Accidents, Exploration, Sports, Travel/Tourism

Two Drown in Cusco in Vilcanota Rafting Accident

The body of a young American woman, missing after a rafting accident Tuesday on the Vilcanota River in Cusco, was found Wednesday two and a half hours further downstream from the journey’s starting point at Maranura, near Quillabamba. 

Alycia Berrier, 23, of Florida, drowned when she and 17 other people fell into the water when their three rafts overturned in the rapids.  The 15 foreign tourists and three Peruvian rafting guides were running the Vilcanota river late in the afternoon when the accident occurred.  

Shoftly after the accident, Nishant Fozdar Jagdeep, a 25-year-old Canadian citizen, was found dead six kilometers from where the rafts overturned. 

Six other tourists were rescued from the water, and the remaining travelers managed to reach the banks of the river.  and were later taken to the medical facilities at Maranura.   

Firefighters and Red Cross workers found Jagdeep and then continued the search for Berrier in the area through part of the night and again began the search before dawn on Wednesday, when they found her body downstream.

Berrier’s father, Larry Berrier, and her sister were en route to Cusco from Florida when she was still reported as missing.

Rafting on the Vilcanota-Urubamba River is advertised as rapids suitable for travelers with little or no rafting experience, but at this time of year the flow and speed of the water increases as the rainy season begins, creating stronger currents and situations that require greater expertise to steer the rafts.

One Comment

  1. When will the raft companies in Cusco start thinking about their responsibility? It makes me feel sick when I hear that not well trained guides for this level of water, old equipment and not enough safety kayak or boats still enter the water with tourists!!!!!

    They are playing the life of persons….

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