The Secret Ranchito (Condor Nest) Futaleufu

Its been ages once again since I got round to updating the blog... This was a fab place, went white water rafting with an amazing company doing rapid 5īs, got completely flipped out of the raft but our tank of a man who was guiding it made sure we were always in safeish hands. The hospedaje we were ...

... looming about 10km away, but the road to the town was open and we could be picked up at the boat launch. There were not many guests at the lodge as the economic troubles have severely decreased tourism in the area. Luckily there is a whole crew of kayak and rafting guides for this company who liven up the atmosphere. After seeing that there were just a few guests, I inquired about my trip. How many people are going ...

... was a little cold and I was feeling under the weather. I slept about 12 hours. But before that, I went to the local rodeo which was going on that weekend. The next morning I needed to find some gas as I was very low, but with no gas station in town got 10 liters from the local mechanic, at a nice premium. Puyuhuapi. A stranger thing happens south of Futa. The greenery gets bigger ...

... Years day all the public phone shops were closed, thank god formy mobile. It turned out that the number we had to call was Natalia the girl who had picked me up at the bus station and who we had spent the previous evening with at the dance party. She and her mum came to pick us up but they didnīt know that they were supposed to take us to the border and they couldnīt get hold of Josh either!! So they took us anyway. They helped us get through both ...

... some repair; like the pants that were ripped open in the jaws of a German Shepherd in Puyuhuapi. (I wasnīt even riding my bike. And... what is it about Puyuhuapi?) Anyway, with these matters sorted, I am all ready to cross to Argentina tomorrow.

... the President of Chile was visiting to open a new high school. This high school and the greater part of the town of Chaiten was destroyed in May 2008 due to the eruption of the Chaiten Volcano. Fortunately, the entire population was rescued before mud and ash flows from the mountain demolished the town. Today, ash ...

... packaged foods and drink. The room behind was the dining and lounge room, above which were rooms for travellers. This hospedaje was called Trebol (three-leafed clover) and run by Superwoman. She looked unassuming, but that was a ruse. When I arrived about 7 pm, she asked if I would like dinner at 8. In the next two hours, she had fed the chickens ...

... So I ended up pushing my fully loaded and fully fuelled bike uphill for two kilometers back to the nearest village where I stopped at the first house absaolutely exhausted, wet and cold and asked if there was a hotel in the village, there was, another killometer. I think the house owners must have noticed I was not up for that. I asked if I could leave the bike at their house and I ...

From Esquel we took the twice weekly bus to the Argentina/Chile border. It was a pretty low key service. You couldn't buy tickets for it in advance and the bus driver only half heartedly asked for bus fares as people got off. Atypical in Argentina were well-run buses are almost without exception. A Californian asked the bus driver when the bus came to take people to the actual Chilean town 10km away, and he said in three ...

Well, we decided to hitchhike out of Argentina into Chile. LOL, what a joke. Spent most of the day sleeping on the side of the road nursing my broken toe. In the end, we took a small chappa to the border, walked a few km into Chile on a broken toe and picked up another chappa into Futaleufu. The village of Futaleufu is a small 1500 inhabitant town famous for white water rafting and kayaking. Non of which I could manage in my state. The ...