Where's Andrew

CHAITEN & FUTALEUFU, CHILE - DEC 14 - 19

Once again, I'm up early and walk 7 or 8 blocks down to the bus station but this time I have a ticket for the bus to Chaiten. I'm so happy I changed hostels because I was not kept awake by a dog barking all night. My bus leaves at 7:30AM and every seat is full, it is scheduled to take 9.5 hours to get to Chaiten. The road that we take leaving Puerto Montt is called the Carrera Austral and is a very famous road that winds through the mountains much of the way down the southern section of Chile well into Patagonia. Much of this road has been built in the last few years finally giving Chileans and tourists access to many small towns in this region. These towns used to only be accessible by boat or by small plane and a couple had road access from Argentina.

Within about 30 minutes we leave the paved road and start on a gravel road which we continue on for about and hour until we reach a small ferry. It's been raining for most of the drive but it relents as we cross the mouth of an inlet during the 25 minute ferry crossing. By the time we reach the other side, it's raining again and we continue down a twisting gravel road along the ocean for another 2 hours or so before we come to another ferry. I am expecting us to have a quick ride across another inlet but instead, we head up the inlet for about 3 hours before making shore again. Unfortunately it is just pouring and very cloudy so I don't see a lot but what I do see reminds very much of the British Columbia coast with high mountains, rocky coast lines and dozens of waterfalls descending out of the mountain mist. We drive another 30 minutes in the rain through a thick rain forest before coming to another small ferry. This time it is a short 20 minutes ride across another inlet.

The next part of the gravel road takes us across a small valley at the base of a peninsula. Much of this 60 minute drive is through a large private park owned by a guy named Thompson. Thompson was the founder and CEO of North Face until a couple years ago when he retired. He married the CEO of the Patagonia clothing line and together, him and his wife bought up a lot of land in southern Chile and has turned this land into privately owned parks. The parks have been beautifully maintained with an impressive program of having volunteers come and work on the parks maintaining the trails and camp sites. However, he has been very aggressive in fighting any type of encroachment onto these lands whether it be by fish farms using the foreshore, minerals rights or logging. As a result, he has come under a lot of criticism because he is Chile's largest foreign land owner and everyone seems intent in coming up with a motive for what he is doing other than he loves this part of the world and wants to ensure a lot of it stays wild and is protected. As the bus drives down the road, we pass 3 or 4 beautiful looking campsites, I am very jealous of my friends Shane and Seleka who have bought a 4x4 in Santiago and will be driving this same road in a month or so camping along the way.

It's about 5:30PM when the bus finally reaches Chaiten. Chaiten is a small town of a couple thousand people that was almost wiped off the map by the eruption of a nearby volcano about 3 years ago. The entire town was completely buried is ash and there are still a couple areas that have never been dug out. Just before the bus reached town, a couple of American backpackers named Austin and Hannah who have been camping in the area flag down the bus. They have been staying in these beautiful campsites but it has not stopped raining in 4 days so they have decided to head to town and dry out. So, we decide to try and find a hostel together. A local guy who runs a tour company offers to drive us to a nearby hostel which is great because it's still raining. The place is nice but the lady does not want to offer us rooms even though nobody is staying there because the water in the whole town is off. There is some work being down on the water system. We say that this will be the case everywhere and the guy who drove us says the water is supposed to be on soon. So she finally relents and I get a nice private room for about $20US.

We are all hungry so shortly after checking in we go in search of a restaurant. At first it seems like everything is closed but we then find a single restaurant open and it's pretty good with really big portions. After dinner, I stop at the bus station and buy a ticket for tomorrow's noon bus to Futaleufu. I don't need to be there until Sunday which is the following day but I want to be sure I don't get stuck for some reason like weather or road conditions.

Futaleufu Main Plaza

The next day it's raining again and I'm on the noon bus and Austin and Hannah have decided to head to Futaleufu as well so they are also on the bus. Today the bus is only about 4 hours which nice for a change instead of 10 hours or more. The road winds through the coastal mountains before taking a turn to the northeast off the Carrera Austral about 2 hours into the drive. We drive to within 6 kilometers of the Argentinian boarder before reaching Futaleufu. About 30kms before town, the bus passes a sign marking where the Futaleufu Explore Lodge is located which is where I'm staying for the rafting starting tomorrow. I get a room for $20US at a hostel a few doors down from where the bus drops us off and Austin and Hannah head off looking for somewhere to camp.



Futaleufu Expore Lodge

After checking into the hostel, I decide to head to the main part of town where there is supposed to be a tourist office to find out if there are any buses tomorrow that I can take to the lodge. The lady at the tourist office tells me that there are no buses on Sunday heading that way but she shows me on a map that she gives me where the Futaleufu Explore office is in town. Maybe I can get a ride out to the lodge by some one from the office tomorrow. Futaleufu is only 4 or 5 blocks wide and long so I soon get to the office and it is closed so I head back to the hostel.

Around 7:00PM I'm hungry as I did not have lunch and I go in search of a restaurant and the map I have shows where they are located. There are supposed to be about 7 or 8 in town and they are all closed which is strange because it is Saturday evening but there seems to be very few people around. Finally I come across one that is open that was not shown on my map, I'm so pleased as I was starting to wonder what I was going to do for dinner.


View of Rio Futaleufu from My Room

My mission the next morning is to find transportation to the Futaleufu Explore Lodge 30kms southwest of town. I first check with the owner of the hostel and he tells me that there are no buses going that way on Sundays. I stop at the tourist information centre again and they tell me the same thing. I would take a taxi except the town is so small that there are no taxis. So I send an email to Josh at Futaleufu Explore explaining my situation and asking if there is any one that can drive me to the lodge. I walk over the the Futaleufu office in town and there still is no one there. I wait for a couple of hours in my hostel for a response from Josh that doesn't come. So, I decide that my only other option is to hitch hike. I decide to start hitch hiking fairy early since there is not much traffic on the road and I leave the hostel at 11:30AM. Just as I come outside, a bus stops just right next to the hostel. I ask if it is heading south and it is so I jump in and get an unexpected ride to the lodge. Sometimes you get lucky and things have a way of working themselves out.



The Beach at the Lodge

The lodge is a large wooden house built right on the river. It reminds me of some of the large west coast style houses and cabins in BC. I arrive at the lodge just after noon and meet Josh, who kind of looks like a younger Donald Sutherland, and a bunch of the rafting guides. The guides are Mickie and Mark from the US, Bonnie from England and another guide from New Zealand. We chat and get to know one and another for an hour and I find out that the Kiwi guy had spent the last summer working near Boston Bar in BC guiding on the Nahatlatch River and Bonnie spent the summer working various rivers in Clearwater BC. The guides all call the river "The Fu" and they tell me it is the one river that all guides want to work at least one season in their life. I find out that the is supposed to be 3 other guest doing the 3 day trip with me but they will be arriving in the morning. As the first guest to arrive, I get assigned the nicest bedroom with a beautiful view of the river.



Bonnie Leading us on Our Hike

I'm then kind of surprised when I'm left alone in the cabin with the cook who speaks no English for the next 8 hours while everyone else goes to town for supplies. Luckily I had a book to read but I'm hungry and thirsty but I'm not offered anything while I'm waiting. I do venture outside for a while when the rain slows a bit and check out the river. It is a large with tremendous water flow. It kind of reminds me of the Thompson River in terms of size but the water flow is much faster. I can only imagine the rapids as the cabin is on a flat calm section of the river. Considering that I'm spending $950 for 3 days of river rafting, accommodations and meals, being left like this for 8 hours is not the start I was expecting. 



Rio Azul and the the 3 Nuns Peak

Finally at about 9:00PM, the guys arrive back to the cabin and we soon have dinner. Much of the discussion at dinner is regarding the river level. It has been raining for the last 4 days straight and the river is much higher than normal and we may not be able to raft the Futaleufu River tomorrow because it is too dangerous at the present water level. Josh even mentions that I may want to consider postponing the rafting and come back in a couple weeks after my time in Patagonia. That would be an option but I would have to travel a couple of extra days more than I already have planned and I have enough long travel days planned for the next month, so I'm hoping the water level will drop over night.

That night, I'm awoken several times by the sound of rain but I awake to sun and blue skies. I'm surprised to find out that the river dropped about 30cms over night. The guides explain to me that most of the water on the Fu comes from a dam in Argentina and if it has not bee raining heavily there, then the level should drop to a more normal level. Right after breakfast, Michael and Katrina from Australia arrive and they will be rafting with me for the next 3 days. Josh then tells us that our 4th person named Cedric got the dates mixed up and won't get here until tomorrow. He also says that we will be rafting the Rio Azul this morning and if the Fu water level remains the same, we will then do a section of it in the afternoon. He also says there will be 3 day trippers joining us for the morning's rafting and that we will do a short hike to our entry point while we wait for the day trippers.

We drive about 10 minutes towards town until we cross a bridge over the Rio Azul. Katrina, Michael and I get out of the car there with Bonnie and proceed to walk on a trail up the river to our starting point. The trail is not very easy to follow as it seems to branch off a lot and it soon becomes clear that Bonnie has no more idea on which trail to take at the many Ys that we come across. We hike up the embankment next to the river and we hike down it. Then we go up and down several more times. At one point he takes us through a small swamp that has no trail and nothing but knee high muddy water. Needless to say that my new hiking boots are soon completely soaked inside and out. We then end up on some farm land and cross barb wire fences numerous time. It takes about and hour, but we finally come across some road beside the river and soon see the truck and trailer with the rafts. Although my description may not sound like the hike was fun, but it was and Katrina, Michael and I tease Bonnie the rest of the trip about his poor choices of trails.

Everybody including 3 Americans from Colorado are waiting for us. So we quickly get changed into wet suits with spray jackets, wet suit boots, life jackets and helmets. The Azul is a much smaller river than the Fu and has mostly class 3 rapids and one class 4. Rapids are classed 1 through 6 with one being very small and class 6 being very large with a serious risk of death or injury. The Fu has a reputation for great class 4 and 5 rapids which is what I came for. There are even some class 6 rapids but rafts don't do class 6 rapids but some of the kayakers do. We also are all treated to a view of some beautiful mountain peaks called "The 3 Nuns" and this view is right in front of us all the way down the Azul. 

After some quick instructions and review of safety procedures, we are soon in the raft and I'm right up front. Scott, one of the Americans is also up front and another American named Mike has a waterproof video camera mounted on his helmet and will film some of today's rafting. Mark is our guide in the main raft and there is Bonnie in the safety kayak and Mickie is in a catamaran raft with rowing oars as another safety boat. We are soon on our way and the first couple rapids are class 2. Mark spends the first 5 minutes on the river getting us to practise the various strokes based on his verbal commands. Then we come to a series of class 3 rapids and the fun begins. We soon get a couple of "Glacial Facials" of cold water from some of the bigger standing waves.

About and hour into the river, we approach a rapid called "The Cheese Grater." The start of this rapid is rated Class 6, the river really shallows and just drops off about 2 metres. The river bottom here was formed by a lava flow and is very jagged and uneven which is how the rapid got its name. We pull over to the side of the river just before this rapid and all get out. Even Bonnie walks his kayak around this first rapid. Then we let the raft and the cat boat "Ghost" through the rapid without anyone on board. Bonnie collects the rafts with his kayak as they come through the rapid. We all then get back into the raft and continue on for another 25 minutes or so through a series of class 3 rapids and then one class 4 rapid just before coming to the end where the truck and Josh are waiting for us.

We load up the rafts on the trailer and jump into the truck and head back to the lodge where we have lunch. The talk at lunch is more about the upcoming afternoon on the Fu than the morning on the Azul and I can feel myself getting excited and a bit nervous. Josh tells us that the water level is at the highest level that he would consider running the rafts on the Fu. The talk also excites our American day trippers. They had signed on only for the morning session but both Mike and Scott decide to join us for the afternoon as well. Only Mike's dad decides to stay behind in the lodge and try his hand at some river fishing instead of daring these bigger rapids.

We once again gear up for rafting but we don't have to drive anywhere as we are starting right at the lodge. The weather has changed while we ate and it is now raining again, oh well, we should hardly notice rain while rafting. This section of river is known as the "Bridge to Bridge" section. There is one bridge just a couple of hundred metres downstream from

Rafting the Fu

the lodge and another where we will pull out downstream. We are told that once we reach the first bridge, we will be in almost continuous rapids with only short intervals between and most rapids will be class 4 with a couple of class 3s and even a class 5 or two.

 

Once again, Mike has a camera on his helmet but now he is sitting up front. Josh is now guiding the main raft and a metal frame has been added to allow him to row from the back for more control. Mark is now sitting in the raft with the rest of the guests to balance out the

number of paddlers. The first thing we notice when we start off is how much faster the Fu is compared to the Azul. We are quickly swept under the bridge and we go through a couple minutes of continuous class 3 and 4 rapids.

There are also many whirlpools, boils and back eddies of water everywhere. Some times you try and paddle and the water is flowing so fast you barely move any water and other times you are paddling against an eddy and can barely force your paddle through the water. Within 30

Bonnie Flips His Kayak in Front of the Raft

seconds, we take so many large waves over the raft that the raft is completely full of water and it takes a couple of minutes before the water drains out. It's a total rush and it is awesome. Josh also gets this crazy evil laugh every time we get to a really big rapid. The main danger on the river are large holes that occur in the flow of water right after large rocks. We try to avoid these because the raft can get stuck in them and they are also the main thing that can cause a raft to flip. About 20 minutes into this run, the strong river flow puts us right into a large hole and we almost flip and Josh loses his

Bonnie Rights Himself Just Before We Run Him Over

oars out of the oar locks but we soon pop out and continue down as Josh scrabbles to get his oars in the locks again.

 

We come to one large class 4 rapid called "The Whirlpool." There's a bend in the river after the main rapid where there is a huge eddy that will take you upstream again so you can do this rapid multiple times, I think we do it at least 5 times and it is different every time because the water is really surging in this part of the river so the rapid is different every time we run it.

You kind of lose track of time on the river when it is such a non-stop wild ride but I think it takes us about an hour and 20 minutes to get to our stopping point just before the bridge. Below the bridge are 2 or 3 consecutive class 5 rapids but with this much water they would be class 6 today so the river needs to drop for us to be able to go any farther down the river. Josh says we will do these rapids on day 3 if the river drops enough by then, I have my fingers crossed as this is supposed to be one of the best stretches of the river. We pack the rafts back up to the waiting truck and trailer and head back to the lodge.

Our American friends head back to town but I download the videos of the days rafting to my tablet and then the rest of us have a nice dinner and we all recount the afternoons run of the Fu. I can tell even the guides were excited about today's rafting as this is the highest they have ever seen the Fu since they have been here. Josh then tells us that tomorrow we will drive up near town, we have to miss a small canyon as the water level is too high to raft it so we will put in 2 or 3 kms below the town just below the canyon. Breakfast will be at 8:00AM and Josh would like to be ready to leave by 9:00PM.

We are up by 7:30AM and once again it is raining but the river has dropped a bit more. Breakfast is ready by 8:00AM but the rafts have not been loaded on the trailer and none of the gear has been gathered so we are not ready to leave until about 10:30AM. These guys are amazing when we are actually on the river but they are not at all organized and don't seem to worry about any schedule. We get to town at about 11:30AM and Josh says he needs to pickup a few things so he tells us to meet at the office in town in 30 minutes. I joke with Katrina that we

are not going to be on the river until after 2:00PM today. We have an extra cat boat for safety on the river today and a new guide named Mitch joins us but there is no sign of Josh until about 12:30PM.

We see Scott from yesterday and he decides to join us and when Josh finally shows up he's got another day tripper who is a Chilean doctor with him but Cedric never shows up. We jump into the vehicles and drive along a crazy twisting, up and down gravel road for about 40 minutes

before reaching the putting in point. We have to carry the rafts the last couple hundred metres and by the time everything is setup and we are ready to go, it is just after 2:30PM. Katrina, Michael and I are a little pissed off that we are paying so much and starting so late. There was just way too much waiting around this morning.

Anyway, we are finally on the river but the first hour or so is on flat water. Mitch and Mark are in the cat boats, Bonnie in a kayak and Mickie is in the raft with us as a paddler with Josh guiding. It

is pretty even though it's raining but not very exciting. We finally can hear a rapid that we are approaching but this rapid is a class 6 and it is a "Z" shaped rapid that narrows to about 10 metres with a large drop. We have to get out above this rapid and the guys have to line the 3 boats down which takes more than an hour. We all eat lunch here and use one of the rafts as a shelter to keep us out of the rain while eating.

Finally we are on our way again and run a class 2 and a class 3 rapid before coming to another

large rapid. This one is a straight rapid but the river narrows and drops off steeply and is a class 6 in this high water. Once again we get out of the raft above the rapid but this time they are able to"ghost" the rafts down so it only takes a little over half an hour. By now, I'm definitely a little frustrated. It is probably past 6:00PM and we have yet to do anything exciting in terms of rapids. We were supposed to raft as far as the lodge today but I know we aren't even half way there yet so that's not happening.

We get back in the raft with the promise that within 10 minutes we will enter a section of the river called "The Wild Mile," well at least that sounds promising. We go through a few class 3 rapids and a class 4 and then we come to the "Wild Mile." Josh starts to do his evil laugh as we head into it. It is 10 amazing minutes. At one point we hit a huge hole, where we get stuck for a few moments. I'm in the middle spot of the raft on the high side but the raft is on such a sharp angle while we are stuck in this hole that I lose my hold and come flying down to the low side and almost knock Mickie into the river. There are numerous class 4 rapids and 1 or 2 class 5 and it's awesome.

After the "Wild Mile" we continue on for 20 minutes with some more nice class 4 rapids spaced every few hundred metres. We come to a small little bay where we are going to leave the rafts for the night. This bay is just above a bridge where the river narrows and the river flow is very fast. The cat boats and Bonnie in the kayak are in front of us and Bonnie gets stuck in a small hole and blocks Mark from easily getting into this bay. As we are coming, Mark is rowing like mad to get into the bay. Just as he hits a back eddy that will bring him nicely into the bay, we arrive and can't avoid bumping him back into the main flow of the river. Now, he is going to miss this put out point. There are no dangerous rapids below but there is no other put out spot for many kilometers. He is still rowing like mad but there is no way that he can row back upstream. Luckily, Bonnie is able to through him a safety line and as he rows, Mickie, Mitch and Bonnie pull him into the bay.

By the time the boats are safely tied into the bay and we climb up a crazy trail to the trucks, it is after 8:00PM. The last 45 minutes was pretty amazing but I'm pretty disappointed with the day in general. I think Josh is not very well organized and is too focused on trying to get day trippers to a detriment to the enjoyment of the people spending big bucks for 3 days of rafting. My expectations were that we would be running more than 1 hour worth of rapids, in fact a lot more. The day trippers are paying less than $100US to join us and then they get invited to

join us for dinner this night as well. Dinner is steak that was cooked many hours before we get there and is the most well done steak I've had in a long time. But, I'm hungry and the steaks aren't very big but after Scott and the doctor each have a steak and most the guides grab 2, there's no extra helping left for me, Michael or Katrina. I didn't say anything which is not like me but a knew that it wouldn't make any difference other than ruffling some feathers even though it was really the 3 of us that paid for the meal.

After dinner, Josh announces that tomorrow we will be experiencing the single most exciting day of rafting any where in the world. We will get an early start and leave the lodge at 9:00AM since the rafts are already on the river and we will raft all the way to the lodge where we will stop for lunch, then we will do the "Bridge to Bridge" section and continue down through the rapids below the bridge. I'm psyched as there won't be any large flat sections of river like today and there is only one rapid where we need to line the boats down which is the top of "The Terminator" rapid right near the start of the day's rafting. I am hoping we will be done at a decent hour as there is a 7:00PM bus that leaves town for Argentina and a corresponding bus at the boarder that will take me to Esquel where I can then catch a connecting bus to El Chalten in Glacier National Park. If I don't catch this bus Wednesday evening, the next bus is not until Friday morning.

The next morning I get up early and try my hand at some fishing with a spin casting rod and a spoon lure. It is still raining but not as hard as it was and the river has dropped some more. I can see large trout around 45cm long swimming along the river edge but they ignore my lure. I do catch a small 15cm brown trout and have several more bites from similar sized fish.

Josh had slept in town last night and by 9:00AM we are all ready and waiting for him. By 10:30AM he has not shown up, there are no phones or cell service at the lodge and Josh has the only vehicle. He finally shows up just after 11:00AM with a couple of Israeli day trippers. I'm sure this is why he was late, he waited for the morning bus then found these 2 guys who came to town just to raft but I can't believe we are going to be so late getting on the river again. He also has 2 more safety kayakers with him but Mitch isn't coming so there will only be one cat boat. The Israeli guys need to catch the 7:00PM bus back to Argentina so I will go on this bus too, luckily I packed in the morning. I'm sure this means that we will not be able to do all of the river that Josh said we would be doing.

We get to "Terminator" within a few minutes of starting and we do the upper part of the rapid before pulling to the side to get out and it takes over an hour for the guys to line the 2 boats down the rest of the rapid. After we get in we do a series of class 4 rapids with one rapid almost blending in with the next. Josh is always warning us not to fall in at the start of these series of rapids because we likely would be in the water for all of them before anyone could rescue us and of course we hear a lot of his crazy laugh. We go through some amazing rapids like Kyber Pass and the Himalayas.

By the time we get to the lodge, its almost 4:00PM. We need to be finished rafting before 6:00PM to have any chance of catching the evening bus. Michael and Katrina suggest skipping lunch to maximize our available time on the river but Josh says lunch is ready and waiting and we will only stop for 30 minutes. Of course 30 minutes turn into an hour before we are back in the raft. We then do the "Bridge to Bridge" section of the river. The river is almost 60cm lower than when we did it a couple of days ago and it is a completely different ride. The flow is not quite as fast but the rapids are not more pronounced and we have another amazing time on class 4 and 5 rapids.

It is 5:50PM when we reach the lower bridge. I'm disappointed that we will not be running the rapids below the bridge. I wish Josh had been better organized and not so worried about finding day trippers. By the time we get everything loaded onto the trailer and drive back to the lodge it is 6:15PM. The Kiwi guide takes some photos from shore on some of the big rapid locations on this section of the river so I'm happy that we will finally have some good photos of the rafting. But I'm shocked when he wants $50US for copies of the photos. After spending $950, I can't believe they

want more money for some photos. I don't even have time to see what the pictures look like but I opt not to buy them. The Israeli guys and I quickly change out of our wet gear and jump in a truck and are heading to town. We miss the bus leaving town so our driver drives us to the boarder. The connecting Argentinian bus has not arrived yet. We clear Chilean and Argentinian immigration and the bus comes a few minutes later and we are off to Esquel a little after 7:30PM.

These 3 days by far have been my most

expensive days on this trip, even more than the all inclusive cruise of the Galapagos Islands. Overall, I loved the rafting. It was an adrenaline filled ride and very professionally done. But, for what I spent, I did not feel we had enough time on the river. I think we should have been able to do what we did in 2 days. I know part of the difficulty was due to the high water levels and it limited us to where we could raft. But there was never any schedule that we kept to and we were always so late in getting started each day. December is not the real busy season which does not start until January so Josh was trying to fill

out the spots on the raft with day trippers which is fine as long as it does not impact the 3 day trip that Michael, Katrina and I paid for. I would recommend in a second for anyone I know to raft the Rio Futaleufu with Futaleufu Explore or one of the other local rafting companies. The river lived up to its reputation in my opinion. But, I would not recommend that anyone pay the large premium that I did for an all exclusive 3-day trip. Futaleufu Explore is just not organized enough to make this feel like good value for what I paid. When you are paying over $300 a day, you don't want to be left alone at the lodge for 8 hours with

no food or drink, you want a full schedule each day that we actually try and stick to, you expect well cooked meals with generous portions and pictures of the rafting should be included and not be an extra. I could have stayed in town, done 3 day trips and ate like a king in the local restaurants for way less than half the price. Having said all this, rafting the Fu is definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far.

More on El Chalten with Mont Fitz Roy and El Calafate in my next post.

Hasta Leugo Amigos!