On Saturday, we went for hike outside of Pucon. It was a beautiful hike up the mountains into 3 different lakes. Each lake was turquoise blue/green and surrounded with monkey puzzle trees (the tree of Chile and it was around during the dinosaur age). It was a total blue sky day. The temps were in the mid-40's in the morning, but warmed up as the day went along. It felt like mid-80's, but probably only in the 70's. Anyway, as we were leaving the last lake, we heard this crying noise. It sounded like a kitten....miles from anything. We cried back and whoever it was cried again. We repeated this over and over. We could hear the cry getting closer and closer. Pretty soon, out pops this kitten out of the bushes. It was a silver tabby (looked a lot like Blades) and was about 8-10 weeks old. He made it clear that he would not take "no" for answer. We fed him some cookies and a snack bar. He was happy to gobble up all of it. He was well groomed, reasonably clean, looked healthy, and just very hungry. We figured someone took him up the trail and left him. It looked like a lousy way to deal with an unwanted kitten.
So, we figured if the kitten made it down to the park entrance with us, then he might have a better chance of finding a home. There were several farms and houses near the entrance to the park. As we started hiking, the kitten followed us. He was a bit crazy! He would dash in front of us, then wait for us to walk past him, and then he would dash in front again. He never left and just kept hiking with us. He would run up trees and launch himself. Every now and then, he would cry and we would carry him for a while. Then, he would get antsy and we´d put him down and he would take off dashing around again. This continued for MILES! Everyone we passed on the trail asked about him. He begged cookies off of another woman. He crawled up in her lap and acted like he could stay forever. We asked all the Chilean people if they wanted a kitten....no takers.
Then, we passed a couple and the kitten came down behind us. The guy picked up the kitten as soon as he saw it. He turned to his wife and they both starting fussing over it. We told them the story and they were stunned. They said they would take the kitten with them and that they would not leave him --- "they would be in charge". They are Chileans and hopefully, they kitty found a great new home. Once those two picked the kitten up, they never put him down again. For the hours that he was with us (no joke, he hiked about 5 miles with us), we called him "Toro". We found him at Toro Lake and in Spanish, Toro means bull. He was definitely as strong as a bull. If that kitty walked out the mountains in the U.S., well, he might just have found a home with us.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Futaleufu
Well, we just finished a fantastic week on the Futaleufu - one of the premier whitewater rivers in the world. What a fantastic river!
It definitely took us a little time to get used to the big water feel and we feel fortunate that our introduction to the Futa was during a low water year. We had four days of beautiful sunshine followed by two days of full on rain that brought the river up and gave it quite a bit more punch. Arn was glad that he knew the lines on Bridge-to-Bridge before the water came up!
Arn managed to run everything except the class V rapids - so no Inferno Canyon (though Arn did this in a raft), Zeta, Throne Room, Terminator and Casa de Piedra. He'd say many (most) of the rapids were easily 1/2 class easier than what we've seen them rated because of the lower water levels.
While Arn boated everything on the Fu except what was mentioned above, the most fun section for him, by far, was Bridge-to-Bridge. His first full run on Bridge-to-Bridge was not pretty - he flipped at least 5 times and managed to get clobbered by Mundaca. He was so incredibly nervous - even though he had done the section above Mundaca a couple of times before doing Bridge-to-Bridge. His second run through Bridge-to-Bridge was much better in general but he landed in Mundaca backwards that time. He can tell you that the beat-down was not as bad with a rear entry as front!
His third run was very good and his fourth run, with quite a bit more water, was almost perfect. That last run was a super fast run because we wanted to stay ahead of the rafts in our group (who were doing a virtually no eddy-out run) and get into the eddy after Mundaca to see if any of the rafts chose the beat-down route. Arn guesses they all wanted to swim because the carnage was total - there will be a video posted soon - it is pretty awesome.
The instruction and tips that we learned during the week were awesome as well. We really can't believe how much we learned. We definitely have a few more arrows in our kayaking quivers.
Deborah boated every day as well and enjoyed some of the easier sections of the river including the "Wild Mile" and the "El Macal" section below Casa de Piedra. It was an amazing experience for her as she was able to practice in the boils and the swirly eddy lines - something that basically gives her lots of fear. Having a super positive big water week with lots of skill building, surfing and rolling in scarier situations was fantastic for her. The other big thing for Deborah was that basically her "group" of paddlers was her and another woman and their guide/instructor was also a woman. It was such a different experience for her to be in a group of all women instead of being with a group of people suffering from testosterone poisoning.
The place we stayed at - Bio Bio Camp - was amazing. We had such good food, great place to stay right next to the river and amazing guides/staff. I can't say enough good things about those guys and would both highly recommend them and happily go back again. Check out their trips at Bio Bio Expeditions!
It definitely took us a little time to get used to the big water feel and we feel fortunate that our introduction to the Futa was during a low water year. We had four days of beautiful sunshine followed by two days of full on rain that brought the river up and gave it quite a bit more punch. Arn was glad that he knew the lines on Bridge-to-Bridge before the water came up!
Arn managed to run everything except the class V rapids - so no Inferno Canyon (though Arn did this in a raft), Zeta, Throne Room, Terminator and Casa de Piedra. He'd say many (most) of the rapids were easily 1/2 class easier than what we've seen them rated because of the lower water levels.
While Arn boated everything on the Fu except what was mentioned above, the most fun section for him, by far, was Bridge-to-Bridge. His first full run on Bridge-to-Bridge was not pretty - he flipped at least 5 times and managed to get clobbered by Mundaca. He was so incredibly nervous - even though he had done the section above Mundaca a couple of times before doing Bridge-to-Bridge. His second run through Bridge-to-Bridge was much better in general but he landed in Mundaca backwards that time. He can tell you that the beat-down was not as bad with a rear entry as front!
His third run was very good and his fourth run, with quite a bit more water, was almost perfect. That last run was a super fast run because we wanted to stay ahead of the rafts in our group (who were doing a virtually no eddy-out run) and get into the eddy after Mundaca to see if any of the rafts chose the beat-down route. Arn guesses they all wanted to swim because the carnage was total - there will be a video posted soon - it is pretty awesome.
The instruction and tips that we learned during the week were awesome as well. We really can't believe how much we learned. We definitely have a few more arrows in our kayaking quivers.
Deborah boated every day as well and enjoyed some of the easier sections of the river including the "Wild Mile" and the "El Macal" section below Casa de Piedra. It was an amazing experience for her as she was able to practice in the boils and the swirly eddy lines - something that basically gives her lots of fear. Having a super positive big water week with lots of skill building, surfing and rolling in scarier situations was fantastic for her. The other big thing for Deborah was that basically her "group" of paddlers was her and another woman and their guide/instructor was also a woman. It was such a different experience for her to be in a group of all women instead of being with a group of people suffering from testosterone poisoning.
The place we stayed at - Bio Bio Camp - was amazing. We had such good food, great place to stay right next to the river and amazing guides/staff. I can't say enough good things about those guys and would both highly recommend them and happily go back again. Check out their trips at Bio Bio Expeditions!
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