Kayaking in Chile, part 3

 

Will had an amazing time running some classic waterfalls around the Pucon area and a sweet day kayaking the Palguin from top to bottom! We were now heading back up to Santiago with a very rainy day on the madness that is the Rio Laja and a few laps on the Upper Nuble. We went to check out the seven tea cups but after a very dry Winter there was not enough water to kayak, so we drove out of the National Park and up to the Upper Teno and finally the Rio Maipo. The brown mess that is the Maipo was great fun and a fantastic finish to a 3 week adventure with Will. It was now time to party and there was no better place to do that than with Nelson, Tami and the Isoterma Team!

An early start saw us say goodbye to Will and a couple of hours later we welcomed Ran and Ami for another 3 weeks of road tripping and kayaking. Again we took away the jet lag and travelling with a couple of runs on the Rio Maipo, another disco grill with Nelson before making our way down to Pucon via the Teno, Nuble and Bio Bio rivers.

In Pucon the rivers were unseasonably low but with local kayaker and Kayak School Arlberg Guide David Joos we kayaked the classics and with views of the Volcano Villerica on a stunning Summers day.

The waterfalls of the Upper Palguin did not disappoint with both Ran and Ami finally running the drops they had heard so much about! We managed to get a low water run on the Rio Maichin, which is one of my personal favourites.

We celebrated Christmas in style with a bbq and the following morning we started to make our journey south…

 
Diederik Gerbranda