Forget the mayhem and craze of present buying and wrapping gifts in the icy cold north and go kayaking or white water rafting in South America to find yourself on the banks of a pristine wild river even more present but now back in summer!!!
The Futaleufu!! Is it a blue zone….?
“Some would say, the Best rafting in South America is found on the Futaleufu in Patagonia! Others might say, I’ve rafted all over the world and it doesn’t get any better than the mighty Futaleufu! Neither would be wrong…”– Lorenzo Alvarez-Roos boldly stated!!
The Futaleufú river starts as the Rio Tigre just north of the Parque Nacional Los Alerces in Argentina. It flows through a series of natural lakes that connect by short river passages. It makes a final journey through a man-made reservoir and is released from a hydroelectric power plant at the base of the Futaleufuquen dam at a steady flow of 8,000 cfs. The power gets tapped and sent off to the Atlantic coast roughly 1000 miles away and powers an aluminum smelter that needs a steady and constant energy source 24 hrs per day.
Laurence (Lorenzo) Alvarez-Roos of Bio Bio Patagonia first merged with this powerful and potent river as a kayaker with buddy Rick Stephan in March of 1992. They fell in love with this river and have done everything they can since then to encourage people to visit this amazing and unique place for their next Christmas holiday destination. Their stories are best told around a campfire, but read on to whet your appetite to get your butt down there!!
The town of Futaleufu was established by the Chilean government in 1918. Futaleufu means “Big River” in the native tongue of the Patagonians- literally “Big footed people”. The language of the Mapuche, Mapudungun, is spoken across much of Auraucania which are the territories south of the Bio Bio river in central Chile. The Spanish imperialist had little interest south of the Bio Bio as it did not seem rich in minerals or gold to extract. The wild “south” remained sparsely populated and still is till this day.
The Futaleufu lies 45 degrees south of the Equator in northern Patagonia and travels approximately 220 miles from source to sea. It reaches the bay of Chiloe in the Pacific Ocean just south of the port Chaiten. If you look at a map, you will see that the river changes names several times, starting with the Rio Tigre at 5000 ft, then the lakes it flows through, then the Rio Grande and as it passes the Chilean/Argentinian border it becomes the Futaleufu. At an elevation of 85 feet it becomes the enormous lake named Lago Yelcho and as it flows out of this lake (30 miles across) it is named the Rio Yelcho.
The Bio Bio Patagonia camp is located halfway down the white water section of the Futaleufu between the border and Lago Yelcho. It offers a superb launching spot for kayakers and rafters alike to run the famous warm-up section of the river called “Bridge to bridge”. The farm upstream from the camp is owned by the Diocares family where Nelli and her niece Ximena tend to their animals, and to their “huerta” (vegetable garden) and run their “panaderia” y “lavandaria” to host all the bio bio guests that visit during the summer. The fresh bread baked daily sends an aroma into the air that lures passersby to stop in and say hullo. They love visitors and will encourage you to sit down and have a Mate (herb tea) with them so that they can make you laugh and tell you colorful stories of life in the valley.
If you consider how the Diocares family settled in 1957, you will be amazed by their tenacity and resourcefulness. The most startling fact is that they flew into the airstrip outside the town of Futaleufu! None of the family of 5 had ever flown before. The father loaded up the family belongings on horse-drawn cart and traveled 2 months overland and by ferry to finally reach the Futaleufu valley. With very little they carved out a niche out of the forest and on the river front to found their farm and plant an apple orchard and two Araucaria trees grown from seeds that they had hand carried down from Villarica. The Auraucaria forests dominate the Cordillera in central Chile which was their birth land. To make them feel more at home in remote Patagonia they planted these “Pinos” that grow very slowly and they finally towered over their farmhouse 70 years later!
Almost everything they had was made by hand. They wove cloth on a loom, they made their own press to make apple juice that they would ferment into Chicha (hard Cider) and grew their own food. They built the farm with local materials as wood was in abundant supply and they would chop and saw the boards and beams needed for their structures. In essence, they lived a very simple and hard life until 1978. Then the world changed for them as a newly constructed road cut into the raw land allowed trucks to bring in supplies from central Chile. However, their economy was based on farming so only when they tapped into tourism did they have the income to buy from the new stream of goods flowing into the valley. Nevertheless, their simple lifestyle and use of Oxen to do the heavy lifting remained intact. Nothing ever happened in a hurry! There is a slang saying that those that rush in Patagonia lose time.So come away from the complex, fast-paced life “outside the bubble”for your next Christmas holiday destination and find yourself breathing deeply, relaxed, soaking in nature and finding that if you just slow the pace of life mixed with adrenaline surges that whitewater rapids provide, you have found the fountain of youth! The next blog will be about how Futaleufu is a blue zone….. Stand by!!
