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Traditionally the home of the Matsiguenga and Piro Indians, the Rio Urubamba rolls down from the Inca's Sacred Valley to the humid lower Andean slopes around the town of Quillabamba , little more than a pit-stop before moving on and at the end of the rail line from Cusco (though due to a landslide this is likely to be out of operation between Machu Picchu and Quillabamba until around 2003). For the next eighty or so unnavigable kilometres, the Urubamba is trailed by a dirt road to the small settlement of Kiteni , where it meets with the tributary Rio Kosrentni, then continues to the smaller settlement of Monte Carmelo. From here on, the easily navigable Rio Kiteni becomes the main means of transport, a smooth 3500km through the Amazon Basin to the Atlantic, interrupted only by the impressive Pongo de Mainique - whitewater rapids, less than a day downstream, which are generally too dangerous to pass in the months of November and December. Unlike the Manu Biosphere Reserve, most of the Urubamba has been colonized as far as the Pongo, and much of it beyond has suffered more or less permanent exploitation of one sort or another for over a hundred years (rubber, cattle, oil and more recently gas). Consequently, this isn't really the river for experiencing pristine virgin forest, but it is an exciting and remote challenge and a genuine example of what's going on in the Amazon today. Far fewer tour companies operate in the Rio Urubamba region than do in Manu or Madre de Dios, but as the political situation continues to improve, and entrepreneurial optimism revives further around Cusco, it seems likely that more adventure tours will become available in the lower Urubamba and that the area will open up further to organized river-rafting and forest-trekking
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