Kayak Pucon

One of the objectives in Chile is to do a little kayaking. We initially planned on going to the Futaleufu River, but we heard that the levels would likely be on the high side of good. We opted instead to go to Pucon where the river level would be a bit lower and there were lots of other non-kayaking activities.

Rodrigo from Kayak Pucon has done a lot of the first descents around Pucon and is a very easy guy to get along with. His shop rents creek boats and all the gear you might want ($25,000 pesos), along with doing guided trips for just a little more than the cost of the gear rental. What a deal!

http://www.kayakpucon.net/english/index.htm

Dan hit the river on Friday afternoon to do the Upper Trancura (Class IV) and Lower Trancura (Class III), just outside downtown Pucon. Kate joined Pepe the awesome shuttle driver for the ride.

Ella, the shuttle dog.

Kayak Pucon was awesome and had the same boat that I paddle in Colorado available for rent. 

On the river.

The upper Trancura is a series of nice pool-drop type rapids. The drops generally pick up steam as you go down river. Flow was "high medium" when we were there at about 5000-7000 cfs (guessing). The rapids were fun and powerful. The last rapid after the Class V is a technical big water Class IV+. The line is something like: go far left to the small eddy, peel out and let the current take you around the two big holes. If for some reason you find yourself heading toward the holes, boof like hell (a boof is where you take an aggressive paddle stroke above a drop to lift your bow over the hydraulics). I missed the eddy and boofed the holes, getting away unscathed. There was certainly a moment of "Ok, on to plan B, let's hope this works!"

Awesome rapid in the upper section called "feo" (ugly). It must be sarcasm, because the rapid is fun, clean and the view is stunning. Yes, that's Volcon Villarica in the background! So fun, I ran it twice.

This Class V did not get run.

The Lower Trancura was a pretty mellow Class III stretch with a few big wave trains. It could have some very good play if you knew where to be set up, but the water was generally moving too fast to catch any of the features.

Switching to a tiny little boat for the lower section.

Villarica was looking very tempting when we returned from kayaking.

We booked a trip to ski the volcano on the following day.

Beautiful Pucon

We had hoped to walk the shores of Lake Villarica to the mouth of the Trancura River, but were turned back by thick brush, high water and evidence of general sketchiness. As we returned to town, the clouds  that had been ever-present began to lift. The mountains were reveled.

Villarica, the iconic peak that serves as Pucon's backdrop.

We walked back to town, grabbed a coffee and walked up to the cemetery, enjoying the flowers along the way.

Spooky cemetary Jesus.

View overlooking Pucon.

The Pucon volcano alert system. Green means "OK," Yellow means run like hell, Red roughly translates to "It's too late to run from the approaching wall of boiling mud, gas and lava."

We were relieved to see green. Maybe we'd hike the volcano tomorrow...

We caught a quick lunch of empanadas and then Dan went kayaking.

Air travel and Pucon

We woke early in Calama and departed to the airport. Chilean air travel is a stark contrast to American flying. Liquids are allowed past check points, excess bags are welcomed and travelers are treated with dignity and respect. On the flight we were given our complimentary snack-box, consisting of an alfajor (carmel, white chocolate, sweet bread cookie), some chocolate cookies and a bag of ham flavored crackers. This seemed to be peculiar combination, as if snacks in surplus were packaged for air travelers. However, the snack box clearly pictured the contents; it was no mistake. The ham crackers were better than expected.

We arrived for our connection in Santiago and enjoyed a cup of coffee at the Starbucks that we had visited a week and half earlier when we arrived in Chile. The Santiago airport is a warmer place in the daylight than at 2:30 in the morning.

The flight to Temuco took us along the Argentinian border, the soaring Andes mountains cast to the horizon. We arrived in Temuco under cloudy skies. Only five hours earlier we had stood in one of the driest places on early. Now we stood in a wet, temperate area reminiscent of the Pacific northwest.

Pucon is a small resort town at the base of the Andes. During the winter there is great skiing on the Villarica volcano. During the summer there is boating on Lake Villarica. During the spring, the town is quiet and sleepy.

We checked into the Etnico Hostel. The staff were kind and friendly, but our choice in accommodation seemed misguided. We stopped by a few other nearby hostels and learned that no rooms were available; we were in for the night. Kate began to sneeze, cough, wheeze and the damp air of Etnico. We went for a walk.

Latitude 39, a restaurant run by a couple from California had been recommended as a great place for a meal and to meet people. We sat down, had a sandwich and a beer. Kate's home-made, from scratch veggie-burger was legendary.

Mike Garcia, the owner of Northern Lights Trading Company in Bozeman, Montana, directed us to check out the store Kayak Pucon while fighting his computer's Windows Update at the Latitude 39 bar. Mike's sons both live and kayak professionally in Pucon. We thanked Mike for his recommendations and headed back to Etnico.

We suffered a restless nap, a light dinner and a fretful night sleep. Kate popped a benadryl, unsure if her head cold was returning or if she was allergic to Etnico. We checked out in the morning and were surprised to get a full refund.

Ecole hostel nearby welcomed us with open arms. Despite not having a kitchen, ecole is clean, warm, smells fresh and has whats know as the best breakfast in Pucon. We dropped off our bags and went for a walk down to the lake.

After a walk and a Thanksgiving day pizza lunch we met Rodrigo, owner of Kayak Pucon. Dan's going boating tomorrow! With the room ready, we headed back to Ecole for siesta. Best sleep we've had in at least a week.

We enjoyed a late Thanksgiving dinner in town at Trawen restaurant. The seafood was out of this world. Kate now knows what true Tillapia should taste like and Dan is sold on seafood rissoto. Kate's Pana Cotta desert was delicious and Dan's German Kutchen was very Thanksgivingy.

Tomorrow, we hike in the morning. In the afternoon, Dan's going kayaking and Kate will get a tour of the valley from the shuttle driver while he's boating. A light rain is falling tonight. Rivers should be up!

Chilean beaurocracy and Calama Karma

We rolled into Calama two hours before the rental car was due and checked into the lovely Aguas del Desertero hotel. The hotel was better than expected; the wind was at our backs.

Diesel was topped off in the pickup truck and we navigated the one-way maze of Calama to Hertz. The agent gave the now dusty and filthy (but near new) truck a once-over. Smooth sailing so far. The agent gave the truck a second look, “Es nuevo?” pointing to an inch-long scratch on the rear fender where a bicycle had rubbed on the paint. “Si, es nuevo.”

On Sunday, on our way back from Salar Caliente, we stoped for a couple on bicycles 10 km from San Pedro. They had ridden to Laguana Cejas for a swim. The Atacama sun had sapped their motivation on their ride back to San Pedro. Bicycles went in the back of the truck, passengers in the cab. Dusty, our passengers were very thankful for the lift. After dropping off the bicyclists, we noticed the scratch on the right fender. No good deed goes unpunished.

In Calama the agent asked “Did you file a police report?” in regard to the scratch on the fender. It hadn’t occurred to us to do so. Two weeks prior we had rented a car in Newark, NJ for a friend’s wedding. The rental agent there held a poker chip to scratches on the car. “Smaller than the poker chip, no problem.” Things are different in Chile.

Our limited Spanish and lack of cultural understanding created a road block. We couldn’t comprehend that the police could even be bothered with a scratch on a car caused by poor placement of cargo. “Accidente” doesn’t just translate to “Accident,” but seems to include any type of superficial incident. The rental agent wasn’t about to let us leave until we understood how to file a police report.

We used Google translate to communicate back and forth with the rental agent, which worked surprisingly well. Nonetheless, it was clear that we had a major task at hand: find the police station, explain in Spanish that we needed to report a scratch on a rental car and email Hertz the accident report number. It was 7 PM, we had a flight in 12 hours. The wind at our backs had abruptly shifted.

Into the Hertz office walked a gentlemen that had been hanging out at the Hertz garage. We had spoken with him previously, but only briefly. “I think I can help you,” he said.

The gentlemen’s name was Claudio. He spoke a little English, much more than we spoke Spanish. Claudio offered to drive us to the police station and help file our report. He had visited Pittsburg a year ago and had be helped by a Spanish speaking American; he was returning the favor.

We hopped in Claudio’s pickup truck and headed to the police station; we were getting to know the Carabineros quite well. We drew pictures and translated through Claudio to the Carabinero our situation. He wrote up a very complete report. Half page. Single spaced. The report was proofread by Claudio. Editorial suggestions were warmly accepted.

A half hour later, we walked out the door of the cabeneros station with an accident number to email to Hertz. The number was in the 10 millions; I expect that they will run out of accident numbers during this decade.

Claudio offered to drive us to our hotel across town. After a drive discussing the legendary “match” pitting Brett Farve against John Elway, we were dropped off at our hotel, Claudio only accepting our great thanks.

We walked to our room in awe. Were we really lucky to meet Claudio, or are Chileans this systematically outgoing and generous? When can we next extend our hands to help out another? Altogether an overwhelmingly human experience.

And how does a country function where you must report minor scratches on vehicles to the police? We considered the man-hours associated with our report: a half hour of a police officer’s time; a half hour of the rental agent’s time; no doubt a few more half hours of others time sprinkled in over the coming week, all for a scratch. The time spent processing the scratch probably cost ten times as much as the dab of touch-up paint needed to cover it.

Flamingos y Mas Flamingos

We came to Chile in search of mountain desert flamingos and expected that many others come for the same reason. However, the tourism highlights seem to revolve around the Tatio Geysers, Valle del Luna and the dusty streets of San Pedro. In all of San Pedro, we haven’t seen one flamingo-related souvenir!

Before heading to Calama from San Pedro de Atacama, we visited the primary flamingo reserve in Chile: Laguna Chaxa. As expected, the reserve was nearly empty, with only one or two tour busses and about 20 sunburned tourists.

We wandered out to the lagunas (lakes) where the flamingos feed on brine shrimp, sat down and watched…

A very friendly sandpiper.

Two very aggressive lizards.

We had hung back from the close flamingo viewing area until the tour busses departed. We were left alone with the flamingos.

Six flamingos started to dance. This is the closest we saw to the famous flamingo dance. Here’s a clip from the National Geographic special that got us excited about flamingos in the first place. (Really worth the watch!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW8GX2n4qbY 

…and before the dance had begun, they took off…

Most of the flamingos that we had seen were Andean Flamingos with their characteristic black tails. We were lucky enough to catch this pair of Chilean Flamingos. Flamingos generally mate for life. Like a long-married couple, these two flamingos took turns feeding and watching out around each other.

  

Dan and Kate practicing their flamingo dance.

After a few hours of flamingo viewing, we hit the road to San Pedro de Atacama and enjoyed la comeida (a big lunch) in the center square. There we met an entrepreneur from Bombay, India who was in Chile working on his pay-by mobile phone business. The business model is intriguing: you link credit cards or bank accounts to an application on your mobile phone. Payments are made through encrypted text message and your pin number. The idea is that in developing areas (where everyone has a cell phone), people can make secure payments with minimal hassle. In theory the process is as secure as a credit card, if not moreso because your payment device (cell phone) never leaves your hand (unlike a credit card) and payments are secured by a pin. The fee is minimal; $2 per month for merchants and something quite a bit less for individuals.

After lunch we bid la Atacama chao and hit the road for Calama.

Valles de San Pedro

After a much needed siesta, we hit the road to visit Valle del Muertes and Valle del Luna.

These areas are known for beautifully incised and sculpted sandstone and siltstone. The geologic formations are primarily lakebed sediments, interbedded with gypsum and other evaporite deposits. Periodic catastrophic landslide, debris flow and volcanic rocks are sandwiched within the lakebed sediments. One can image the depositional environment for these rocks: a salar much like those we have been visiting received sediment eroding off nearby mountains. The lake basin was probably closed and high evaporation rates resulted in high salinity in the lake. During particularly dry periods, the salts precipitated out of the lake water, depositing gypsum salt and other evaporites. Periodic catastrophic volcanic activity resulted in the landslide, debris flow and volcanic deposits.

Long after the lake bed sediments were deposited, they were folded due to subterranean movement of massive salt deposits.

Here lake bed sandstone is cut by fractures which have been subsequently filled by migration of gypsum. a single gypsum bed draws the "u" from left to right.

Kate stands on an island of lake bed sediment. Note the geologic layers (beds) running toward the horizon. These sediments have been turned from horizontal to near vertical.

Both Valles are flanked by stand dunes. These dunes are composed largely of volcanic detritus that was blown up against the flank of Salar de Aticama. The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado are similar in that they are composed of volcanic sand from the San Juan mountains that was blown across the San Luis Valley and trapped at the base of the Sangre de Christo mountains.

Having visited the Great Sand Dunes numerous times, Kate and Dan knew exactly what to do after reaching the top of the dune: find the steepest part with the loosest sand and run down!

After tromping around Valle del Muertes, we visited Valle del Lunes, which is similar to Valle del Muertes, but is more travelled and offers less freedom to beat your own path.

Dan sketches.

Sunset.

After a great final full day in the Aticama, we dined at a Todo Natural restaurant in San Pedro. It’s located on the main steet and was absolutely delicious!

El Tatio Geysers

Early. We rolled out of bed at 3:45 AM to see the Tatio Geysers erupt at dawn. Dan had his first cup of coffee in over a week to get his head in the game for the drive. 90 km and 1.5 hours of dirt track in the dark to El Tatio.

We arrived early. Very early. The park that we've heard is usually a zoo was deserted. The Tatio Geyser field is one of the highest (14,000 ft) and largest in the world.

Headlights of the second car to the park.

Dan at dawn.

Kate and Dan at dawn.

Vicaru at dawn.

Vents at dawn.

Vicaru in foreground. Geothermal test project in background.

The masses arrived at sunrise.

Magical sunrise.

By 8AM there were about 80 tour buses at the geyser field and knowing the long, dusty and narrow drive back, we decided to get a jump on traffic. We were very glad to have arrived so early as to have the geyser field to ourselves for almost an hour.

This is Paja Brava. It's a common high-elevation Andean grass. Dan think's it's the neatest looking grass ever. Kate thinks it looks a little grown in and needs to have it's root's done. If we ever get rich, we'll be sure to hire the best team possible to dye the roots of each and every Paja Brava, so that it can look it's Andean best.

The road in the daylight.

Cardon cacuts.

We stopped by Thermas Puritas on the way back from the Geysers. Once again we were the first there for the day and enjoyed a peaceful one hour soak in the most beautiful hotsprings we've ever seen before the masses arrived.

Curvas Peligrosas!