Chile and Argentina 2013 kayak trip

                                            Chile and Argentina adventures     

It seems that all the stories I’ve heard about South America are true: good food, even better wine and a large amount of world class rivers. Exactly what I was looking for in 2012 winter trip. Against a kayaker’s common sense, our trip started in a Buenos Aires, because we wanted to start with a taste of Argentinian temperament and a little bit of city partying. We were a nice colourful team of Fabian A. Bonano(ARG), Darin McQuoid(USA), Rok Sribar(USA-SLO), Igor Mlekuž (SLO) and I. In two days we managed to rent a car, pack everything inside and, completely over loaded, we headed towards Mendoza.

Central Argentina is mostly desert. If you drive to the west, the desert expands to the border with Chile and it hits the Andes mountain range where the rivers are draining to the west into Chile and east into Argentinian desert. For me paddling Diamante, Mendoza and Salado rivers was a new experience.  Rivers are cutting their way into a desolate landscape down from the snowed peaks into red stone gorges whit astonishing landscape. Just after the last river in Argentina, where we were supposed to get a car permit for Chile, we had a little misadventure. In a restaurant, were we had a dinner, Fabian swallowed an empanada and inside of it was a sharp bit of plastic that got stuck in his stomach. Fabian “got stuck” in a hospital for two days! Like that wasn’t enough, the rent a car company didn`t arrange the papers for Chile. It was drama. Rok mobilized his organisation skills and started to negotiate with our rent a car company. After a visit to the Mendoza rent a car office and some bad and good cop playing, Fabian and Rok managed to get a new car and a permit. Finally, we headed towards Chile…

We had a nice drive over the Cristo Redentor passage, close to Aconcagua peak. After a day of driving we got to the infamous Rio Claro in the national park 22 Tazas. Unfortunately we had very low water, but still a very unique experience of paddling in a breath taking volcanic gorge with crystal clear water. Next stop was Pucon, a well known kayaker’s paradise under the volcano Villarica, with lots of good steep creeks.  We paddled Rio Puesco , Trancura and Palguin (top to bottom).  After some good steep paddling we decided on doing Cochamo and Gol Gol and afterwards driving all the way down in the heart of Patagonia, to the Rio Baker. In the mean time our group expanded, Janez Cizman, Klemen Valentincic, Yoshihiro Takahashi and Bojan Rusjan with his girl Ana came to Pucon and joined our team. After a wild welcome party and a special Argentinian grill made by Fabian, we were ready to hit back the road towards Cochamo.

Cochamo is one of the rivers that you never forget. The valley itself is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to. I would compare it to Yosemite Valley, but without the crowd. It is a peaceful place in harmony with nature. The hike-in with horses is special and full of history: Back in the days the valley was used like a pass, because of its low altitude, to cross from Argentina to Chile. Cochamo river is a very steep combination of cataracts and bolder gardens, very technical and rewarding paddling. We did it in a continuous rhythm almost in one breath. I loved it!

Gol Gol with super high water followed. It was intense but I wouldn’t want it any different. We had fun with lots of sweating and laughing to our carnages. It is a top river with all the action that you need and lots of big waterfalls, technical drops and interesting rapids. A highlight are the small volcanic floating rocks that are everywhere, which is also the meaning of the words Gol Gol!

At the end of this adventure not everybody agreed to drive down to Rio Baker and just the original team + Yoshihiro Takahashi from Japan started a long way down to the Tierra del Fuego. We rented an extra car in Bariloche, drove through over 1000km of Argentinian desert, then turned west, crossed the Chilean border and did the amazing road on the south shore of the lake General Carrera. Beautiful! When we saw the lake Berthram, it wasn’t much left to get the Baker!

Rio Baker is the biggest river that I have paddled. The wilderness around that area is indescribable beautiful. A river of that volume is completely a story of its own. You need time to understand the way paddling works there. It is an amazing paddling experience, but you have to adapt to the rules: in big rapids you avoid the eddy lines, stay in the middle and don`t ever, ever swim. All the rest is fun! Half of the team fell in love with the place. They didn`t want to leave Rio Baker and decided to stay there a few extra there. I, Fabian and Igor decided to head for the Futaleufu. The road to Futa consisted of a drive all the way up on Chilenian side over 800+km of dirt road through Coyhaique, towards Chaiten. This is one of the most scenic roads that I have ever seen. It winds between glaciers, fjords and incredible forests with astonishing views!

Futaleufu was a highlight with a lot of action and fun for me. After a 10 hour drive, we went straight on the water and did the lower section. A perfect run! Next day an Inferno canyon followed with the amazing double flow, very juicy waves/holes and some anxiety moments but great paddling with some of the biggest rapids of my life. On the third day we did the whole empanada, top to bottom, 5 hours of action! It was simply memorable. It seems that Pacific ocean’s pushing all the rain clouds straight into the Andes mountain range and you can feel it. We were soaking wet when we headed out of the country, to El Bolson in Argentina. We had a day off in El Bolson and in the mean time Fabian made few calls to Argentineans and found out that there is a river 30 min from town of El Bolson and water levels were looking good.

Rio Azul is a nice steep creek. The only problem is that you hike more that you actually paddle. It is still a nice run and there is also a brewery on the finish! Of course the reason why we were in El Bolson was Rio Escondido or Rio Blanco, as it is called from locals.  But we got no chance of doing it, as the water was too high. Our second option was Rio Manso.

Rio Manso is a true big volume creek in a steep narrow gorge, with powerful rapids and the famous Alerces waterfall on the beginning. Very diverse paddling, consisting also of 6km paddle over the lake at the end, makes the run even more interesting and long. I really loved it, even if I almost peed in my pants on some of the rapids, because of its super big flaw. It was still a nice river that I would love to repeat. Some rapids are really hard to scout and you need to trust your feelings and keep on paddling hard.

Rest of the group came to El Bolson the day after, except for Yoshi, who flew from Coyhaique to Santiago and then home to Japan. 11000km of driving was behind us, we did some of the best world rivers, had good times with the crew and saw some of the most beautiful nature in the world, but we still had to drive all the way back to Buenos Aires  - and also have some more of that city party! Unfortunately our kayak adventure ended with Rio Manso and the cold winter was waiting for me at home!

Text :Andrej Bijuklic

                                    Photo courtesy by professional photographers
                           Rok Sibar (Auburn, CA) and Darin McQuoid (Davis, CA).

                                        Get a taste of Darin McQuoid photographer 

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