RAFTING THE RIO AZUL

I saw Kayja fall into the water in front of me and then I felt myself falling in too. I felt the freezing water as I splashed in and I caught my breath. The water was sooo cold I felt it would freeze me! I popped to the surface easily because of my life jacket and saw a raft falling towards me but just as I thought the boat was going to fall on me the current pulled me down stream. I saw Kayja in front of me being pulled in to another raft I soon got pulled in too.

This was one of our last days out on the river, in the Futaleufu valley. It was probably one of my favorite days too! The Rio Azul is one of the many tributaries of the Futaleufu. The Rio Azul’s rapids were mostly class 2 to 3 and it was a really fun river!!! Kayja, Sasha, me, and our guide Jorge, rafted the river in a mini-me which is a blow-up raft but a lot smaller. I have been rafting since I was little, but this was my first time in a mini-me so it was a real treat!!!
That was one of my all time favorite river trips that I have ever gone on.

Big thanks to the river guides and cooks who helped make the trip even more fun!!!

Totally, Stoodles (Skye)

THE FU FAMILY

Nestled on the banks of one of the greatest white water rivers in the world our friends have created a charming camp for rafting, kayaking, biking, horseback riding and beautiful walks through the valley. There we met friends from Skye’s class, Fairfax, Truckee, Coloma, and S.F.

We were delighted by Cookies’ cooking and Lorenzo’s party themes. Skye really loved the talent show, until her dad and Lyosha did a duet...

We slept by the river in a tent, where the sounds of the river put us right to sleep. “Good morning, Good Morning,” and in came Phil with our hot latte. Then when the sun was shining we headed up to the yoga platform for our class with Damara, which is a perfect way to start the day.

Somehow wherever we find ourselves in the world on a river, we find like-minded friends that love the great outdoors. It's an extended family. It’s Jib’s real love.

With gratitude to Marc, Lawrence and the whole Bio Bio crew for all their enthusiasm and love for the wild outdoors.

Marci

THE RIVER

Relationships feed on time. Attachment, skill and yes, love, build as a direct outcome of time spent together. Between people it’s called limbic resonance. Between people and wildness it’s called home. As Marci, Skye and I have wandered across four continents together; I’ve come to better appreciate this. Our southern Chile experience – and especially Futaleufu – brought together three things most dear to me: rivers, sustainability (my vague, potent notion) and most of all family. The Futaleufu and its tributaries the Azul and Escalon, are all five star beauties – pristine, free-flowing, class big, fish-filled, and threatened 21st century anomalies. Major dams are proposed all over southern Chile as it is one of the few places left on earth with lots of water and very few people. The tension between the (clean) energy demands of our industrial growth model and places like Futaleufu and its indigenous inhabitants mounts with each passing day. This is a microcosm of the intellectual and moral challenge of our time. On this river I kayak, along with Marci and Skye, returning to the company of dear friends at the Bio Bio river camp where around the campfire we sing songs, debate, laugh, look deep into the fire’s dancing light and touch the experience of human being at its core.

Ode to the odd hotel

Not talking about the sinister hotels and motels - the ones where the drug deals go down, in the seedy parts of town, where rooms are rented by the hour and the sheets never get changed. No, I'm talking about the odd, personalized, owner-run places; sometimes serving breakfasts, always with strange quirks. Wallpapers from the last century; framed pictures of children's Scottish kilts; sheets and covers of various colors and cotton counts; owners of interesting backgrounds that somehow have ended up in these funny little backwaters all over the world. They transcend their cultural locations. When you check in, you spend a night inside the mind of their creators. Never dull. Always interesting. Next time you're in Puyuhuapi, Chile be sure and stay with Ursula Flack at her Hosteria Alemana - and by the same token, next time you're in Springbok, South Africa don't go to the Scottish Nights Guesthouse. Oh, and also don't forget to stay at the Espacio y Tiempo (translation: Space and Time) in La Junta, Chile.

The End of the World as We Know It

In case you were wondering, the spare tire from a Russian made 1987 Niva station wagon doesn’t work on an Argentinean made 1990’s Ford Ranger King cab truck. We learned this the hard way. After exploring the sendero bosque encantada (the enchanted forest), a lovely trail off the top of the pass through a wood, fern and moss grotto of elfish character that ended in an ice choked cirque lake surrounded by glaciers and their cascading waterfalls, we arrived back to our rented truck only to find a nail stuck deep into the flat left rear tire. It was late, we’d already driven 4 hours and had another 4 to go to Coyhaique. Now I’m not a mechanical engineer, but changing a tire on a rutted dirt road in the middle of a Patagonian forest is right up my alley. But this wasn’t to be. The tool that lowered the spare tire from under the truck bed to the ground snapped leaving it impossible lower our spare tire despite many ingenious and thuggish attempts to do so by me and the few passerbys that tried to help.

Skye said, ‘it isn’t an adventure until something goes wrong’ – referencing Yvon Choinard’s timeless quote that I love to repeat myself… usually cozy around a campfire telling stories with a glass wine in hand. Luck would have it, that just in our moment of darkness – almost now literally – Ingrid and Lorena, two women who work with Doug and Kris Tompkins’ Conservacion Land Trust drive up and proceed to help us. This is where the Niva spare tire comes in. We first drive an hour to Puerto Cisnes – a small village built around salmon farming, which is now in dire straits due to the collapse of the salmon farming industry in south Chile. There a friend of their friend Juanito, takes us all over town looking for a five lug spare. There are many dogs in Puerto Cisnes, but not many spare Ford tires. So we settle for the Niva, which the owner insists has been used on a Ford Ranger previously.

At 9:30pm we see the futility of the Niva fix – its far larger than the ford. So we take the still flat tire, throw it in the back and drive here to Coyhaique, arriving at almost 2am. Yesterday I spent the whole day fixing the tire, broken tool and the cemented spare tire lowering device.

In the backdrop to all this adventure, a tragic story of deep suffering continues to unfold north of us. Over two million people are without homes, almost 800 people have died, many more are missing. Every radio and television station is on full time moving cameras and microphones from city to city, village to village in sad story after sad story. Now supply chains are becoming stressed throughout Chile. Stuff isn’t flowing by road or boat like it normally does. Yesterday diesel was unavailable in Coyhaique. Many people are advising us to go to Argentina to get fuel and food. There is a clear feeling of the fragility of the human techno-industrial endeavor and that ultimately earth’s timeless systems dominate. When the ground you stand on isn’t so solid after all, it can almost turn you into a Buddhist.