23/01/2024
A few words and a great deal of gratitude...
I'm recently back from the Rio Futaleufu. It means "big water" or "big river" in the Mapudungun language, and I can confirm that it is.
The first time I went to the Alps, I remember getting off the Toesens section of the Inn, giggling to myself after experiencing the biggest water I'd ever paddled. Thirty years later our first run down the Puente a Puente section of the Futa made me feel just the same.
A cancelled flight, a route change, some frantic rebooking and a poor hire car choice (my bad), meant that we arrived fairly frazzled, with no boats, a car with a glass roof and about 12cm of ground clearance, to a town where everybody else drives a pick-up.
Thanks to the lovely people at Bochinche Expediciones - Rafting Futaleufú we still had a great holiday. What an awesome crew - it was a privilege to watch you move around on the river. Thank you so much to Raketa for letting two dinosaurs paddle with your otherwise slick, safe and professional outfit! Thanks also to Carlos for preventing dinosaurs from going extinct on their first run, to Mauricio for great lines and multilingual jokes, to Flo, Miguel, Pablo, Nico, for taking care of us, to Jasmin for the pictures, Georgia and Ida for making it all happen, to Ivan for driving the bus, Joe for the Supernova, Aniol for not minding when we failed to pick up boats, Maurice and Ron for being super-chilled and finally to Lemu and Chilka for supervising the whole operation when not otherwise engaged chasing sticks.
Thanks to Bruce for showing that dinosaurs can still boat and to Jenny for not minding (too much!)
We've still to do most of the sections, so I'd better start saving up for the next visit.
