Chile part 2. Patagonia road trip

This is the road to nowhere. Patagonia, Argentina. photo: Alex Rodegro

 

Patagonia. The name itself immediately makes you think of rugged mountains, windswept highlands, glaciers and wilderness. Well it does me anyway. That and expensive outdoor clothing. It is all those things, but not everywhere. There are towns, farms, beautiful lakes and of course some amazing rivers. Depending who you ask, Patagonia in Chile kinda begins at Pucon more or less, from there south. We had been in and around Pucon for a few weeks, including our trip to the Claro ( see part 1 for more) and were ready to go in search of more water. This year is something of a low water year in Chile, a fairly average snow pack but mainly it just hadnt been raining and didnt much while we were there. This was a mixed blessing for us but mainly positive. It did mean alot of rivers were on the low side especially around Pucon but it also meant that a fair few things were going when in other years you would have to wait quite a while before they came in. It was also much MUCH better for camping especially when youve just got a tarp. 

Go south young man! photo: Quitschie

Having paddled most of the rivers that were of interest and in around Pucon it was time to hit the road. Looking over the maps a plan was developed to meander our way around the Chilean lake district, over into Argentina and thence to Futaleufu over about a month. Game on! We said farewell to Pucon in the traditional manner involving a reasonable amount of pisco (which really shouldnt be available for 1500 peso's a bottle), packed everything into the truck and set off south towards Licanray and the Llancahue (pronounced with the spanish double L Yan-kaa-way). Its a sweet little micro-creek about 2 hours south of Pucon on the other side of the volcano. In fact, its so small and so full of good to go but slightly manky rapids it wouldnt be out of place in Wales so we re-named it the Thlan-a-chew.

Quitschie boofing hard on the 1st drop. You can paddle in behind the curtain on this, super fun.

 We spent a couple of days at the Llancahue, the highlights of which for me were the first drop and the thermas. There are tons of these geo-thermal hot pools all over Chile and a great deal around the lake district. All i can say is you know its a good holiday when you spend almost as much time mincing about in hot tubs as you do paddling - its so good when youve been boofing big stuff all day. The thermas near the Llancahue were particularly choice, especially being as there was nobody else there so we got away without paying. 

Guy and Joe soaking it up.

 

From the Llancahue it was over to the Rio Fuy. The Fuy is a lake fed run and thus goes pretty much all the time. I was pretty keen for the middle but this was still November and there was no way it would be low enough. As it was the upper section was pretty high but super fun. We had a couple of days here and a couple of laps on the upper which is super fun biggish volume class 4 finishing with some awesome waterfalls right next to a crazy ewok village hotel thing. Camping here was a bit tricky with the new development basically taking over the whole valley and our first night being slightly interrupted by a "super sketchy" dog which caused Quitschie to shit himself and the 2nd night by rain. Must've been quite amusing to see 4 thermal clad gringo's sprinting down the track to the conveniently placed barn at 3 in the morning.

Quitschie, random drop, upper Fuy

Guy about to take off, Salto de Leona, upper Fuy.

Me boofing Leona. photo: Quitschie

Our next river was the Curringue, which is a really fun class 4 run in a couple of box canyons about an hour away from Futrono. The river was really cool, and there are some super sick cabana's right at the put in with thermas hot tubs on the porch. Unfortunately you have to pre-book and collect the keys in Futrono, bugger they said. Regardless, the Curringue is a fine river and i did get a ride all the way back to the truck from a super nice guy when hitching the shuttle, happy days. 

Curringue scenery

 Working our way further south, we headed to Salto Nilahue. Youve probably seen footage of this, its the super ramped off 60' into a pool. We arrived late in the afternoon and scouted it, super good to go and decided to run it the next morning. However after spending the evening getting ourselves hyped up, we unwisely drank all the pisco and woke up hungover in the rain. That killed all our motivation so no salto but we did get a nice breakfast of home made jam and tortas fritas from a nice lady with some little kittens. Awww kittens. We also didnt paddle the Rio Bonito, a tiny little creek we found on Rivers of Chile which by the way is an invaluable source of river info for paddling in Chile. If youre planning a trip, check it out. Anyway, the Bonito was just too low sadly so we headed off to the Petrohue.

Quitschie on the entry slots, Salto de Petrohue. Which is technically illegal i think. Still, very pretty eh?

The Petrohue is a very pretty, larger volume, lake fed river right in the middle of a national park. You can see the giant Volcan Osorno in the pic above, and this dominates the skyline for many miles around. Its also right next to Lago Llanquihue and Puerto Varas, where after nearly 2 weeks of camping out in the bush we were glad to get into a hostel and get washed. A friend of Quitschies was working in town and was able to show us round so the boys went out for a few drinks or in Guys case an entire bottle of pisco. The next day being a write off gave us time to get ourselves organised to head down to Hornopiren. 

The most amazing camp site, stunning place. Hornopiren.

The take out for the Rio Negro, right next to the above camp site. I slung my hammock up in these trees, probably the prettiest place ive ever read a book.

Hornopiren is a boat ride south of Puerto Montt which itself is pretty much the end of the road in Chile as south of here the Chilean coast is riven with fjords. Its also home to a couple of wonderful rivers, the Negro and the Blanco. After finding possibly the best camp site in the world we started off with a run down the Negro. Its a great wee river, similar to the Llancahue but with more steep drops and some great mini gorge type rapids. We had just enough water to make it runnable but found that some of the rapids below the big drop were pretty manky and unfortunately i hurt my ribs boofing into a tree. Whoops. Still, super nice river and you get to take out at camp. Sweet. 

Guy on the 1st drop, Rio Negro

The other river we were keen to get on is the Blanco, which conveniently is less than 4km's away from the Negro. Although its so close its a much bigger drainage, originally coming from a glacier high up which in turn feeds into a lake. Its an easy 4km hike in to a spectacular put in, and a fun alpine style class 3/4 blast back down. For those tempted to explore there looks to be plenty more paddling up stream as well, your issue would be getting up there....

Quitschie starts walking. And running away from angry cows.... Rio Blanco, Hornopiren.

The put in for the Blanco. Awesome place.

The Hornopiren area is a wonderful little place, one of the most beautiful ive been lucky enough to visit. We had been thinking of heading up to the nearby Cochamo but sources told us it may well be too low so decided to head back up for the Gol Gol. Stopping at the thermas en-route to the ferry back we spotted dolphins swimming in the bay as the boat set off. It felt like they were waving us off, really special. From there we headed straight up and reached the camp site for the Gol Gol in time for dinner. Putting on the next morning we bumped into another group of boaters, our first since leaving Pucon! LJ Groth and company were staying at the same camp site and we helped each other out with shuttle as well as beer drinking duties that night. The Gol Gol is an awesome river, nice mid-volume pool/drop waterfalls albeit full of dirty volcano poop that gave us all a sore throat. 

Quitschie on the 3rd one. Gol Gol

Joe gets his bow up. no.5. Gol Gol

After 2 days at the Gol Gol we had a border to cross, our plan being to head over into Argentina, stop by Bariloche and then make the long drive south to Futaleufu. You have to get special insurance to be able to take your car over the border but this was way less hassle than getting the boat down from Puerto Montt. There was also a couple of rivers we wanted to check out on the Argentinian side.

Massive granite peak on the way over the border. You can see the extent of the volcanic waste land that is the Chilean/Argentine border at the Gol Gol a bit here. Everything just covered in ash.

There are a bunch of rivers in the Bariloche area, where we were headed, but alot of these only run in the spring or with massive rains. We were mainly interested in the Manso and the Rio Blanco aka the hidden river. Now this one is hard to catch, as its on private land but it can be done. We had been put in touch with a fine local gentleman in Bariloche and with his help we were able to make it happen. It took a bit of organising but we made it happen and all the effort is more than worth it, to be honest you have to do this river if you can - its amazing. I got to do 2 runs of this gem, and we had a fantastic asado on the ranch in between. Sick river, super clean drops and water with a little bit of everything, big drops, technical doubles, boulder gardens, just awesome. One of the highlights for me was looking back at a waterfall that drops into main the river on our first run in the late afternoon. The sun was shining right onto the water and it appeared as a shining cascade of golden light on the walls of the gorge, absolutely spectacular. I was so stoked to get to run it, a real highlight of my trip. Thanks again for fixing us up guys :)

Blanco de Argentina scenery. Its an amazing place. photo: Alex Rodegro

Moonrise over the ranch.

Matias on the first drop, Otro dia. Sweet, technical double.

Joe running Heaven or Hell, super fun boof to slide to boof.

Alex didnt mean to go left, nor did he mean to boof it that hard. It boofed him. But, he got away with it and its a pretty sick photo right?

Guy on Mandinga, the split falls. This was probably my favourite drop.

Quitschie did a boof! Awww Quitschie.

Brennans, the biggest drop & also a must run. Luckily its super clean and good to go :) Matias drops in.

Me on Brennans, photo: Kaspar Zoth

Feeling extremely lucky we bid a reluctant farewell to the hidden river and headed back to Bariloche for a beer and refuel before immediately rushing out again to the Manso. We had been talking about running the gorge but unfortunately my schedule did not leave much time if i was also going to have a few days on the legendary Futaleufu. There was however time for a quick park and huck so we hurried up the river and made camp, ready to jump out of bed the next day before the park wardens and fall off the Salto los Alerces. This 16 metre falls is in the middle of Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, and the park authorities arent super keen on you running them since theyre worried for your safety. Sweet, touching really but a little awkward for those of us intent on hucking our meat.  


 

Morning view of Cerro Tronador.

With that in mind we rallied up to the top. After a quick inspection, I was the only one fired up to run it. Before leaving for the trip Id had a few big drops in mind that i wanted to run, such as el Medio (palguin) and Nilahue which didnt happen. For me (and i think most paddlers) this sort of thing is very much a mental game and i need to be in the right frame of mind to be able to do it. I figured this was probably the last chance i had and Alerces particularly was a drop i had long wanted to paddle. I was super stoked to run it and hit the line i wanted nicely, even if i did head butt the boat on landing. Bit of a cut up nose but nothing really, well worth it! Thanks again for the safety & photo duty boys :)

We drove back down and said goodbye to the German boys, before heading out on the long drive south to Futa. After a minor break down in the middle of nowhere we just made the border in time and got to Cara del Indio. Basing ourselves here for the duration, I spent a few leisurely days running bridge to bridge and mincing in the hot tub. My ribs were hurting trying to paddle hard in the big stuff and I was done. It had been an amazing trip, everything i wanted from it really. I got to paddle pretty much all the rivers i set out to and much more besides. We had a solid crew, very little carnage, and the car even managed to hold it together until after i left (sorry bout that lads, she clearly liked me eh :P ). All in all, winning.

Id leave you with some pics of the mighty Futa, but unfortunately i didnt take any due to extreme slackness. You can enjoy one of my favourites from the trip from which the scar has now nearly faded tho the memory will be with me alot longer. Thanks for reading, hasta luego, much love, Ben.

Tucking back to the left after boofing right. Salto los Alerces. photo: Joe Leader

Once again id like to give a big shout out to Colorado Kayak Supply . Cheers guys :)