Río Tocoa, Honduras (click here for the Honduras table of rivers)

river photo

Class: IV(V) ; Flow: 400-1,500 cfs; Average Gradient: 8 m/km; Portages: dam (V); Length: 23 km; Time: 4-5 hours

Season: July to January; rafts? high water; Highlights: scenery and clean water; Crux move: dam run/portage

Put-In: Abiscinia (295 m); Take-Out: Tocoa (40 m)

Description: (click here for general notes about my descriptions)

The Río Tocoa offers a nice long run, some challenging rapids, and beautiful scenery. The rapids are mostly class III and of the rapid-cliff-pool variety. The lower half contains five class IV rapids after which you encounter a small dam (supplying water for the town of Tocoa I believe) which spills into a solid class V rapid for those that choose to run it. Below the dam is 6 km of easier whitewater until the highway. The run is raftable with rare higher water (> 1,200 cfs at the road).

A full description is in the Mayan Whitewater El Salvador, Honduras, & Nicaragua guidebook.

Descent History: I ran this in November 2005, with 700 cfs at the PI.