dalai_ooma

Chile Report, chapter 3 - and you thought only drowning could scare Tat.

As you all know I am not much of a kayaker. Therefore for the most of the trip I obviously did the smart thing and stayed away from the big scary water. What I did while everyone else was gone battling the waves is nowhere as exciting as you might thing. I talked to Orietta letting her practice english and me practice spanish. Dave and I read Harry Potter in spanish. We also took a bunch of walks. When I say walks it sounds tame, but in reality majority of those walks had to have at least a 45% incline to them. Why is all the interesting and pretty stuff always uphill?

However it was pretty fun when everybody came back from kayaking. Actually it was kinda funny right away because a bunch of people would come in wet clothes all starving and fighting for the luke-warm shower. Not that I was immune from the luke-warm outside shower, but at least I didn't have people waiting their turn.

The food to feed the hungry horde was excellent as well. There was salsa (called pevre in spanish), freshly baked bread, soup and then usually some other delicious food that Orietta or Sam cooked up. Oh and lets not forget the sweets, there was lots of candy and cookies. We might've been in the middle of nowhere, but you don't abandon the cookies quite so easily.
One day we went down to the neighboring farmer, picked out a sheep, killed it, the farmer skinned it and packed it up, and then it was cooked on the fire. I was cooped up all day so I went with everybody to pick out the sheep and watch it be slaughtered, but as soon as I saw the poor animal struggling against the lasso I had to walk away. I have no desire to become a vegetarian after a traumatic sheep killing experience. Luckily I avoided the trauma and got to eat the very tasty sheep.

One day we also rode horses up the mountain to admire the view. I thought this one would be easy. After all, I rode horses before, and how hard could it be to sit on a horse and follow another one. As always nothing in Chile is as easy as it seems. Remember that it was raining almost the entire time we were there? Remember that we were going uphill? Yep that's right, poor horses had to go up on a steep incline through a river of mud and stone. After half an hour my horse was breathing real heavy approaching a wheeze. I felt so terrible for the poor creature. Of course that was until we starting going downhill. Then I felt sorry for myself. The stupid animal (I don't recall ever calling this hoofed devil a poor creature) kept insisting on running downhill in the mud. I understand that running was a more comfortable for the dev..I mean horse, but watching horses stumble in front of me didn't nothing to assure me that my horse wouldn't do the same and send me flying head first into a rock bellow. That's ok though, the horse and I made up when we got down and starting galloping/cantering on level ground. That part was lots of fun. Of course the highlight was coming home, for the horse. As soon as the saddle was off him, he started rolling around on the ground like a dog. I've never seen horses do that, and they look way more ridiculous than dogs at this activity.

As for holidays, this year was the first time I had multiple christmas eve's. You see, sam was in Costa Rica and was supposed to arrive home day after christmas. Of course Jon decided that it's not christmas without his girlfriend there and so we waiting. Also as should be obvious by now, sam didn't arrive day after christmas. I don't remember what got messed up this time, but she arrived a day late. The day of christmas eve (the first one) we went into town to buy each other presents. Chile is a religious country so only grocery stores were open. So majority of our gifts involved candy, chocolate and alcohol. Lots and lots of candy and alcohol. However Sam got us all woolen socks. Best gift ever. Especially considering the cold nights outside in a tent.

For new year, Jon tried to make home-made fireworks minus the beautiful display in the sky and more boom on the ground. That's all I am going to say on the issue. Well I'm gonna mention that he was successful and luckily nobody got hurt.

Now for the trip back. It wasn't nearly as exciting and memorable as the trip there. Luckily we didn't have to go back through Argentina. Jon managed to book us tickets on a plane. He said we had enough people to get an extra flight added. That should be your first clue about how small the plane was. The whole plane seated 10 people, including the pilot, and our paddle bags were lying in the aisle because they couldn't fit in the luggage compartment. The first passenger sat on the co-pilot spot. I am afraid of flying, and we were flying near mountains with bumpier air. I barely remember anything other than closing my eyes and pretending it's just a nice, safe, fun roller coaster.
After that there was a minor close call with two bags making it a bit late.

So that was it. Trip over. Time to come back to reality. Start to plan the wedding, write up reports, and sadly go back to work. Oh and download pictures, which I promise I'll get to one of these days.

Chapter 2 - Instant paradise, just add water. Ooops, you added too much water.

So where were we? Oh yeah, 3 groups getting together finally at our final destination, namely Jon's house. I wish I could say that the house was a middle of nowhere. However, village of Futaleufu is the middle of nowhere, and from there you have to drive about 10 km, pass a bridge that not strong enough for a car, and then walk roughly half an hour sometimes up the hill, sometimes in total mud, sometimes through cow pastures, and only then do you get to Jon's house. He bought the land from a farmer, and he is totally surrounded by pastures and since he has no fences we've had cows (and the surprises they leave behind) and chickens visit during our trip. How's that for middle of nowhere?

Now Jon's house is one he built himself. It's a mix of 200 years ago and modern technology. The house itself is supposedly 3m x 5m, although i think it's more 4x6. The first floor is a kitchen with a wooden stove, and a sink with running water, the dinner table, whose benches double as storage containers, the office which is just a box for a seat in the corner next to a bookshelf. Then there is a half closed off room that is the storage room, which doubled as the driver's bedroom. Jon and his girlfriend have their bedroom on the loft. However the ladder to that is usually up, because well it takes up the only open space left in the house if it's down all the time. Now how all that can fit in such a minuscule house, I don't know. However it was nice and homey. As for modern technology, he has a solar panel that powers the lights, and a pipe from a spring up the mountain connected to a turbine that generates all the energy Jon could ever need. Next to the house there is a connected stall (with only one wall really) that has the shower. Shower can be somewhat warm with the on demand water heater. Given taking a shower there was kinda hard because even if the water was warm the wind made you cold. Mmmmm i love modern warm showers now.
Yes as you can tell I was fascinated with the house. It was just so cool, all the "green" technology actually being used, and being used where none of the grid power is available. So cool.

As you can probably guess that 9 guests, 2 guides, a cook and a driver can't all sleep in a 3x5 house, so some of us slept on the porch, but most of us slept in tents surrounding the house. All i can tell you, is that it got sooo cold at night. Brrrr. I sometimes wore a 6 layered pajamas to bed, and wool socks. That's in a sleeping bag rated for 32F, 0C. Yes, now I love my normal pillow, my warm and soft bed back and home, and the first night back home was just heaven.

However, what our modern home doesn't have is the view, nay, The View. Snowcapped mountains on all sides, the river on the bottom of the hill and all sorts of funky trees and birds. There was small green wild parakeets there. In one word if one ever needed peace and quiet and natural beauty for therapy or to write a book or find the meaning of life, this would be the place to go.

As far as paradises go, this was perfect, albeit not immune from the curse of the trip. Even though it was summer, and though it was very unusual, it rained 4 days out of 5 while we were there. There are obvious consequences to this. You can't really go on hikes comfortably, you come into your tent with your clothing half wet and there is no way to dry your newly freshed clothes. However this was the least of the problems. What most of you don't know, is that rivers are fairly fickle when it comes to rain. The water rises and falls, but kayaks can only go on the river at certain levels. Sometimes when the water gets too high, all the water features become too dangerous to do safely. Sometimes when the water is too high everything just flattens out and becomes boring. Both of these happened to us. Most of the difficult rivers in the surrounding areas were too high to paddle safely. The baby river that was supposed to be just right for me, was too high and was downright boring.
So while the original planning called for traveling surrounding areas looking for rivers to paddle, due to rain we stayed at Jon's the entire time, and paddled the same sections of rivers over and over again.

Oh and lets not forget the Argentinians. Remember them? Well the river Futaleufu starts in Argentina, and a bit before the Chilean border there is a dam. So when it rains not only do you have to deal with the increased water in Chile, but increased water flow because the Argentinians are releasing overflow water. Darn those Argentinians.

The good thing about being a novice kayaker is that I really didn't expect to paddle much anyway, so it suited me just fine to be in a house near a hot stove as opposed to a cold van while the rest kayaked.

I did kayak 2 days. Those were...umm...interesting? The first time was on the easy river that was so calm as to be practically flat. There were lots of cross currents but no waves. Kinda boring and freaky as I'm not used to cross currents. The other day they took me on the bigger rivers. BOY was it scary. Waves up, waves down, waves sideways all trying to flip the kayak. Plus the water was freezing cold. As could be expected I flipped. As could be expected when I flipped I panicked and swam out of the boat. Big mistake!!! The first time I flipped it was very shallow so I kinda sorta hobbled/swam to the shore and went downstream on the shore to retrieve my kayak.
The second time though, was a big and deep river. Jon said that if I flipped it'd be too hard to make it too shore. I was to swim to the nearest boat and hang on for dear life as it made its way to shore. It sounds a lot easier than it really is. So I flip, swim, and look for the nearest boat, which happens to be Jon (who probably knew i was going to do just that), and i swim to his boat. However the waves are washing over me and the current wants to take me right towards the rocks. I do make it to Jon's boat without any great difficulty. Once I'm there I grab on to the handle. Not the smartest thing because I hang on by merely my arms while the current flips me back and forth trying to separate me from the boat and that's a lot of pressure on one hand. So right as I wonder what I will do once I can't hold on anymore like that, Jon tells me to grab him by the waste and kick with my legs to make sure that i get some forward momentum with the boat. This was easier but I still have no idea how he maneuvered with a limp body hanging on like that, messing up his balance. Short story long, right as I start to wonder what will happen when i no longer have the energy to hold on to Jon even like that, he makes it to shore, where a cold wet rat-a-tat just slumps on the ground happy to be touching terra firma again.

That was the last time I kayaked. No sirree sir, I will practice on some nicer rivers before I'm stupid enough to go on such big water again....


To be continued, with stories of our non-aquatic entertainment, our trip home, and hopefully pictures.

At the insistence of a certain family member, who shall remain nameless, but I call her mom, I am posting my chile trip report here. Why I have no idea, but the food is cooking, the laundry is doing its thing and i have nothing better to do. So I present ladies and gentlemen, my trip to Chile over this Christmas



Chapter 1 - "I told myself, cheer up, things could be worse. I cheered up and sure enough, it got worse" - Warren (trip member)

So lets start with some basic background info. Chile is an itty-bitty country in south America that is basically like a big noodle hugging the west coast of South America. Very long, but not very wide.
All we knew about our group is that Jon is the guide, with his chilean girlfriend Samantha being backup, but not getting there till after christmas, 9 paying customers,one chilean driver Tuto, and one cook Sam's mom Orietta (actually we found out about that one later). Of the paying customers we knew only 2 others, Warren and Whitney two people we paddled with before. Whitney is on the same flight as us from Santiago, Warren is supposed to be already there. The rest we knew nothing about.

Original plan: Fly into Puerto Montt via Santiago. There meet our guide Jon at the airport.After we arrive we are supposed to take an all-night ferry and drive to Futaleufu, a place near which Jon has a house. Why ferry you ask? Well, funny thing, there are no through roads through a section of chile , so you have to take a ferry or fly. Why no roads? Turns out somebody bought up the middle of the country and since it's private property, no roads. Why no imminent domain? yeah, beats me.
All in all we are supposed to arrive on plane at 5pmish and the next morning we are at Jon's house ready to paddle.


So anyway, on to what really happened.
As we wait for our flight out of Dallas to Santiago Whitney calls us and tells her that her flight out of Miami is getting very delayed and most like she isn't making the Santiago - Puerto Montt flight. When we get to Puerto Montt, without Whitney, we start looking around for Jon to pick us up. Since we don't know anything about anything anywhere in Chile, we're kinda up a creek without a paddle without Jon getting us. Of course that is exactly what happens, no Jon. So we sit around in this small airport with our gigantic luggage trying to not look suspicious or panicked to the passerby cop. So we sit there and wonder how we could be so stupid as to not even write down Jon's cellphone number, when we noticed a guy sitting nearby with the same dazed and confused look of a lost child, as we have. Long story short, an hour later Jon shows up, which is about 15 minutes before we start looking for a hotel. The dazed and confused guy turns out to be another member of our group, and Whitney is still stuck in Santiago.
Of course Whitney being stuck in Santiago is only a minor inconvenience compared with what Jon told us next. There was no ferry. It got into an accident a few weeks prior and so now we had no way to get further south because flights were overbooked as it is, and ferry wasn't working. There are other ferries to be sure, but since it's about the only supply route to southern Chile, the priority went to vehicles that delivered food, and on the passenger side there were very few spots left, not enough for us, and obviously not a minibus with a trailer full of totally non-essential kayaks.
But, Jon being Jon and being good at what he does, he had a backup plan . He managed to get 2 passenger tickets. One of these tickets would go to a boy named Ben. Ben was in Chile without his parents, so he needed tons of paperwork to cross borders. Then we had Sam's mother with us (she's chilean) who was sent with Ben to make sure he gets to Jon's house. With them we would send all our fruits and vegetables. If you haven't guessed already, we were going to be crossing some borders. Namely we would take the minibus with the trailer and drive through Argentina and come back to Chile just outside of Futaleufu. Of course as any plan B, it had its drawbacks. First we'd have to start the next day, because by the time Whitney comes from Santiago the border into Argentina is closed for the day. Secondly, driving is a LOT slower so while pushing bus to the max we might drive the next day and get into Chile before the border closes (they're open 8am-8pm). So grand total if we're lucky we lose one day, if we're unlucky day and half, and of course we risk letting a minor out of sight out of the person legally responsible for him.
[here comes lunch/dinner which is only interesting by seeing pictures, and that's a whole other chapter a few days from now when I get off my butt and download my pics]

So at around 8pm after over 24 hours of traveling for me and Dave with little sleep, the group,minus sam's mom and Ben who are now waiting for their ferry, we pick up the belated Whitney at the airport. May I point out here that unlike us, first thing she saw when she got her bags was our guide to greet her, not that I''m bitter or anything. Then we drive inland (Puerto Montt is on the seaside) towards the Argentinian border.
Here's an interesting quirk about Argentinians, when you drive a vehicle into their country you need special sort of insurance for that vehicle, which of course Jon had no reason for having. So we drive around close to border looking for a place that sells insurance. When we find one at around 10 or 11pm it is of course closed. So what do good campers do? yep you got it we got out our sleeping bags and slept at the doorstep of the insurance place so that we could get insurance as soon as possible and be on our way to Argentina.

In the morning we got our insurance and slowly went towards the Argentinian border. Slowly not because we were not in a hurry, but because the bus was hauling 6 people with all their gear and 10 kayaks on a trailer. So uphill the max speed was about 20m/h. Of course the road to the border was mostly uphill.

But TADA!!! we are finally at the border at around 11am and start the process of leaving Chile and then entering Argentina. Jon talks us through it since we don't really get what is going on. However I was still happy at this point, I wasn't missing kayaking, and hey I get an argentinian stamp in my passport. Of course I wasn't happy for long. After we officially enter Argentina and get our stamps Jon is still arguing with Customs over something. 3 hours later jon comes out says a few choice words about Argentina and their customs officers and says that essentially they didn't like our bus with our 10 kayaks that didn't match our 6 people and decided to not let us in. So now we have to officially go through the whole rigamorole backwards and officially leave Argentina (as people, not the bus who was never allowed in) and enter Chile.
Back we go to Puerto Montt. Now officially we are a day late for paddling.

But Jon being Jon, and probably totally earning the big tip he's about to get for being our guide, had a backup plan for a backup plan. Argentinians had no problems with us as people, so the group would go by bus through Argentina at night and get to Futaleufu in the morning. Jon and the driver (Tuto), our only spanish speakers in the group would get up early in the morning, leave the trailer in Puerto Montt and try their luck again at the Argentinian border. luckily he had some boats at his place already, so those 10 he was leaving behind weren't that that essential.
So our group was now in 3 parts. Ben and Sam's mom on the ferry (which is another adventure all on its own), Jon and Tuto in a minibus driving through argentina hopefully, and 5 of us taking the bus and hopefully being able to get through argentina and then into Futaleufu and be able to explain to the driver in our more than broken spanish where we wanted to be let off. Of course only 2 of us have been at the road we needed to stop and knew how to get from there to Jon's house, and even then their memories were vague. Exciting isn't it?

Well the argentinian border police recognized us by sight and had a good chuckle about seeing us at that exact same spot a day earlier. However they let us through =)
Luckily the bus let us off at the right place, and Warren remembered how to get to Jon's house. Even more luck is that Argentinians let Jon through with our minibus and our food, and he was actually waiting for us, along with Ben and Orietta who managed to get through on the ferry.

So we conclude our chapter about how we got mad at Argentina (not for the last time), how we got to Jon's house 2 days later than planned, and how Jon was that close to quiting his job and walking away from it all while cursing everything Chilean and Argentinian. Luckily he likes us, so he stayed, and vacation continued....

Hello World.