Mendoza

Mendoza... wow... good times!!

After leaving Futa, John Cornwell gave Jim and I a ride to Esquel, where we took the bus to Bariloche. Jim is my new travel buddy for the week. We were heading north at the same time. Worked out well. 

Jim and I took the bus from Esquel to Bariloche, spent the night in Bariloche, then left the next day for Mendoza. It was an overnight bus, so we came prepared with valium I had leftover from Peru. The 17 hr. bus ride seemed like nothing. 

Along the way, I won the Bus Bingo game and won a bottle of wine! Woo hoo! Ha ha.

We arrived in Mendoza at 10 am and found us a hostel to plop our crap in, then walked around town. We found the rafting companies that our friends worked at... but not our friends. I ended up going to the hospital and getting my brain checked out cuz I was having these crazy headaches over the last week or two. The test revealed............ nothing. Well, at least I don't have a brain tumor.

The next day, Coleman showed up at our hostel! YAY! We found out about a moonlight raft trip at Argentina Rafting, where my friend Sylvio works. We talked Coleman into coming with us.  We left earlier than the party bus so we could hang out with our friends and secure a spot on the moonlight float. When we got there, no one we knew was there, but Argentina Rafting was super friendly and told us where to put our stuff and what was going on. We met a guy named Mario from Argentina, who works at Clear Creek Rafting in the summer and knows Wiese and Casey! Small world.

The party bus left at 8 or 9, We went to the put in to load boats and help them get ready. They had an 8 boat float. We also loaded Jim's shredder and my board. The people all showed up around 11 pm, and about an hour later we were ready for the rio.

There were 8 boats, 8 safety kayaks, a shredder, and me on my board. The moon was full and bright...... until we put on.... it went behind the clouds and never came back out. Darkness. Lots of darkness. Pitch black on a river I'd never seen before. The river has a lot of sediment in it, it's brown, so there's really no whitewater to key off of either. Just darkness. Woo hoo. 

The run ended up being pretty mellow. I was just following the barely distinguishable rafts in front of me. I got chundered in a hole I didn't see. Ha ha. It was funny. The run ended at the lake with about 1 km of flat water. 
 

Once everyone was all showered and changed, the party began. The band started at 3 am. They kicked ass! Everyone was dancing. Coleman, Jim and I were drinking beers. Good times. The band stopped playing at 6, when the bus left to take everyone back home. About another hour later, people started going to bed. 

The next day, Jim and I took the shredder out with the commercial trip. We put in higher than we did for the moonlight run. We had SO MUCH FUN shredding!!! We were coming up on a rapid that they were taking pictures of, and Jim's all waving at the camera as we're heading into this pretty big hole. "Something big! Something big!" was all I could say before I fell out... ha ha.... then I got halfway back in and we hit another wave and I fell out again! Pretty hilarious. 

It was a great last day on the river in South America!

Later that day, we got a ride back to Mendoza and I packed up all my crap because I was taking the bus to Santiago the next morning so I could catch my flight. We met up with some friends we made the day before at the midnight float, and Jim had a friend from Buff Joe's, Mike (five o), who came to hang out too. Small world. Mike was working at Argentina Rafting totally by coincidence and neither of them knew eachother was there until they ran into eachother. Coleman was a little punk and didn't show up to hang out.

We went to a bar called Moe's... like Moe from the Simpsons.... totally randomly awesome! It's like a tienda in the front, but a bar in the back... so you buy your beer at the tienda and then go in the back and drink it. What a concept!

So long Futa

The time has come for me to leave Futa. I've been here a month and a half.

I've met so many amazing people, and had so many great experiences, it makes it hard to say goodbye.

It was a good month for boarding down in Patagonia. I got to surf on the Espolon wave, I got to riverboard the Futaleufu 6 times at different flows, and I got a 1st descent of a riverboard on the Rio Azul!

And of course I'll miss my H20 Homies!
Thanks H20 Patagonia for the amazing experience! Love you guys!

I'm really gunna miss it here....

Espolon Event

Pueblo Espolon.....

Today was a big event in the tiny town of Espolon to inform them about the proposed mines in their area and let them know what kind of an impact it would have on them, their town, their quality of life, and the lives of others in their watershed.
It was great. We took the ferry acrossed the Lago Espolon fully loaded with people and stuff. H20 took their trip up there to bike up to the event, then raft back down to the ferry.


The presentation was interesting. It was all in español, but I understood a lot of it. They showed a video about the mines in Esquel, Argentina and it´s impacts on that community. They talked about the road that they are building and it´s impacts, and it´s direct involvement with the mines. It was very informative for me, as well as the locals.

A lot of rafting companies represented as well. There were like 10 or more of us from H20, including Brian, the owner. There were about 8 from EX Chile, and about the same from Bio Bio. Brian came to reprezent for Earth River. It was a great turnout.

After the presentation, there was a big asado with 4 lambs and TONS of food. Our trip left to go rafting and I stayed for a little while to hang out at the asado. I left on the first ferry back, which takes about an hour to cross the lake.

It wa sa great day for everyone, gringos and locals. I rode my bike home from the lake, which is about 10 km... and kicked my ass, but in a good way. All in all, it was a great day for the community. I´m glad I could be a part.

Christmas and New Years in Patagonia

I have to say that I had the best Christmas ever in Futaleufu this year.

I found Jess, who works at Class VI, here rafting some and working with Mitch and other locals for her senior thesis on dams and mines on the Futa. I've been staying with her in town, with Umberto, who's a Chilean training with me, and Brian, who's from the US and works in Idaho. I've been hanging out with a pretty big crowd of people, some Canadians, Frenchies, Argentinians, only a few from the US, a Colombian, an Italian, and a bunch of Chilenos. There's like 15 or more of us. We've been hanging out since it's the holidays and not a lot of people are working.

So, Christmas Eve, we all planned to each make a dish from where we're from and have a pot luck, and then later go to a big Asado with people from all over town. Our "family" dinner was great. Jess and I made a cherry and apple cobbler together. Brian made a stew, Colo made some potato dish,and Josie made a pumpkin pie. Everyone else said they would make something, but ended up getting drunk instead... ha ha. They brought beer and liquor.. ha ha that
was their contribution.

We ate all together, then headed to the Casa Azul, the Futa Explore house to have an asado with 2 lambs and hang out with everyone. There was a 96 year old woman there partying with us. It was her 96th birthday on Xmas eve. Really cool lady. It turned into a huge party after a while, and we all rallied to the disco down the road. The disco is the shit. Always good times guaranteed at the Futa disco. Ha ha.

I remember the sun coming up as I walked home from the disco.... and Colo dropping the cobbler in the dirt ha ha.

Christmas day, we all got up and had leftovers for breakfast, then rallied to the Rio Espolon to a play wave with 3 kayaks and my board. We spent 7 hours there, playing around, drinking chicha, hanging out. Everyone tried kayaking and everyone tried riverboarding. It was a blast. The board was a hit.... as usual.


We cooked a bunch of hot dogs on a fire... it was great. It really reminded me of good times at Canyon Doors. We headed home around 7pm and had an awesome italian dinner made by the best Italian chef in Futa.. and then all passed out early.



We really have this tight international family here. I feel like Futa is home and I'm surrounded by family. I really am loving it here. Every day is better than the last.
So... I didn't have a horrible xmas all alone... as I had feared. I was surrounded by family and love, just like it should be.

New Years was a good one too....
I rowed the safety raft down the Rio Espolon all day, and then got a ride into town for the fiesta later that night.
I bought a bottle of White Horse Whiskey and it disappeared quickly... ha ha. There was definately an asado and a disco involved in the evening.
The next day, New Years day, we had a trip on the Rio Azul, and I was riverboarding along. I was drunk till about 2 pm when we put on... It was all I could do to keep from vomiting while puting my wetsuit on.. ha ha. But, made it through the day puke free and sobered up within the first 3 rapids. Ha ha. It was a pretty leisurely day, since everyone was pretty hung over. Good times. Pelado was in a ducky, Sarah was kayaking, Aren was kayaking, Mitch was rowing Brian and Henrick down, while they drank beers, and Hernan took a raft of people down. Really fun day.