Fumaroles to Mega Water
Exploring Chaiten and Futufeulu
The next morning (November 19th) broke bright and beautiful, so we packed our small Osprey backpacks and headed to the Chaiten Volcano that last erupted in 2008. It was an eruption of significance to the volcanologists due to the high percentage of Rhyolite (10%) in the magma. “Eruptions of granitic magma are rare. Since 1900 only three are known to have occurred. These were at St. Andrew Strait Volcano in Papua New Guinea, Novarupta Volcano in Alaska, and Chaiten Volcano in Chile.” Geology.com. The eruption blew ash some 20km into the atmosphere, with ash settling across a broad swath of area. Soon thereafter, there was a massive thaw, creating a slurry of ash/snow that descended upon the town of Chaiten at 60km/hr., all but obliterating the town. One result of this deluge of ash was an extended beachfront for Chaiten, still littered today with the grey corpses of dead trees.
Since 2008 the area near the volcano has regenerated a temperate rainforest, with tree ferns, the ubiquitous Nalca (nicknamed Chilean Rhubarb with it’s 1-2 meter leaves), red honeysuckle and moss/fern covered trees. Large orange/red bumble bees the size of silver dollars patrol the forrest and provide a droning sound periodically, as they pollinate the underbrush and flowering trees. Our climb was arduous with high steps in places, muddy stream beds and a steep grade of 25-35%. As we approached the top, the fumaroles kept a constant stream of steam billowing into the air, such that their was little differentiation between cloud and vapor. At the top we found a small group of twenty somethings preparing to fly their video drone out and over the caldera. The sights from the top rewarded us with views to the valley and river below, Lake Blanca, and the Pacific Ocean. The panorama was stunningly clear and intense in the morning light.
Still with a little steam left in the boiler, we drove another 10km to hike through one of Chile’s treasures, the Alerce forest. Trees with 12-18 foot bases standing 200ft. tall dwarfed us mere humans. They are conifers, only found in the temperate rain forests of Chile. and some are 2,000-3,000 years old. Charles Darwin reported a specimen 12.6m in diameter. Some 25% of Chile’s rare Alerce trees are in the Pumalin National Park, and what a treasure they are; ancient and otherworldly. We thoroughly enjoyed the sense of wonder these magnificent tress engendered.
While rafting on the Mendoza River,Argentina, we struck up a conversation with the lead quide. I asked him where he went when he wanted an adrenaline rush from rafting and without hesitation he said, Futaleufu, Chile. With but a 77km gravel road diversion from Route 7 (Carretera Austral) between us and Futaleufu, we made our decision to go for it. Kayaking and rafting professionals the world over put these Class 4&5 rapids within the top five in the world. How could we resist?
The drive in along the 77km of gravel road was challenging in sections where repairs were being made and new dirt was laid without the benefit of gravel, giving the “mud setting” on the Citroen C5 Aircross some work to do as we slogged and swerved through the thick mud (May I add that Boyd is an AMAZING driver! I would have swerved off of the road 8 times over already if I drove!) That being said, the views of Lake Yelcho against the backdrop of the snow-clad Andes mountains was mesmerizing, so much so that I had to stop driving for a period of time as I was getting seriously distracted.
We arrived in quaint Futaleufu and went immediately to our rafting company, Bochinchi Expeditions (bochinchex.com). Georgiana greeted us warmly and we were soon joined by five Belgium men wishing to book a rafting adventure. We had booked already for the following day, however the weather forecast was for colder, rainy conditions. We asked if we could go that same day (it was then 1:30PM), and she said of coarse!
We found our modern Las Natalias Hostal just a little out of town, checked in and at 3PM the mini bus from Bochinchi Expeditions picked us up for an hour ride back up the gravel road we came in on. Getting to their jump off point we were sized up (literally), with wet suits, footies, and neoprene vest and life jacket- not to mention helmets. Given the numbers (each raft can only hold six passengers plus the oarsman), the five Belgians were in a raft with an employee of Bochinchi plus the oarsman, and we were to run the class 4+ rapids in a cataraft, a catarmaran type craft designed exclusively for river rafting in extreme conditions. Cole, our oarsman had just come on board with Bochinchi in the last week from Colorado with his wife, who BTW drove the minibus. We received a thorough safety talk which we paid particular attention to and set off down the river with two additional safety catarafts, a safety kayaker and the raft full of Belgians.
We successfully ran through the first set of rapids (Entrada) which were tall enough to go up and over us. The power of the rapidly flowing water was mind blowing and for the relative neophytes, daunting. Cole, told us about the pillow rapid, a large rock in the center of the river which creates a unique wave and we were prepared with feet tucked firmly in the plastic sleeves attached to the webbing that serves as a floor between the pontoons. Our approach was close (perhaps too close to the large rock), and in a second our craft was capsized sending Andrea off the high side now 6-7 foot in the air, and me awash and underwater on the down side. I saw Andrea was above water when I surfaced, and our cataraft was upside down in the rapids moving quickly downstream with our oarsman hanging on. The water at around 50 degrees Fahrenheit was bracing, even with the wetsuits. With the adrenaline pumping I could see a safety cataraft some 10-12 feet away being manned by the owner of the rafting company who was shouting and briskly motioning me to swim to the back of the craft. With some considerable effort and awkward strokes in the swirling mass of water, I made it to the safety cataraft and hefted myself onto it’s web floor. Andrea ended up under the flipped cataraft and was eventually able to heft herself onto the overturned cataraft and was then picked up by the safety cataraft.
The team from Bolchinchi were superb, and wanted to immediately confirm we were physically intact. Though we didn’t escape from that state of affairs completely, as Andrea was sporting a cut lip that was bleeding, and we later noted she had chipped her front tooth. We assured all that it was an exhilarating, albeit scary experience and it was time to carry-on as our British friends are wont to say:) Cole, our oarsman had attached a cord to one of the pontoons and using his own weight as a counter weight, flipped our cataraft back over and brought it to an eddy where we reloaded and continued down through the maze of turbulent rapids. Just for perspective, the rapids covered a distance of 9km with 13 sets of class 4+ rapids in between - barely 200 meters before the next wave of rapids - very challenging! After having left Futaleufu and some 200km south, we crossed paths with a hitch hiker who we had previously picked up in Coleta Gonzalez. We compared notes about rafting and when we told him we had capsized he said “so you are the “good natured American couple who were the first to capsize this season”. Apparently we were locally newsworthy!
Answer from the question posed in the previous post: “The Carretera Austral (CH-7, in English: Southern Way) is the name given to Chile's Route 7. The highway runs south for about 1,240 kilometers (770 mi) from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins, passing through rural Patagonia.[1]” Wikipedia - Andrea’s perspective - this is Chile’s Route 66!
It was adrenaline pumping Sue! We were glad not to have more serious injuries. All the best from Andrea and I.
Such beautiful country and wild adventures! And I thought my level 3-4 rapids on the Cheat River were a big deal 😅🤣😂