Tuesday 4th December
Awoke to cloudy skies like yesterday's. Breakfast without eggs was very similar to yesterday's apart from the fried bread drizzled with syrup and dusted with icing sugar - quite a sugar rush!
We gave our spare pieces to the German lady next to us and this did generate a brief friendly exchange!
Today we are booked for a half day white water rafting on the Petrohue River.
This morning, Puerto Varas was shrouded in cloud and if we had not previously seen the surrounding mountains and volcanoes, it would have been hard to believe that they were there!
The same driver picked us up and Adrian was already installed in the minibus. Like yesterday, as we approached basecamp the sun came out, the volcanoes appeared from behind the clouds, the sky became blue and everyone's mood lifted!
First today was the safety briefing by Tomas, our guide, on different paddle strokes and what to do in the event of leaving the raft or capsize! Again we were sized for wetsuits, boots etc.
Bill’s ensemble today resembled a black nappy rather than a body hugging suit. The helmet fitting was achieved with the aid of a very fetching neoprene skullcap!
Back in the bus, with the raft trailed behind, we were taken about 10km upstream to a small tributary to the main rushing Petrohue River. Our group comprised Georgio, the driver, Tomas the instructor, the Bellamy ‘family’ with Adrian, a photographer, a rescue kayaker and a couple from Oregon called Sid and Gail with their Argentinian guide.
After a thorough safety instruction chat from the kayak team we got into the raft for a quick practice session. Tomas then steered us into the main river torrent, a mass of white water and bubbles, shooting over the rocky riverbed. At the first set of rapids, known locally as ‘Morning coffee’ We hit a huge wave and nearly lost a man overboard as Sid slid across the thwart, colliding with Gail, who clung bravely onto the raft, but dropped her paddle overboard! She was issued with the spare and we continued downstream to many shouts of mingled fear, joy and excitement.
We were steered into the bank with a quiet back eddy, and clambered out to be told we were going to be jumping from a 4m cliff into the swirling waters below. Staff were on hand to use throw lines if we were unable to get to the shore on our own. With the photographer in position we climbed up a narrow rocky path onto a small outcrop and one by one we leapt into space and flew out and down, before crashing into the foam. An amazing experience requiring some courage and possibly stupidity!
Then we reboarded the raft having changed positions, and set off for more rapids.
All around us were forested hillsides and snow capped mountains and volcanos. Very spectacular indeed! The raft bucked and swayed, walls of water crashed over us while we paddled furiously to the commands issued by the helmsman on his oars - forward, stop, backwards, stop, forwards hard, stop, forwards again, inside (aka assume crash positions), and finally ‘paddles up !’ when we emerged from the tail of the rapids.
We were on the water for a couple of hours before paddling into the takeout point.
We loaded the raft onto the trailer and then changed out of our sodden gear, every one of us beaming from ear to ear. After a short bus trip back to base we were treated to a craft beer, coffee, fried dough and salsa dip while the day’s photos were put up on a screen. The volcanoes made a great backdrop to the raging river and our crazy antics!
We were dropped back at the hotel and felt in need of some decent coffee. We returned to the famous Mawen cafe. Who should we find in the cafe but Adrian, he must think we are stalking him!
After a huge avocado and smoked salmon flatbread sandwich, and some super-healthy apple and almond gooey cake we reviewed our plans for tomorrow - our ‘free’ day.
We had drawn a few blanks. Whitewater kayaking - not available as too much water in the river. Birdwatching - way too expensive at about £80 per person for a half day. Biking - limited by having to cycle a considerable way on main roads before getting somewhere peaceful. Sailing - nowhere to hire boats. Hiking - all the best areas were many miles away and most not on a bus route. Hmmmm....
We had more or less decided to just stay locally, have a quiet day and maybe just walk / run around Puerto Varas. We wandered back to the hotel to catch up with some laundry, some admin, and check in for our flights on Thursday. Then, suddenly, just around the corner, we passed a small car rental office. Brainwave! We decided to rent a little car tomorrow and self guide a tour of the area, do some trail running, some birding, maybe even drive over to Chiloe Island. The cost of this being a fraction of a half day guided bird tour with Birds Chile!
The car rental office were very helpful and we were soon behind the wheel of a snazzy white air-conditioned, only slightly scratched Kia - left hand drive manual gearbox, to make it easy, of course! We returned to the hotel with the aid of google maps (the illustrated map supplied with the car being slightly useless as it covered about 9000 km!)
We sat and had a cup of tea by the fire and spoke to the hotel owner, Josephine. She sat on the floor by the wood burning stove, and we chatted like old friends. We were planning to try a local restaurant recommended for seafood - La Olla but she dissuaded us from this as she had not liked it on the occasion she had visited. Instead she recommended a grill restaurant called la Marca, and kindly booked a table there for us in an hours time. A short distance out of town but as we have the car that was no problem. We negotiated the traffic and arrived promptly thanks to google maps.
It was a large wooden log building that looked promising, however both the meal and the service were disappointing, to put it mildly. We left after the main course and paid at the bar before things got worse...
Our return journey in the car was uneventful apart from spotting a speed bump a little too late! Looking forward to our driving adventure tomorrow!!!