Activities
Our expedition leader, Abner Inzunza, would announce the next day’s schedule at dinner. Days began with coffee at 7:00 a.m. and breakfast at 8:00 a.m. before we went off to the day’s activities. Abner—a handsome, strong, competent, Chilean man—joined Earth River about nine years ago. His father made bicycles locally, and built a bike for Robert Curie, who’d started Earth River. Robert was impressed and became good friends with Abner’s father. Some time later Abner began to participate in Earth River Expeditions; later he became an expedition leader. He is passionate about his job and engages every activity with impressive intensity. The other guides included both Chileans (Pedro and Juanito) and Americans (Aaron and Bryan); all were very well trained and competent, and the Chilean guides spoke English well.
Our first morning in Patagonia began with kayaking on the Espolon River; though quite easy for those who had kayaking experience (we were on Class 2–3 rapids), it was more challenging for some. One guide accompanied the more experienced paddlers and another stayed behind to assist the less experienced.
We spent the afternoon training for whitewater rafting. Paddling Class 4 and 5 whitewater is pretty demanding and requires some practice; however, no previous whitewater experience was necessary. Training included flipping the raft and learning what to do if it flipped, paddling forward and backward, and performing “high sides” to prevent the raft from flipping. There were three rafts and guides divided among our group of nineteen people. A swim test was required before participants could run the Class 5 whitewater rapids.
The next day, we put our training to the test after arriving at the Class 5 Infierno (Hell) Canyon. We tackled several Class 4 and 5 rapids that day. My raft messed up on a high side in our approach to a large rock, but our highly skilled raft guide—a handsome, mysterious Chilean man named Pedro—kept us out of harm. As the guides on the other rafts were giving a series of long, somewhat complicated instructions to their crews, our Pedro (a man of few words) gave us simpler instructions, saying, “Stay in the boat,” and “You don’t want to swim here.” Whenever Pedro barked commands, we shut up, stopped joking around, and paddled. My fellow raft-mates and I became close, as we all knew the potential danger involved if we screwed up. Camaraderie develops quickly when you’re responsible for each other’s lives … and that’s the feeling I had battling the Class 5+ rapids of the Fu.
The last day of rafting, we were running one of the most difficult rapids (a Class 5+) and one of our raft-mates, Jenny, fell out. Jenny, a single mother in her 50s, had been hesitant to paddle Class 5 rapids and had almost decided to remain at camp; we’d convinced her to come. Much to our dismay, it was Jenny—of all people—who popped out of the raft on the most difficult and dangerous part of rapid. I saw Jenny’s panicked face in the water as we flew past her, paddling our hearts out to clear the rapids. We had planned to take the safest path through the rapids, but were forced to take an alternate course to avoid running Jenny over. Jenny was rescued by one of the guides in a cataraft, a vehicle that looks like two big yellow bananas linked together. I was afraid she’d be hysterical, but when we approached her, she had a big smile on her face. She’d followed Pedro’s instructions to curl up in a ball over the whirlpool part of the rapid (which could have sucked her under), and survived. I’d only known Jenny about five days, but I could tell she’d been transformed. She walked with a new air of confidence.
This type of experience recurred for several of my fellow campers during our trip. Faced with a Tyrolean traverse across the river over rough rapids, Heidi was nervous. Campers were fitted with a climbing harness attached to a pulley and required to pull themselves across a rope stretched over a roaring Class 6 rapid. In spite of her fear, and encouraged by the applause of her fellow campers, Heidi accomplished the feat.
