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A CHILEAN ADVENTURE
Larry Berg

Who

On January 16">

A CHILEAN ADVENTURE
Larry Berg

Who

On January 16, 1998, four intrepid paddlers ventured South for fun
and adventure. The four were, your scribe, Larry Berg, Ron Rogers,
from Anderson, and Brent and Pam Esmon, soon to beof Nevada City. The
destination was Chile and the time allotted was 40 days.

Getting there

The first problem to solve was getting our kayaks to Chile. We
were all flying United, San Francisco-Miami-Santiago. The response
from the airline upon inquiry on shipping the kayaks was one of the
following: 1. We don't take kayaks, 2. Oversized baggage over 9
feet was $178 each way, 3. The extra charge would be $50.
Basically the person at the oversize counter decides.

At the airport, Brent, Pam and I, having bagged our kayaks,
implied to the counter lady that they were surfboards. A person in
line remarked, "Oh, your going kayaking." We said, "No, those are
surfboards." The counter lady weighed them and passed them on to the
loading belt. When asked how long they were, we said, "around 9
feet." She said the extra charge was $50 each. We had our paddles
in a ski bag and said they were skis. There was no extra charge for
them. Our boats were 2 Overflows and a Freefall LT, each around 10
feet long. Ron came after us because he just had a cockpit cover
taped over his 12 foot Crossfire and it was pretty obvious it was not
a surfboard. The counter lady remarked, "Oh, your going surfing
also." He too was charged $50. The lady was friendly and probably
either didn't know they were kayaks or didn't care. On the return
from Chile, we were not charged anything extra.

Pedro

Twenty hours after departure, we arrived in Santiago. It was warm
and sunny. We were met by Pedro Leal. We had arranged to hire him
as a driver. He had formerly worked for Chris Spelius' Expediciones
Chile, driving shuttle on those trips. We paid him $135 a day for 20
days. His usual rate was $150/day for shorter trips. He paid for
fuel and road tolls. Gas was around $2.11/gallon and diesel was
about $1.27/gallon. He was driving a Kia Van, a Korean made van the
size of a Plymouth Voyager. It had a diesel engine.

We chose to go with Pedro because none of us had been to Chile
before and we were not sure what we would encounter. Pedro proved
to be a great help. He knew a lot about most of the rivers we did
while we were with him; the put-ins and take-outs, the levels of
difficulty and whether there were any mandatory portages. He spoke
good English. Brent and Ron spoke the best Spanish in our group, but
even their Spanish was pretty rudimentary.

Rivers

Rio Aconcagua

We were looking for class IV-V rivers and wanted to boat a lot.
We left Santiago and headed north to Los Andes and the Rio Aconcagua.
A friend had boated the Aconcagua on an earlier trip and said it had
a great short class V gorge. He did the run around 800 cfs. When we
got there the river was flowing around 4000 cfs and was very muddy.
This was very high for the small river bed. Spring runoff was
peaking and the mountains nearby went up to 23,000 feet. The gorge
was out of the question. The run-out from the gorge was normally
class IV followed by a class III section.

We did the class III section. It was big and fast. Hard to stop,
it was necessary to read the river on the run and move to miss the big
holes. It was sort of like the Merced river from the Chevron Station
down at high water. None of us liked the conditions very much so we
did the one run and headed south.

In my descriptions of rivers I will generally call a section
class IV if we were able to boat-scout it or, if we did scout, a quick
look was sufficient. I will call a rapid class V if it required a
long look to figure out a precise line.

Food and lodging.

The intention of our group was to do the trip as cheaply as
possible while being willing to spend enough to have fun.

We camped at private campgrounds as much as possible and cooked our
own meals. Occasionally we stayed at hospedajes. These were
basically Bed and Breakfast's.

The camping was pretty noisy. There were dogs and amazingly
loud birds. Everywhere in Chile there were various jay-like birds
that would screech and circle the tent at dawn to make sure you were
awake. In addition, everyone in Chile owns at least one rooster and
they all crow at dawn. To top it off, the Chilanos liked to have a
good time singing and dancing into the wee hours. Luckily, it was
pretty easy to sleep after boating all day.

Our total cost for food and lodging worked out to $12/day/per
person. The low cost was primarily due to the fact that we cooked
most of our own food and worked hard to find the least expensive
accommodations.

Rural Chili was what I imagine America was like 50 or 60 years
ago. There weren't a lot of streetlights, so it was easy to see the
stars. I did not see grinding third world type poverty. The houses
were generally small and simple with wood framed walls, metal roofs,
masonite interior walls and wood floors. It seemed that electricity
was added after the houses were built because most of the wiring was
run in conduits on the exposed part of the walls. Hot water was
heated with propane in instantaneous heaters. The chief concerns
when seeking lodging were: was there hot water for the showers
(usually), and did the beds sag (usually). Most places were pretty
clean.

Over the 40 days we would occasionally sample the Chilean cuisine
including pastel de choclo (a tasty dish made with chicken and
cornmeal), humitas (similar to a tamale, but not as good), picarocos
(a shellfish with a distinctive "bird-beak" protrusion) and various
other fish and shellfish. Empanadas (a sort of a hand-held beef pot
pie) and pan (bread in the form of bagels) were cheap staples. We
would buy 1.5 kilograms of pan a day and eat it with most meals.
Ron and I liked to spread manjar on the bread. Brent did too, until
he found that manjar was simply caramel made using equal amounts of
milk and sugar.

The super-mercados or markets in the small towns were not very
well stocked. Vegtables were brought in once a week or so and
occasionally we could find canned corn or beans. Our usual breakfast
was oatmeal with powdered milk, bananas if available and manjar for
those inclined. Lunch was cheese and tuna. Dinners were often some
form of pasta and sauce with a salad. Roast chicken, beef, fish, or
shell fish were the usual purchased meals. We filtered all of our
water. This might not always have been necessary but we wanted to
play it safe.

Rivers (continued),

Surf At Pichilemu

A friend had recommended giving the ocean a try here. I was the
main aficionado of ocean surfing and the others were willing to humor
me. Pichilemu was a point break but the swells were from a direction
such that the break was too fast for kayaks to make. Paddle hard,
catch a 6 to 8 foot wave and surf a little, then cut off before it
broke on you. If it broke on you then side-surf it in. The paddle
out generated the occasional cartwheel and side-surf situation with
some face plants in the sand as a bonus. Great fun if you like that
sort of thing.

Rio Tinguiririca

East of San Fernando, this river was sort of like the Colorado in
the Grand Canyon with more rapids. A big river, it was flowing around
8,000 cfs and very brown with silt. We did the 15 mile run down to
Puente Negro in an hour and fifty minutes. Fast pools and class IV
drops, we boat scouted everything. Some good surf waves with one big
rapid near the top. A fun run.

Rio Laja

East of Los Angeles, up by Parque Nacional Laguna Del Laja, this
run was like a high speed bob-sled ride. A steep creek, running
about 300 cfs, it was 2 miles long, clear, continuous, and around
200-300 feet per mile. Pedro told us everything on the run went
which was good to know because it was hard to stop. It took us 20
minutes to do the run. We boated this section twice. I would call
it class IV+.

We decided to skip the Rio Bio Bio and the Rio Claro. We heard
that road access on the Bio Bio was difficult due to extensive dam
construction, plus most of the river is dammed. The Rio Claro
contains the Siete Tazas (Seven Teacups) section, a series of steep
runnable waterfalls. Although we all wanted to do the run, our
enthusiasm was dampened by information that authorities were now
charging $25/paddler to put in. It was also a very short run (about
1/2 mile) and a long drive over extremely dusty roads.

Rio Trancura

Traveling south to the lake district, we arrived in the Chilean
vacation town of Pucon. A beautiful, smoking, symmetrical volcano
overlooked the town which was situated on a Tahoe-like lake.

The Lower Trancura was a 4 mile, class III-IV-, 1000 cfs, pool
drop run. This river and all the rivers to the South that we did had
beautifully clear water. The Upper Trancura was more fun. It was
about 6 miles long with good, pool-drop, class IV rapids and a few V-
drops. There was one portage around a marginally runnable 12 foot
waterfall with a nasty hole. We heard later that a kayaker had died
on this run. We ran this section twice.

Rio Palguin

Also near Pucon, the Rio Palguin was a great creek run: high
gradient, class IV-V, pool drop, 400 cfs with a lot of waterfalls.
We had a copy of a write-up from a couple of people that had hired
Pedro earlier in the year, describing the runs they had done. They
said to run the top 4 miles and take out at the first bridge since
the 3 mile stretch below was a portage fest. Pedro said that the
writeup was incorrect and that they had taken out at the next bridge.
We could not see much of the river from the road and we decided to go
ahead and take out at the lower bridge. In retrospect, we probably
should have noticed the remarkable steepness of the road beyond the
first bridge, but more about that later.

We encountered some great white water including lots of fun class
IV-V- rapids. Pam and I carried one double drop with a 5 foot ledge
at the bottom that Brent and Ron ran. Ron carried one six foot ledge
that Brent, Pam and I ran. We all ran a 30 foot waterfall and an
interesting spot where the river split into three slots. We all ran
the middle slot, a 3 foot wide, 15 foot verticle, 60 degree ramp
dropping into a quiet pool. Ron ran first and got out to take
pictures. Brent went next. Since the slot was very narrow it was
necessary to align your paddle with the slot as you went down. Brent
got his paddle a little cocked. It bridged on the rocks. He held on
to it for a second, causing the shaft to bend. When he let go, the
paddle sprang 10 feet into the air. Brent flipped when he hit the
bottom, missed his handroll and had a minor swim. He kicked himself
and his gear to shore easily. Pam and I were a little more careful
with our paddles when we ran it.

There was one moderately difficult portage for everyone around a
double waterfall of around 40 feet. The first drop of 10-15 feet
plunged into a suspicious looking crevice that might or might not
have been a pothole. This was followed by a clean-looking 25-30 foot
drop into a pool. This was all in a mini-canyon about 10-15 feet
wide. This drop looked marginally runnable but none of us were
interested in probing. We later found that one of the earlier group
had run it. From there down to the bridge was relatively easy class
IV.

Below the bridge we ran some more fun class IV, but we all carried
a long drop that looked like great fun except for one spot where the
water slammed into a wall. Below here, we quickly encountered some
very serious waterfalls. We portaged the first of these with
considerable effort. Paddling across a short pool revealed another
horizon line. Getting out to scout we found that there was a double
waterfall, about 15 feet for the top one and a 30-40 footer 30 feet
later with fast water in between. This might have been a go but just
downstream there was another horizon line which inspection revealed
to be the top of a 70-100 foot falls which was going to be very
difficult to portage. If you ran the double drop you were going to
have to deal with the big one. There was a trail up to the road at
this point and we all decided that this was our take-out.

It turned out that the kayakers who said the lower part was great
fun included an Englishman whose forte is running record waterfalls.
I feel that when you run drops over 30 feet, control becomes
marginal. Friends and I run drops near 30 feet on Deer Creek above
Potato Patch, Curtain Falls on the Middle Fork of the Feather, a 30
footer on the Palguin that we had run earlier, and a 30 footer on the
Fuy in Chile. It is pretty critical that your boat enters the water
at the proper angle. Under-rotate and it could be very hard on the
spine. Over-rotate and you might do a face-plant/belly flop.

Our schedule was such that we headed south again but we all felt
that more time in the area boating the Trancura and Palguin would have
been nice.

Rio Fuy

A little bit south of Pucon, but a long way on gravel roads is
the small town of Choshuenco. This was our base for the Fuy. On the
way to Choshuenco, we came upon a police car that had been forced off
the road. We helped push it back on the road. It turned out that
Pedro was a friend of one of the policemen. Pedro had friends and
relatives all over Chile.

The Fuy consists of two main sections with an unrunnable stretch
separating the two. The first section we ran, the lower of the two,
was about 5 miles long, fairly continuous, some-what technical, and
was running about 1500 cfs. It felt a little bit pushy. We put in at
the meadow above the main bridge. It started out with a big IV+ drop
and continued on with lots of fun IV drops. The further you went,
the easier it got until it became class II into Lake Pangoipulli.
There were put-in/take-out spots at several points on this run that
would let a wide range of boaters select the stretch that suited them.
We wound up doing the top 2/3 of this stretch several times. It was
lots of fun with a very good surf wave at one spot.

The upper run was amazing. It started out on Lake Pirihueico in
the small town of Puerto Fuy. It was a smaller river than the lower
section, pool-drop, then running about 600 cfs. The first four miles
were technical and a little bit junky. OK but not great. The final
3 miles started with a 30 foot waterfall, quickly followed by a 15
foot ledge, 15 foot ramp, 12 foot ledge, and a 15 foot waterfall.
Everybody ran everything. It was an awesome sight looking back at
the gradient in the section just ran. We did this section twice.
It would have been nice to spend a extra day or two here.

Rio San Pedro

Somewhere between Los Lagos and Osorno, Pedro took us to the San
Pedro. This was a 10 mile, big water, class III, pool-drop run that
goes from Lago Rinihue to Pucono. The primary reason for doing this
run was that it was between the Fuy and the Gol Gol. It was ok. The
most exciting part was the take-out. Here the commercial rafting
companies had cleared a 15 foot wide path through the brush up a 100
foot long, 45 or 50 degree dirt slope. The climb up the slippery
slope did focus your attention.

Rio Gol Gol

Up Highway 215 out of Osorno, almost to the Argentine border we
had our adventure of the trip. Pedro did not know much about the Gol
Gol. Greg Moore, the author of a white-water guide to Idaho, had put
on 10 years earlier, but had to abort the run because of high water.
He and his party got lost hiking out and spent a night in the jungle.

Pedro recalled that another kayaker had told him that there was a
great run in there somewhere. The sections we were contemplating
basically did an S-turn with a road going up the middle of the S.
The upper run was 3 miles long between bridge 3 and bridge 2. The
lower run was about 5 miles long between bridge 2 and bridge 1. The
river was generally well away from the road most of the time. Pedro
did not know which section the others had tried or any details of the
two sections.

There is a fundamental difference between doing a run you have
never done before but have a good idea what is on the run due to
the information you glean from other kayakers and doing a run when
you have no idea what is downstream. The prospect of encountering an
unrunnable, unportagable rapid enters the picture. We had been very
successful figuring our way down the runs in Chile to date and Brent,
Ron and I were willing to put our skills to a test on an unknown
river. Pam wisely decided that she would wait for our report.

Starting on the upper run, we went down a trail and put-in at the
base of a waterfall 1/2 mile or so down from the Argentine border.
The river was flowing about 500 cfs. The water was clear and the
surrounding forest was dense. It was pool/drop and class IV for a
mile or two. There was one 6 foot ledge drop that Ron and I carried
and Brent ran.

Forging on, the drops started to get more serious. A class V
that looked runnable, but was followed quickly by a drop that was very
marginal. We all carried both drops. We would run a rapid or two,
then carry a drop, run one, carry two, run two, carry one. Some of
the drops might have been runnable at higher flows, some would not be
runnable at any flow. Some of the portages were relatively easy,
others were harder. On one portage we found a fortunate tree that
enabled us to negotiate an overhanging cliff. On a number of
portages we had to bushwhack through the bamboo jungle.

Eventually we reached bridge 2. Pedro and Pam were waiting there
and we had lunch while telling 'No, shit, there we were' stories about
the run.

Lunch was interesting for another reason. The colihuachoes
were out in large numbers. Colihuachoes are horseflies about the
size of bumblebees. Pedro had told us that they are so numerous from
December 15 to January 15 that they make life miserable. Up until
then we had experienced them in small numbers. Under those
conditions they can be quite fun.

Pedro showed us how to snatch one out of the air, hold it between
your fingers and stick a stem of grass into its abdomen. When
released, it would zoom of in a straight line, trailing the grass
behind it. Brent, Ron and I adopted this sport with great enjoyment.
It was tricky. Snatching the fly out of the air required good
reflexes. Stick too big a stem into the colihuacho and it couldn't
fly, stick it in too deep and it was damaged too much to fly, stick it
in too shallow and the stem would fall out. Sometimes you could
catch two or three flies at the same time. Then they would make a
stereophonic buzz in your fist when you shook them. If caught one on
the river and didn't have a grass stem, you could tear 1/2 of one
wing off and throw it in the water and it would spin in circles.
Perhaps you can see that these pursuits required skill, precision,
and finesse. On the other hand you might be in tune with Pam's view
that this was a moronic waste of time (maybe it's a male thing).

The colihuachoes liked dark colors such as purple and blue. At
lunch on the Gol Gol that day, they were so bad that I stayed in my
boat and kept my helmet and spray-skirt on. Pam and Pedro had the
correct colors and weren't bothered much. Brent sat on his boat and
swatted them when they landed. Ron got out of his boat, but his
colors were such that he was swarmed by the flies. It was an amazing
thing to see. He quickly got into his boat. After lunch was
finished, Brent pointed out his collection of dead and dying
colihuachoes at his feet. There must have been a 50 or 60 on the
ground.

Brent, Ron and I then continued on the lower run (presumably the
easy section). The first part was somewhat surreal. The river had
apparently shifted course and there were a large number of dead and
bleached tree trunks standing in the wide, shallow, class II river
for a ways.

Soon though, the trees dropped behind, the river narrowed and the
gradient steepened. It was great, fun, continuous class IV boulder
gardens for a while. It was usually possible to see quite a ways
ahead that there weren't any horizon lines, and it was possible to hop
from eddy to eddy for several miles.

Then things started to steepen and gorge up. We came to a spot
where the river dropped over a ledge and recirculated for 15 feet.
After an easy carry of that, we soon came to a 20 foot water fall in
which the water caromed off a rock and slammed into the wall at the
bottom. We carried that and the one above it since the move to catch
the eddy above the waterfall looked a little dicey. We were able to
lower our boats down a 20 foot cliff and bushwhack around through the
brush.

The next rapid was a problem also. A 50 foot long rocky ramp
with a big hole on the bottom right, after which the river
disappeared into a tight gorge around the corner. The consensus was
that if run, there was a fair chance of winding up in the hole on the
right and if that happened there was a fair chance of not being able
to paddle out of it. The gorge below the rapid also looked pretty
ominous.

We decided to carry the rapid, but that was easier said than done.
Dense forest, steepness, loose footing and the multiple layers of
dead bamboo stems covering the ground made for arduous going. We
were grateful that the weather was overcast and a little cool, there
was no poison oak or poisonous snakes in Chile, and that bugs weren't
a problem here.

After finally getting to a point past the rapid, Brent and Ron
forged ahead without their boats to have a look. In 30 minutes they
returned. The way ahead would be brutal with boats, the gorge
continued but they couldn't see the river because of the jungle.
There was a spot near where we were that we could do a 10 foot seal
launch into the river. The river was a slow moving pool at that point,
but disappeared around the corner.

From our perch, we could see a spot on the left wall, 50 feet
down river, where it might be possible to get out of the boats if we
had to. Brent launched in to check things out. He penciled in,
flipped, and his helmet came off. He was able to get his helmet and
put it back on, then paddled down a ways and signaled back that it was
OK downstream.

His helmet had come off once before on the trip after running a
30 foot waterfall on the Palguin. He penciled in, rolled up
helmetless and disappeared around the corner chasing his helmet.
Fortunately he was able to get it before the next rapid. Problems
with the cam-buckle.

Ron and I seal-launched in and we continued on. The walls of the
gorge stayed vertical for while but the river remained a class II
moving pool. Soon the gorge opened up. The river returned to fun
continuous class IV boulder garden action for the next couple of
miles until we reached bridge 1 and the take-out.

Most of the river was great. Next time, knowing that there was
nothing serious in the gorge beyond the rapid with the tough carry,
we might run that rapid.

Rio Petrohue

Sixty-six kilometers north-east of Puerto Montt is the town of
Petrohue. This was our put-in for the run down to Saltos del
Petrohue. Saltos is Spanish for waterfall. The river was running
about 2000 cfs, somewhat low for this big river. It was
pool-drop class III-IV. There was one class V that required a short
portage in the middle. We took out 4 miles later above the Petrohue
Falls. It looked marginally runnable, but was in a park and boating
was not permitted there, according to Pedro.

We drove downstream a ways then put-in on the lower run. This was
class III, pool-drop and about 6 miles long with great views of
Volcano Orsorno upriver.

Puerto Montt

Puerto Montt is a major city and the point at which we left
Pedro. The Andes marched into the ocean a little south and the
only way to get to Chaiten, the next town south, was by a 10 hour
ferry ride. The next river was the Rio Futaleufu. We had heard
great things about it and planned to spend a week or so on it.
This was our chance to try to solve the logistical problems of
traveling in Chile on our own, without Pedro's help.

Pedro was helpful to the end though. He helped us get the bus
tickets for our Puerto Montt to Santiago leg to come. His
recommendation that we get tickets on the sleeper bus that made the
12 hour ride to Santiago at night turned out very well. Also, it
turned out that the newer buses we would take could not take kayaks
due to the shape and size of the new baggage compartments.

Pedro found us a freight arm of the bus company that enabled us
to ship our kayaks to Pedro's house in Santiago when we got back to
Puerto Montt. Pedro also knew the skipper of the ferry we were
taking and got our kayaks onto the ferry without paying extra.

Chaiten

The ferry arrived in Chaiten at 2:00 in the morning. The town
of Chaiten was a quarter mile or so from the ferry landing. By the
time we got our boats off the ferry, everyone else was gone and the
landing was empty. We scouted around and found a nice grassy field
100 yards north of the landing. We carried our gear there, laid out
our bags and slept.

The weather had been beautiful on the trip to date. The night
sky was clear when we went to sleep. The morning was overcast and
it soon began to drizzle. We found temporary shelter in an empty
shipping container nearby. The drizzle came and went while we took

Puerto Montt

Puerto Montt is a major city and the point at which we left
Pedro. The Andes marched into the ocean a little south and the
only way to get to Chaiten, the next town south, was by a 10 hour
ferry ride. The next river was the Rio Futaleufu. We had heard
great things about it and planned to spend a week or so on it.
This was our chance to try to solve the logistical problems of
traveling in Chile on our own, without Pedro's help.

Pedro was helpful to the end though. He helped us get the bus
tickets for our Puerto Montt to Santiago leg to come. His
recommendation that we get tickets on the sleeper bus that made the
12 hour ride to Santiago at night turned out very well. Also, it
turned out that the newer buses we would take could not take kayaks
due to the shape and size of the new baggage compartments.

Pedro found us a freight arm of the bus company that enabled us
to ship our kayaks to Pedro's house in Santiago when we got back to
Puerto Montt. Pedro also knew the skipper of the ferry we were
taking and got our kayaks onto the ferry without paying extra.

Chaiten

The ferry arrived in Chaiten at 2:00 in the morning. The town
of Chaiten was a quarter mile or so from the ferry landing. By the
time we got our boats off the ferry, everyone else was gone and the
landing was empty. We scouted around and found a nice grassy field
100 yards north of the landing. We carried our gear there, laid out
our bags and slept.

The weather had been beautiful on the trip to date. The night
sky was clear when we went to sleep. The morning was overcast and
it soon began to drizzle. We found temporary shelter in an empty
shipping container nearby. The drizzle came and went while we took
turns walking into town to check things out. It was a Sunday and
most of the shops were closed. Chaiten had a population of about
1000 and was a cross-hatch of wide gravel roads, open drainage
ditches and simple-looking buildings.

The office of ChaiTours, which operated the bus to Futaleufu, was
closed. There was no sign of taxis. Back at the shipping crate we
were bemoaning the loss of Pedro. It was definitely trickier being
on our own, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going and we
were a resourceful group of people.

We noticed a van unloading people at the landing for the ferry
back to Puerto Montt. Brent went down and talked to the driver and
discovered that his name was Nicolas, he was the owner of ChaiTours,
and he was an American. He had some business to take care of but
said he would return shortly and take us into Chaiten.

When he returned a few hours later, we loaded our boats and gear
and went into town. Nicolas told us that his bus had a broken rack
and the road to Futaleufu was rough therefore he couldn't take our
boats there. His partner, Renzo, was making a trip the next day and
possibly he could take our bouts inside his van. Nicolas wound up
taking us to an hospedaje called Casa de Rita.

Rita's turned out to be a great place to stay. $2.22/person to
sleep on the floor in a large communal room or $5.56 for a private
room. Showers and kitchen privledges were included. There were some
interesting and friendly travelers staying there.

While Rita's was nice enough, we wanted to get to Futaleufu; we
did, after all, come to Chile to kayak. The problem was that we
didn't have Pedro any more. The plan had been to take the bus,
loading our kayaks on the roof racks that we had heard back in the
US were on every bus in South America. Unfortunately the Chileans
hadn't spoken to the same people. There were no roof racks on
Renzo's minibus that went to Futaleufu. Chileans are reluctant to
come out and say no to a request. When we said that we wanted to
take the kayaks on the bus, we were told that the bus was too full
now, but that we could probably go tomorrow. Well, tomorrow arrived
and the bus was too full again, maybe tomorrow. Then we actually saw
the bus and it was obvious that there was no way that the boats were
ever going to go anywhere on it; there was simply no place to put
them. Time for Plan B.

About now some of us were starting to wonder whether it had been
an error to part ways with Pedro. We had been in Chaiten over 2 days
and we had no viable plan for moving another inch. It had rained
every day, someone told us it rained 300 days a year in Chaiten.
Nicholas was saying that he might be able to take us, but the rack on
his van was badly broken and both he and we had serious doubts about
whether it would make it there over the rough roads.

At this point Ron got inspired. He started walking through town
on a mission: Find a van with racks for hire. After searching
through town he found one and made arrangements to pick us up at 2 PM
at Rita's; it was only going to cost us about $55 to get to
Futaleufu! We all collected at Rita's, packed and got ready to roll.
While we were packing, unbeknownst to us, the van showed up and left
without checking inside. We never quite figured out what happened,
but I suspect that our feeble Spanish bit us in the butt. Everyone
went from euphoria to depression. Ron, however, once again set forth
to find a ride and amazingly enough, found another van in about an
hour. This one was a bit more expensive, about $110, but since it
was about a 7 hour round trip on bad gravel roads and we were
desperate, we jumped at it.

The ride proved to be very scenic, with towering mountains and
hanging glaciers. All seen through a mystical veil of overcast skies
and occasional rain showers. A friend of the driver's came along and
we were all well entertained attempting to converse. We arrived in
Futaleufu a few hours after sunset. A quick search found us an
hospedaje a little more expensive than we liked but since we were
tired, we took it.

The next morning dawned clear and sunny. A more thorough
scouring of the town found us a hospedaje more to our liking, Los
Pioneros. Rooms could be had for $7.78 per person but when we said
that we were also thinking of camping at a campground, the proprietor
led us to a small building away from the house. This was a tack shed
used to store gear for horses. It had a cement floor, rough table
and benches, a couple of light bulbs and a fireplace. The price was
$3.33 per person with shower and bathroom privileges. All the wood
we wanted was stacked behind the shed.

We wound up staying there 10 days. Once we had our gear spread
out it was home-sweet-home. It had a nice grassy front yard strewn
with horse manure and a line already strung for our wet gear. Waking
in the morning was never difficult since there were plenty of
roosters within earshot. We even had our own resident rooster who
could be counted on to crow at least a few times while it was still
dark.

The next problem was finding a shuttle vehicle. The portion of
the Rio Futaleufu that we planned to run stretched over 30 miles. We
wandered around town looking for vehicles with roof racks and asking
about shuttle drives with our feeble Spanish. It didn't seem that we
were getting anywhere until a man in a van drove up and said that he
had heard we were looking for a driver and van. He had a Dodge
mini-van with a chrome factory roof rack that looked a little flimsy.
His name was Alexis and he didn't speak any English. Initially he
wanted $100/day and we were having a hard time haggling with him.

Onto the scene rode Jan and Hans, two Dutchmen who had bought
horses in Chaiten and had spent a couple of weeks riding to Futalefu.
Brent and Pam had changed some Dutch currency for them earlier and
they were about to return the favor. They spoke good English and
Spanish and, more importantly, were expert hagglers. When we told
them of our plans they explained to Alexis that he wouldn't have to
drive very far each day. In fact, for one of the runs we would put-in
in the town itself. They eventually worked Alexis down to a deal of
$300 for seven days. We were very happy with this.

Rio Futaleufu

There are three basic 8-12 mile runs on the Futaleufu;

Inferno Canyon:

Put in either at Pasarela Gelves, a bridge just North of town, or on
the Rio Espolon at the bridge just South of town. Take out at
Pasarela Toro, a foot bridge just upstream from the Rio Azul and
Chris Spelius' operation.

Terminator:

Put-in at Pasarela Toro or on the Rio Azul and take out at Pasarela
Zapata, also called the Swinging Bridge

Section III:

Put-in at Pasarela Zapata and take-out at the concrete bridge over
the river or at Casa Amarilla, the yellow house, three miles further.

We had been advised to start out on Section III for our
introduction to the Futaleufu. The river was flowing between 7,000
and 10,000 cfs. This was the typical summer release from the big dam
upstream in Argentina. The weather was sunny and continued to be
great during our stay on this river. The water was clear and a
beautiful shade of blue. Dry tops and no bottoms worked fine for
everyone.

Alexis had gotten the idea that his shuttle range ended at the
concrete bridge. Since the stretch below, down to Casa Amarilla, had
only 2 good rapids and was class III below, we didn't push him. So
our take-out that first day was the concrete bridge.

We boat scouted everything on this stretch, but it was exciting.
It was fairly continuous and quite a bit different than the other
rivers we had been on lately. It was big and pushy, but there was
still time to make the necessary moves. After a while the river
split around an island with an easy route on the right and something
dramatic on the left. Brent ran the left and I eddied out and
watched. It looked like a big hole to me, but Brent paddled into a
huge cushion, disappeared for a short while, then reappeared
downstream, signaling that left was good. I followed Brent's line,
braced into a huge wave/cushion that extended 4 feet over my head and
was shot left into the pool below. We did the same run two more
times and everyone took the left line. It was a blast. The rapid was
called Cushion.

Further on we came to another big drop. I eddied out but Ron
boldly paddled down the middle into what looked like another big
hole. He blew right through. Brent followed Ron's line while Pam
and I skirted the hole on the right. Closer inspection showed it to
be a huge exploding wave. On future runs everybody went down the
middle. Sometimes the paddler would not get his face wet, at other
times the wave would collapse on the paddler with tremendous force.
Whatever happened though, everyone always blew through. This rapid
was called Mundaca. Fun rapids with some excellent surf waves
continued on to the take-out.

The next day we did the Terminator section. Ron wasn't feeling
well so he sat that day out. We put in on the Rio Azul near a small
school. The water was low but a striking shade of blue from glacial
silt. The 2 miles of the Azul down to the Futaleufu were pool-drop
and very technical. More water would have been better but I found it
fun. We soon entered the main river near where Spelius has his camp.
This section was fairly flat for a ways. The water was moving but
the rapids were only class III with the occasional IV. After a while
we came upon a large group of kayakers having lunch. They turned out
to be 10 customers of Expediciones Chile with Chris Spelius and Mike
Hipshner as the guides. Chris told us that Terminator was just down
stream.

We paddled on down through a class IV and eddied out on the right
above a big drop. We scouted down the right side. The rapid was
about 200 yards long with bouncy but doable lines down to a huge wide
hole at the bottom with another big hole left of the main hole. From
our position we could see a line between the two holes and some pushy
water upstream that would make it interesting trying to get to the
proper position at the bottom. Pam decided to carry on the right
while Brent and I decided to try for the slot left center. While we
were getting into our boats the Spelius group came down. Half the
group and Hipshner came over to the right where we were and several
of the customers started carrying. Spe led the other half of the
group down by eddy hopping along the left side. Hipshner then peeled
out and ran right, center, left into an eddy on the left side above
the big hole.

At that point Brent and I decided that Hipshner's route looked
good so we went that way instead of the way we had planned. The new
route was very juicy. The water was a lot more powerful than it had
looked from shore. I stopped for a little bit to bounce around a
hole, (unplanned), then continued on. We both made it into the eddy
on the left and from there eddy hopped down the left side the rest of
the way. On our next trip down this run we all hopped down the left
side. Terminator is definitely class V.

Some big class IV water followed but quickly ramped down in
difficulty. The rapids ended with the himalayas, giant standing
waves similar to hermit on the Grand Canyon. Below here it was flat
the rest of the way to our take out at Zapata. The next day, Ron was
feeling better so we did the Terminator run again and continued on
with Section III, taking out at the concrete bridge.

Next we planned to do the Inferno Canyon run. We approached this
with some trepidation. The overall run was around 12 miles long.
Inferno Canyon was a short 1/2 mile section in the middle of the run.
It had 4 big rapids in a vertical walled gorge. The middle two were
supposed to be unscoutable, and all were supposed to be unportageable
class V. I am not too fond of unscoutable, must run, class V,
especially at 10,000 cfs. Two big rapids after the gorge were Zeta
and Throne Room.

We decided that since Spe takes a lot of his customers down this
run we should be able to handle it. We had also run into Clay Wright
the day before and had talked about Inferno Canyon. He had said that
nothing in the gorge itself was as hard as Terminator. The last
rapid was hard to scout but the line was to enter left and move
right. He also said that when you scout Zeta, take a close look at
the bottom eddy on the right. There was a very good chance of ending
up in it and if you think you can paddle out of that eddy, than go
ahead and give Zeta a try.

We also met a Colorado boater named Josh, who was familiar with
the run. His advice was similar to the Clay's and he said that he
might be able to join us the next day. Pam decided that she would
let Brent, Ron and I probe the run and give her a report afterwards.
The next morning we waited a while for Josh, but decided he was a
no-show, so we walked down to the Espolon and put on.

The Espolon was a 3 mile, pool drop, class III run down to the
Futaleufu. Once on the main river we covered the 3 or 4 miles of
pool drop, class II-III down to the gorge quickly. It was rather
ominous seeing the walls build and close in as we moved into Inferno
Canyon. We eddied out on the left to scout the first big rapid. A
line down the left side was clear so we paddled on. Brent was
feeling bold that day so with him leading the way, we were able to
boat scout and run the next 2 big rapids, eddying out on the right
above a rapid which was obviously the must run, can't scout drop we
had been told about. From our eddy, we could see the whole rapid.
About 50 yards long, there were some obvious holes on the right and a
big rock at the bottom on the left. Brent ferried out, ran the left
side and moved right above the big rock. His run looked fine, so Ron
and I followed. The consensus was that at this flow Inferno Canyon
was class IV+.

We soon entered the broad Espolon valley and the river mellowed
to class II-III. It continued this way, with the occasional class IV
for a ways until we came to an obviously big drop. We were getting
out to scout when Josh paddled up. He had shown up at our shed late
and had put on figuring to catch up with us. He informed us that the
rapid we were scouting was Zeta. He started carrying immediately.
Zeta involved the river narrowing from 150 feet to 15 feet and
turning to the right and dropping about 20 feet in a ramp. There
was no hole at the bottom.

A strong eddy was circulating on the bottom right, against the
wall. A little higher on the left, a very turbulent eddy was
boiling. It looked like it would be difficult to get into the eddy
on the left but we had been told of a paddler in a Piorette S that
had tried to run Zeta. He had disappeared in the hydraulics in the
center near the bottom and popped up in the eddy on the left. He
wasn't able to stay upright in the eddy, swam, and couldn't swim out
of the eddy. He drowned. The hydraulics from 10,000 cfs droppping
through a 15 foot slot were awesome. None of us liked it so we all
carried. On a later trip down we watched some kayakers run it in RPM
like boats. They were sideways, backwards, upside down on their
runs. One rolled up in the bottom eddy on the right. We could hear
his boat being slammed against the wall. He was able to roll up and
paddle out of the eddy. The other boater flipped 1/2 way down and
had a clean line down the middle of the slot and into the pool below
at which point he rolled up. They both looked more like flotsom than
boaters while they were in the rapid.

The carry on the right involved walking up and around and down to
a granite ledge, 10 feet above the river. We seal launched into the
big pool below. On a later trip, Ron slipped a little coming down to
the ledge. He had to let go of the boat. It slid down the granite
slope, with his paddle in it, zoomed by Brent and me, and sailed out
into the pool. It landed flat, stayed upright and the paddle stayed
in. Ron ran down to the ledge, dove in, and swam himself and his
boat to shore.

Shortly we came to another big drop. This was Throne Room. We
eddied out on the right to scout. Most of the water ramped down the
right half of the bed into a house-sized boulder 100 yards from the
top. This created a monster cushion. The water off the right side of
the pillow dropped into a gnarley looking hole called the Toaster.
Josh said that if you get pushed into the Toaster, you will get
chundered a bit then spit out into the pool below. A diagonal wave
near the upper part of the rapid pushed right and made it look
difficult to get left. Brent ran first. He hit the right edge of
diagonal and left side of the pillow and through the left side of the
middle hole at the bottom. A beautiful run. Josh hit the pillow in
the middle, flipped, washed around to the left, through the middle
hole at the bottom and rolled up. Ron and I figured there was a very
good chance of winding up in the Toaster. We didn't want that so we
paddled upstream a bit and carried on the left. The river continued
in great class IV rapids all the way to the take-out at Swinging
Bridge.

The next day, informed that the run was fine, Pam joined us and
the four of us, minus Josh, did the run again. This time we put in at
the Pasarela Gelves, a small bridge across the Futaleufu just east of
the town. The new part of the run was class II-III with one class IV
down to the confluence, in 1 mile, with the Rio Espolon.

The next day we boated section III and continued past the concrete
bridge down to Casa Amarilla. Below the concrete bridge there was one
big class IV, Mas o Menos, that we ran on the left and a class V-,
Casa de Piedra that we ran on the right. The final 2 miles to Casa
Amarilla were pool drop class III. At Casa Amarilla the valley
opened up with great views of the surrounding mountains.

We boated Inferno Canyon and Section III down to Casa Amarilla
again before finishing with our boating in Chile. The scenery along
the Futaleufu was very nice; towering mountains, sheer granite
cliffs, and dense forests, beautifully clear water, and sunny skies.

Our stay in the town of Futaleufu was very nice. There was a
festival going on during part of our time there. There was a Chilean
rodeo in which a pair of huasos or cowboys chased a cow back and
forth around an oval ring about 75 yards long. One night there was a
rousing game of cards played on tables lining the middle of the main
street that went on well into the next morning. That was a typical
thing about Chilean celebrations; they started late, around 8 or 9
P.M. and went strong till 3 or 4 A.M.

One of the most unusual events involved a team competition. Each
team consisted of a man dressed in a clown suit and a woman in an
apparently normal dress. We could only see part of the event, as it
occurred on the streets surrounding the central square. The first
leg of the event consisted of the couple getting into a pickup and
driving as fast as possible in reverse down one side of the square.
We couldn't see the second and third legs, but the end of the event
had the man (in clown suit) carry the woman on his back down the last
leg of the square, run back and drive the truck as fast as possible
down the last section of the square where he had just carried the
woman. While this was odd enough, what seemed especially unusual to
a Norte Americano was that while all this high-speed driving was
going on (at night) no one was controlling the crowd in any way.
Everyone from young children to elderly people to dogs and cats were
milling around all over the square and the streets. It was really
hard to understand how this was pulled off without incident, but it
all seemed to work out somehow.

On our last day in town, we hired some horses and a guide and
spent the day riding up to Lago Espolon and back. Jan and Hans, the
Dutchmen, came to the rescue again. They haggled with the guide over
the rate and let us use two of their horses for the ride. It came to
$122 for the guide and three of his horses. None of us had much
experience with horses but we picked up the basics pretty quickly.
On the tricky mountain trails it was nice to let the horse pick the
best line. We crossed a couple of small rivers and covered a fair
amount of ground. Pam got the best move of the day. We were on a
road and a truck came by and startled Pam's horse. It reared up and
pirouetted around. Pam rode it out like a pro. She later said that
she just treated it like getting a back ender in a kayak; lean
forward and ride it out. By the end of the day tender-feet was not
the right term, it was tender-butt.

Points South

When our stay in Futaleufu was finished, we paid Alexis $110 to
drive us to Chaiten. Alexis was a former policeman in Santiago. He
was reserved at first and not really sure what being a shuttle driver
for kayakers involved, but he learned quickly, warmed up, and did a
fine job. His van and rack handled our four boats with no problem.

The weather continued to be good and the mountains around
Chaiten were very nice. We hired Nicholas to take us to a popular
hot spring south of town. There was a big pool where the Chileanos
all gathered and a small, isolated, 5 foot square pool we had to
ourselves. It was the perfect temperature and had a little creek
next to it that we cooled off in. Bathing suits required.

We stored our boats in a storeroom at Casa de Rita, and took a
bus 60 miles south to the town of La Junta. After spending the night
there we arranged to hire a fire-cracker named Cecelia to take us on
a day trip south to Puyuhuapi and Puerto Cisnes. It cost us $177 but
we felt it was worth it due to the rough roads and full day of
driving. She drove a 4-door Chevy Luv pickup. We saw dense
rain-forests, spectacular hanging glaciers, towering mountains, and a
pretty fishing village at Puerto Cisnes. Cecelia arranged a boat
ride out to a salmon farm with a friend of hers. She didn't speak
English but she and Brent kept up a lively conversation during the
drive south.

The most exciting part of the whole trip was to follow. Cecelia
had picked up some seafood that she was to deliver to Chaiten by
morning. We were longer on the boat ride than she had planned. In
order to get back to La Junta in time for her to make her schedule to
Chaiten, she had to drive rather quickly. She was a very good driver
and she put her skills to use. Covering about 60 miles of 1-1/2 lane
gravel road, at night, with occasional oncoming traffic, up and down
mountain passes, she maintained a very rapid pace. Most stimulating.

Back to Chaiten and a 10 hour ferry ride put us in Puerto Montt.
We used a couple of taxis with roof racks to carry our boats to an
Hospedaje that we had stayed at earlier with Pedro and where we had
left some of our stuff that we didn't need in Futaleufu. The next
morning we carried our boats to the shipping company about 4 blocks
away and sent our kayaks on to Pedro in Santiago. We had planned to
spend a couple days going south-east to Hornopiren and check things
out around there but there were many large forest fires burning in
that area so we headed down to the island of Chiloe.

We took a buses from Puerto Montt to Cucao on the western shore
of Chiloe. From there we hired horses and spent a day riding a 18
mile round trip along the beach to the Rio Cole Cole. There was a
nice beach and some large trees in the forest. There was also some
class IV+ trails over a point of land that carried the cliffs all the
way to the ocean. It came to $111 for 5 horses and a guide. Nice
but not really worth the effort to get there. We stayed at La Casa
Blanca in Cucao. That came to $5.55 per person. A very nice place
with a land lady that had been a school teacher and was one of the
few people in Chile, besides Pedro, who was willing to speak slowly
and clearly and help us with our Spanish. The Chilean form of
Spanish is spoken very rapidly with many dropped letters. Very hard
to understand.

From Cucao we took a bus to Castro and spent a day wandering
around there. The next morning we bussed back to Puerto Montt and
caught the night bus to Santiago. We spent a couple days in
Santiago, staying at SCS Habitat, an hospedaje run by a very helpful
American named Scott. The rate was $6.66 per person. Highly
recommended. Santiago was a modern major city. The buses were very
exciting, especially if you sat up front. I enjoyed the day and a
half we spent there. We hired a friend of Pedro's to take us to the
airport. Pedro rode with us.

We paid the $18 departure tax and got our kayaks onto the plane
at no charge. Soon we were winging our way home.

We had spent an average of $12 / person / day for food and
lodging during the course of the trip and $27 / person / day for all
the transportation in Chile. We were happy with the way the expenses
worked out. Pedro upped the transportation costs, but he and his van
were well worth it and made what might have been the most difficult
part of the trip the easiest. We got great weather during our stay.
Rain in the summer was somewhat normal in the south but, except for
Chaiten, we saw no rain on the trip.

We had minor problems with illness. Pam came down with a cold
a couple days before the trip started but recovered over the next
4 or 5 days. Ron caught her cold and fought it for a few days. On
our arrival in Chaiten, I picked up some sort of 24 hour bug, and
felt pretty low for a day, losing some fluids out both ends but
recovering quickly. Ron picked up something similar in Futaleufu and
was out for a day but recovered quickly. The land lady even seemed
to get it, but she recovered quickly. All in all, pretty minor
problems.

We managed to get in 23 days of boating on the trip. We ran 10
different rivers ranging from low volume creeks to 10,000 cfs
boomers. We figured our way down all of them and the only kayaking
mishap was Brent's trivial swim on the Palguin.

Personality conflicts can wreak havoc on a trip like this, but
everyone on this trip was in pretty close agreement on the various
decisions as to where to stay, what to eat, and where to boat. We
started planning the boating trip a year in advance, although Ron
joined in just a month prior to departure. Hearing that Chile had an
exceptional snowpack that winter, we were concerned that some of the
rivers might be too high when we got there. Fortunately, the flows
were very nice for just about all the runs we did. We found
spectacular scenery and great rivers and friendly people. All in
all, a very successful trip.