Four friends, Mark Busch, Brian Ward, Corey Girard and Rob Hurst are planning an expedition linking three great rivers in South America – the Bermejo, the Paraguay, and the Paraná – set to take place late December 2011 / January 2012. The group will set off from high in the Andes of Bolivia in an attempt to paddle some 1,800 miles through Bolivia and Argentina to Rio de la Plata near Buenos Aires on the Atlantic Ocean.
Earlier this year, Mark Busch was interviewed by Colorado 9News
Operation Pink Paddle has two goals:
1) To paddle this expansive river system starting high in the Bolivian Andes and traversing through the Andes and subsequent jungles and grasslands of Argentina all the way to the Rio de la Plata Estuary near Buenos Aires. These rivers have never been linked and paddled in their entirety.
2) To raise $25,000 for breast cancer research and to promote preventive care and awareness through their website and their cause page on BCRF's TIme For Research program
Please help support these great guys and their courageous and ambitious adventure!
The expedition will chronicle the environmental and political climate in the remoter sections of the river and add to existing knowledge of the region’s geography. If this expedition succeeds, they will be the first to travel the entire length of the Bermejo River linking it to the Paraguay and then the Paraná River.
To date, Operation Pink Paddle has sponsorships from Northwestern River Supplies (NRS), one of the foremost companies in paddling sports, as well as Carlisle Paddle Gear and Immersion Research (IR). NRS has donated their top expedition boat, the E-160 Self-Bailing Raft for this trip and Carlisle has outfitted us with their top oars for the boat.
A benefit party in San Francisco this coming November we will be the final fundraiser and send-off event before the crew leave at the end of November. The trip is now five months away and they are pushing hard to meet their financial goals both in terms of raising money for the BCRF and to finance the expedition.
