Fun fact: Chile has one of the longest coastlines in the world, but also one of the smallest at being 6,500km long and 200km wide.
ThePaddler 28
The following day we explore the town and then go to buy a ferry ticket. At this point we are told (after a long and difficult Spanish conversation) that the ferry actually leaves from a place six hours drive south of here. We would have to buy a ticket from the office there and then and the ferry was departing in six and half hours. At this point we decided it was getting to risky, there was too much chance of getting lost and missing the ferry, thereby losing our money. Really we just wanted to go paddling, so we turned Black City Car around and headed back to Pucon. After a day of paddling and licking our wounds another idea had percolated: the Rio Claro, a fair drive north of Pucon. Since I have always wanted to paddle this river I jumped at the chance. Our crew was now one bigger with the addition of Canadian Sara-Jane Daub. An extra person in our tiny car meant we would all have to travel light. A sleeping bag each and two tents fill the tiny boot of Black City Car. Our paddling gear is tightly packed into our boats. I suggest we try and stay light weight and so leaving almost all of my belongings locked at the hostel I pack only one change of underwear, my toothbrush and of course my ski suit. The drive to the Rio Claro takes Black City Car around 11 hours and we arrive at nearly 3am. After hastily assembling our tents we hunker down for some sleep. When morning comes we negotiate a deal with the local hostel for a few night’s stay and breakfast and dinner. Then we suit up and head to the river. The first section we head to is the 22 Teacups section. An hour of hiking gets us to the put on of one of the most (If not the most) beautiful rivers I have ever been to. Crystal clear blue water allows you to see all the way to the bottom and the river bends through a narrow, steep gorge with many fun drops and chutes. At the first bigger drop, no more than two minutes into the run, Sara breaks her paddle. With no way to climb out and no break down paddle, I give her my paddle and use her half paddle for the rest of the run. This definitely made the run somewhat more sporty!
We spend our other days exploring the other sections of the river and enjoying the sunny weather and daily blue skies. Paddling the Garganta el Diablo waterfall (The mouth of the Devil). A perfect 180 degree downward slide into 20ft of freefall. Kind of like getting violently flushed down a toilet. We explore the seven teacups section further downstream and are lead to the wrong place to put on, which leads to an hour and a half of bush whacking, one sketchy abseil, one assisted climb back up, a lot of lining boats up and down until we eventually made our way to the correct put on. All of the sections were a similar character, narrow steep gorge walls and crystal clear blue water, and clean fun waterfalls.
S
New crew, new same great Chi
All Chile trips rely on two key ingredients a vehicle and a will leave you out of pocket and off the river. A bad crew unhappy and potentially put you and them into some da A month ago I was with Black City Car Crew, but as with all trips these guys had to start heading home, meaning I needed a new crew and a new ride. Luckily for me two friends I had worked and paddled with last year in Austria had just arrived in Chile and they were traveling with two others. And they had a rental pick-up truck. My luck was looking up, they had space for one more. Just. The crew consisted of three Brits: Andrew ‘Pundy’ Niven, ‘Wee’ Joe Taylor, Joe ‘Wookie’ Thurgate and Marco ‘The Austrian’. The boys picked me up and we headed straight for our first river: the Puesco. The boys informed me they had done a few laps of the upper Palguin earlier that day. I had paddled the Puesco a few days earlier with mixed crew from Spain and Chile. The river was steep and continuous fun but even with the low water it was still pretty committing and this led to three of the crew having to hike out with no paddles. I was hoping for considerably less carnage this time on the river.
Fun fact: Chile is one of only two countries in all of South America that does not border Brazil
A