The Urubamba River or Vilcamayo River[2] (possibly from QuechuaWillkamayu, for "sacred river")[3] is a river in Peru. Upstream it is called Vilcanota River (possibly from AymaraWillkanuta, for "house of the sun").[4] Within the La Convención Province, the name changes to Urubamba.[5] A partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River, the Urubamba rises in the Andes to the southeast of Cusco. It originates on the slopes of Cunurana in the Puno Region, Melgar Province, near the La Raya pass.[5] It flows north-north-west for 724 km (450 mi) before coalescing with the Tambo River to form the Ucayali River.
The Urubamba is divided into the Upper Urubamba and the Lower Urubamba, the dividing feature being the Pongo de Mainique, an infamous whitewatercanyon, where the river narrows to a width of 45 metres (148 ft).
The lower Urubamba River was mapped for the first time in 1934 by Edward Kellog Strong III. He and two friends from Palo Alto, California, Art Post and Gain Allan John, navigated the river with its ferocious rapids by canoe and balsa rafts provided by the indigenous people. The mapping was done at the request of the Peruvian military when they heard of the expedition planned by the three 18-year-olds.
The map was turned over to the military when the boys arrived in Iquitos. It remained the only map of the river until mapping by satellite became possible many years later. The names and places on the latest map came from the original map drawn by Edward Strong.
John Walter Gregory, a British geologist, drowned in the river on June 2, 1932 while on a geological expedition to the Andes.
^Radio San Gabriel, "Instituto Radiofonico de Promoción Aymara" (IRPA) 1993, Republicado por Instituto de las Lenguas y Literaturas Andinas-Amazónicas (ILLLA-A) 2011, Transcripción del Vocabulario de la Lengua Aymara, P. Ludovico Bertonio 1612 (Spanish-Aymara-Aymara-Spanish dictionary)
Willkanuta - Adoratorio muy célebre entre Sicuana y Chungara. Significa casa del Sol, según los indios bárbaros.Willka - Adoratorio dedicado al Sol u otros ídolos. / El Sol como antiguamente decían y ahora dicen inti. Uta - Nombre. Casa cubierta.
^ abMinisterio del Ambiente, Estudio linea base ambiental de la cuenca del río Vilcanota, Lima-Peru, 2010 (in Spanish)
