last frontiers in South America for river exploration, until now. Combining the knowledge of local paddlers and several years of expeditions, Mark Hentze and Aaron Rettig compiled Colombia Whitewater, the first guidebook to the whitewater rivers of Colombia.



I, Mark Hentze, first arrived in Colombia with a breakdown paddle, a spray skirt, a paddle jacket, a backpack, no kayak and marginal Spanish. I had been on a quick and light South America tour that began in Lima, Perú and after a few weeks in Lima hanging out with a half Arabic and half Peruvian girl the city began to wear on me. I packed up my backpack and headed North and after a marathon bus ride I arrived in Tena, Ecuador. Somewhere between Lima and Tena some Colombian relatives by marriage invited me to Bogatá for a visit. During the previous four years I had been traveling all over South America, mostly from Perú south, sometimes kayaking and sometimes living the life of a backpacker. Like most everybody else that gathers their information from the media, I had heard that Colombia was dangerous and that I would be lucky to make it out of one of the airport without being kidnapped. Then as I traveled I heard stories from other foreigners that were coming from or on their way to Colombia and they all reported it as being safe and full of some of the warmest people in South America. I was intrigued by Colombia and could not pass up the opportunity to visit family in Bogotá so I only spent a few days in Tena and then made my way north to Bogotá.

I spent a few days in Bogotá and my relatives helped me find some teenage kayakers in the nearby pueblo of Tobia. I rented a kayak from one of the Tobians and we did a run on the Rio Negro and the Rio Tabacal and I fell in love with the idea of paddling in Colombia. The weather and the water were warm, the women were beautiful, the landscape was beautiful and the people were warm and welcoming. I then made my way to San Gil and did a quick run on the Rio Fonce and then traveled north for a few days of relaxation alongside the Caribbean Sea in Tayrona National Park which lies in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range in the world. I baked in the sun, did some yoga on the beach and admired the view of the snow capped Sierra Nevada from the white sandy beaches and turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea. The beach is nice, but after a few days I grew restless and Mauricio Arredondo, one of Colombiaʼs first kayakers invited me to Medellin.



Outside of Colombia, Medellin had the reputation of being the most dangerous city in the world and for many years had one of the highest murder rates of any city in the world. Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel conducted much of their “business” in and around Medellin. Within Colombia, Medellin had the reputation of a perfect climate, the eternal spring as they call it, and the most beautiful women in Colombia and the world (all Colombians are proud of the beauty of the Colombian women, especially the women from Medellin). I caught a bus to Cartagena and spent a quick night in town and then caught a taxi from the center of Cartagena to the bus station which lies in the outskirts of Cartagena. The taxi driver begged me not to travel to Medellin because he was sure I would get murdered just outside of the bus station. He did a few Hail Marys for me, made me promise not to do any business in Medellin and dropped me off at the bus station. I arrived in Medellin at about 3:00 AM, caught a taxi to a hostel and the next day Mauricio picked me up at my hostel. We borrowed a boat from his friend and we drove out to the Rio San Juan, about a two hour drive from Medellin. The drive between Medellin and the Rio San Juan is one of the most scenic drives in Colombia and all of South America. We paddled the class IV section of the San Juan and at the take-out we enjoyed a couple of beers to the music of Bob Marley in a little pub on the side of the river. That day with Mauricio on the Rio San Juan is still one of my most memorable days on the river. I spent a couple more days in Medellin and found the city to be just like the Colombian reputation, a climate like an eternal spring, the most beautiful women in the world and there were some classic rivers nearby. Work was calling and I had to hurry back to Bogotá to catch my return flight back to the states, but in my few week stay in Colombia I fell in love with the country and I found a new purpose in life. To explore the rivers of Colombia.



I returned the following three years and studied Spanish, I studied maps, I asked people about rivers, and I asked about and studied the security of the country side surrounding the rivers. Many areas in Colombia are safe for exploration, but some of the remote mountains and jungles are the territory of guerrilla groups or paramilitary groups both notorious for kidnapping, violence, murder and trafficking cocaine. Land mines are sometimes found in the countryside of Colombia. A violent civil war continues today in Colombia. Kayak exploration in Colombia was a completely different sort of mission. During those three years I learned Spanish, learned a lot about the rivers and managed to do some paddling with some of the Colombians and occasionally a foreign kayaker or a group of foreign kayakers would show up and we would do a few week paddling trip. Slowly I started paddling more and more rivers around different regions of Colombia. I managed to do a few first descents, but it seemed like most of the rivers I paddled had already been done by Kees Van Kuipers from the Netherlands.

Things did not always work out as I intended. One of my paddling trips with Kees and a group of Europeans ended in a seven day stay in a hospital in Manizales after I cut my elbow on the Upper Rio San Juan and contracted cellulitus. I hiked into the Rio Buey with Ben Stookesberry and Lizzy English but soon thereafter I broke my boat and lost my paddle and had to hike back out. I bought a 1955 Volkswagen van and the motor broke and had to be rebuilt twice, the brakes failed often which sucks on the steep windy grades in Colombia and I mostly drove the Volkswagen van from mechanic to mechanic and waited days or sometimes weeks in some random pueblo for parts to be shipped from Bogotá to wherever I happened to be broken down and stranded. But I learned a lot about Colombia and some of my best Colombian memories were a result of the Volkswagen van and wherever it left me stranded.



During one of those trips I met Aaron Rettig and Tyler Bradt as Tyler passed through Colombia on the Oil and Water Project and while Aaron was in Cali, Colombia filming the film he produced “Lo Demas es Loma” and doing the same sort of thing I was doing. Living in Colombia and enjoying the lifestyle with some sporadic paddling when possible. Aaron approached me with the idea of writing a guidebook to the whitewater rivers of Colombia. It sounded like a good idea to me.

During the winter of 2008 I returned to Colombia with Aaron Rettig and I took a bus to Susacon, a small pueblo where my van broke down the year before, picked up my kayak and Aaron and I began the creation of Colombia Whitewater. We purchased a reliable vehicle, a Chevrolet Trooper, from a used car salesman named Fernando who turned out to be just as or even more trustworthy than a used car salesman from the states. Aaron and I spent the next five months, accompanied by Tyler Bradt and Lane Jacobs for a couple of months, traveling around Colombia gathering beta, paddling rivers and taking photos and video. We did a complete circle of Colombia and paddled a bunch of rivers and did a few more first descents. At the end of the trip we sold our vehicle, we sold our kayaks, I sold my Volkswagen van and returned home to the states not knowing if or when I would be able to return to Colombia.



Aaron and I have since finished the guidebook Colombia Whitewater and I am enjoying a winter in the Pacific Northwest. There is some good paddling in the Pacific Northwest during the winter, but itʼs not Colombia. Once again Colombia is calling me and there are still some rivers in Colombia awaiting exploration...