The Great River Amazon Raft Race, Your Next Big Adventure

Hello my fellow travellers. I know many of you are wondering what your next travel adventure will be. Let me share this news with you about the Great River Amazon Raft Race. It may be your next big adventure that you did not even know about until now. This sounds like the equivalent of a tropical Iditarad. The longest raft race in the world on the largest river in the world got my attention, but wait till you hear this. The rafts are made of balsa logs that you build yourself, tying the logs together with jungle vines like the Amazon natives have done for a thousand years. The paddles are carved with machetes from a Remo Caspi tree, which means paddle tree, because the wood is strong but light, the best wood for paddles, the same wood the Amazon natives have used for 1000 years.

The Great River Amazon Raft Race is like going back in time to a way of life that no longer exists in the civilized world. Sixty teams of four persons will be taken upstream beyond the headwaters of the Amazon River and dumped off at a small, ribereño village on the Marañon River to construct their rafts. Sounds like Survivor, only better. If you think things are too civilized and you want to disconnect and unplug for a week, this could be for you.

The length of the race will depend on water levels. High water opens up the possibility of more short cuts, if the water is lower the rafts will have to stay in the channel more. If the water is lower the race could be 133 miles, if it is higher the race could be 118 miles. Either way it is the longest raft race in the world. The race is divided into three days with the total time of all three days to determine placement. The finish line is in Iquitos Peru.

Iquitos is famous for having no roads connecting it to any other city, and as the jumping off point for Amazon adventures. The Great River Amazon Raft Race is one of the biggest adventures available for you to choose.

The 10th annual Great River Amazon Raft Race is organized by the Amazon Rafting Club, in Iquitos Peru and will be held September 20th to September 22nd 2008. You must be in Iquitos on September 19th for the orientation meeting. The motto of the Great River Amazon Raft Race is, "The faint of heart need not apply", which I think describes the degree of difficulty very well.

The official blog site of the Amazon Rafting Club is The Great River Amazon Raft Race Blog

If you would like more information about this great raft race either leave a comment below or on the raft race blog site above. It can be difficult to get a 4 person crew together but the Amazon Rafting Club always has one or two persons wanting to join a team so they can probably hook you up with other people wanting to participate.

Several teams have already signed up, including the Brotherhood and Sisterhood from the UK. They are groups of adventurous young men and women that use exotic adventurous settings to promote sponsors into donating large amounts of money to their favorite charitable foundations, usually to help disadvantaged children. They recently paddled dragon boats across the English Channel for publicity and charity. Every year this race gets bigger and better. I hope you will decide to be part of this 10th year anniversary.

The photo above is of The Over the Hill Gang, led by 74 years old Mort Caplan, seen celebrating being the oldest person to finish the Great River Amazon Raft Race by enthusiastically chugging a large Iquiteñan beer.

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I hope you will check back with me. I will be writing more on the Great River Amazon Raft Race, and articles about my other adventures on the Amazon River and the rainforest. Thank you for your consideration, Bill

Dawn on the Amazon