Hola, everyone!
We are finally back! The road trip is over, a very (and I mean VERY) dusty car, slightly more damaged by small stones that it had been before departure, was returned to the rent a car agency yesterday, and we are having rest in Esquel and thinking how to go further south.
The road trip has been very exciting and sometimes very tiring, but it was definitely worth it. We drove along Carretera Austral to the village called Tortel, not having passed the last 120 km until the southern end of the road in Villa O’Higgins. We owe you a detailed report of our trip, but today we will start with a story about one great adventure which we took on the way to Carretera Austral – about rafting in Futaleufu.
Futaleufu is a Chilean village close to the Argentinean border, and a river of the same name. Rafting on Rio Futaleufu is considered one of the best in South America and we wanted to try it. I have heard that there are some serious rapids there, up to grade 5. I was sure that beginners were not allowed to big rapids but I was wrong. On the way from Bariloche to El Bolson we met a couple of German cyclists who had been to Futaleufu and they were all excited about the rafting. They said that on the section for tourists there were 5 grade rapids indeed (the highest level passable in rafts). My knees started to shake in advance )) Igor didn’t care as he had never been to rafting before (and he is in general brave J).
I still hoped that a choice of descents was available, but when we came to Futaleufu, we went to Patagonia Elements agency where they told us that they only had one descent for tourists, which was called “Bridge to bridge” and yes, it has 5 grade rapids. Nevertheless they accept even those who has never done rafting before. A girl at the agency said that there were big waves on the rapids and we would have a lot of fun. It didn’t calm my knees down, of course. But oh well, what can I do, it would be silly to be here and to freak out at the last moment (but I must confess, I was thinking of pretending sick just before departure).
It didn’t comfort me much when I read that a couple of years ago the same company sent tourists to the section with too difficult rapids and two rafts flipped, having 14 people, including the guides, in water. Everybody was rescued, but it did leave an aftertaste – the rescued people left angry comments on Tripadvisor about irresponsibility of the company risking people lives in the chase for profit. It was unpleasant to discover of course, but we decided to take into account that it was the single incident and the rest of the reviews were all good.
So there goes the day of rafting. We are taken to the river from the village (a 1.5 hours’ trip). Before the start they explain us how to behave, if you fall out of raft, or if the raft itself flips. They gave it such a detailed and long explanation that I had never heard before when I had rafting on smaller rapids, which created an impression that falling out is an inevitable part of the program. However when we were later passing the rapids, I had a feeling that it was difficult to fall out of the raft, if you were holding on tight and not gaping. It is more likely for a raft to flip I thought. Thankfully it didn’t happen to any of 3 rafts on that day.
The rapids of the river follow one another very closely, after passing one we had a brief rest and went to another one – we didn’t have a quiet drifting. There were 14 rapids in total, from 3rd to 5th grade, and the descent started right away from 4+. Each rapid has its name. Our guide, sociable Carlos, before passing each rapid told us its name and how exactly we were going to pass it (on which side of the river, where to swim if you fall out). Our 3 rafts were accompanied by rescuers on two rafts reminding catamarans, and by a photographer, brave girl, who passed rapids on a small kayak on her own and managed to take lots of pictures; it is beyond me how she managed.
The first few rapids were the scariest, with huge waves. This is unforgettable when your raft flies up the wave after which you see a horrendous drop where you fall and the next moment you watch the next gigantic wave moving towards you. This is pure adrenaline. When you are passing such rapid, the fear goes away and what is left is the sensation of the moment, and realization that nothing depends on you, only on the will of the waves and the instructor’s experience, all you can do is scream with excitement.
The most memorable rapid for me was the rapid called Pillow, 4+, where a huge rock on the right side meets the wave which creates a huge counter-wave which covers you completely. After Pillow our raft was full of water, I think this was the biggest wave we hit.
2 hours on the river fly like 15 minutes, and soon it is time for us to disembark. Some snacks await us on the bank, yay! We are super hungry now. The lady-photographer records photos for everyone straight away. We have placed a part of them in our album which you can see here.
I am very happy that we decided to have this adventure; this is definitely a memory which will stay with us forever.
