Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Limatambo Canyoning

Location: Pampa Conga area, Limatambo, Cusco Region

Time Required: 3 hours – half a day

Red Tape/Notes: Various tour agencies can book you to do this canyon and the “Tarzan Swing”; try Eric Adventures, Travel Peru Luxury, or Viajes – or you can be lazy like us and just tell your Kuoda booking agent that you want to do the Canyoning and Tarzan Swing near Limatambo and they’ll book it for you.

What’s Nearby?: Choquequirao

There’s a super fun little canyon in the Limatambo area with a series of several increasingly larger waterfalls, ending in the largest waterfall at 60 meters. I don’t think you can run the canyon on your own, because as far as I can tell it’s sort of a private property “waterpark” – to be fair the guys who established the route put a lot of effort into creating the trail (it’s pretty thick jungle there) and setting up rap stations along the falls, so it makes sense that they’d like to actually be compensated for their work. And I’ll admit that it’s weird doing a guided canyon if you’re used to running them on your own, but it’s still fun to be out there and it’s a great way to enjoy some beautiful scenery in an alternative fashion. After the canyon, you have the option of doing what most sites call a “Tarzan Swing” or “Penduling”. I foolishly thought this was going to be like a Tarzan Swing (no idea where I got that idea) over a canyon, where I was clipped in to the rope for safety or something. What it actually is, is a terrifying crossing of 80 meters of fairly sketchy suspension bridge (you’re clipped in, but it’s not really all that comforting) to a platform that’s 110 meters in the air above a canyon. They then clip you to a rope and shove you out the door of the platform, sending you plummeting to your death. Or at least, that’s what you feel is happening as you drop in free fall some unknown distance, before the pendulum action begins to occur. I guess if you jump out of airplanes or do bungy jumping this would be no big deal, but I’m a fan of being in control so I nearly wet myself. At some point, though, you realize your vector has acquired something in the x direction, and is no longer purely along the z axis, at which time it becomes delightful, and you’re soaring through the air on your rope, high above a canyon, taking it all in as the wind whips by. It’s pure joy and freedom and you want it to go on forever.

Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Limatambo Canyoning