Whitewater Rafting Adventures on the Maipo River

One of the most exciting and dramatic ways to explore the beauty of the Chilean Andes is by whitewater raft. In addition to it's magnificent scenery and delicious wines, Chile is world famous for it's whitewater rivers and hosts thousands of visitors each year who come to test themselves against it's world class whitewater. For those who wish to experience whitewater rafting in Chile, the Rio Maipo is usually among the first stops because of it's challenging class 3 and 4 whitewater and it's close proximity to Chile's capital city of Santiago.

The Maipo River is born near Chile's border with Argentina among the summits of the rugged Andes mountains. The river begins as a trickle of melt water when the pure winter snows begin to succumb to the bright summer sun. The trickle soon becomes a torrent as it rushes in streams down through dozens of mountain canyons, finally to merge and form the main body of the river. At an elevation of 1.000 meters, the Maipo cuts through the canyons of Cascada de las Animas and drops over 18 meters per kilometer on it's rush to the sea. The many boulders which fill the narrow riverbed create a challenging obstacle course and it here that the most exciting rapids can be found. The Cascada de las Animas Nature Sanctuary straddles the roaring rapids where we launch our rafts for the 16 kilometer decent downriver to the town of San Jose de Maipo. Expect to end the trip very wet, and grinning ear to ear wishing that it lasted longer.