It started 33 years ago. Three amigos. They bought a ‘82 Land Cruiser in Chile to drive home to California at the end of their first rafting season on the Bio Bio river working for Chando Gonzalez and Patagonia Rafting Chilean Peruvian rafting company offering the mighty Bio Bio river in Araucania.
Rick Stephan, Marc Goddard and Laurence Lorenzo, Alvarez Roos decided on the border between Peru and Chile in Africa that rather than drive home in their temperamental and newly acquired ‘82 Landcruiser, it would be better to drive that beast a thousand miles south through the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, leave the car with friends on the outskirts of Santiago on a horse farm and fly home to start Rio Bio Bio expeditions, which then later changed into Bio Bio Expeditions Worldwide and to then later again evolved into Bio Bio Expeditions Patagonia and BBX Rafting.
The real deal. The amigos had no clue what to do with their bright future!
After a first summer in beautiful Chile, several options popped up:
Get involved with the budding Salmon business?
Buy cheap good wine and sell it for twice the price back home in the States? Avocado farms? Raspberry farms?
But, what they really wanted to do was bring all their friends and family back to experience the perfect river trip: The Rio Bio Bio Which was threatened by a 6 dam project. Who starts a business on a doomed river?
The three amigos did!
After several seasons running their own trips on the Bio Bio, it was actually damned before their very eyes!
Despite their conservation efforts and thinking the Mapuche tribe would not allow this on their last frontier against the colonials, it did happen.
A huge dam was built in 20 months and the last canyon, the 100 waterfalls canyon, was submerged. When the dam builders started on the 2nd Dam project, Panque, the bio bio was no longer viable as an 8 day river trip.
What next??
Well, Rick and Lorenzo used that manky, cranky and but oh so sexy landcruiser to encourage a pretty Chilean girl to travel 500 miles south from the Bio Bio to the Puerto Montt to board a 12 hr ferry to Chaiten to drive rally style 150 kms to Futaleufu on the Carretera Austral Pinochet Highway.
This was March 1993, it rained and never stopped for 4 days.
They ran the Futaleufu in their Dagger Kayaks, the Response and the Crossfire, remember those beauties.
The river was in full flood, water pouring over the throne at Throne Room, but Rocket, their kayak guru guide said no worries just follow me better said, follow and swallow but we made it through and out of Inferno Canyon, I ran Throneroom upside down from top to bottom, but being 26 and full of something, we did not mind and said, bloody hell. We have found ourselves a cold water Zambezi. She is doable in rafts we think, But not with gear boats!
So, run the river with just lightweight self bailing rafts and catarafts and kayaks for safety Voila A Star is born!!
We run the river from a basecamp and do the most fun sections over and over again.
After camping on the Rio Espolon two summers, close to town, to food and possible shelter should a Patagonia Tormenta Temporal suddenly strike, as they always did, we decided to look for a spot to camp on the lower half of the river where the most fun rapids were.
The famous Bridge to Bridge section, and Mas o Meno and Casa de Piedra.
They found a potential campsite belonging to Carlos Roa, next to the Terminator rapid.
They put an offer on 4 hectares. Paid $200 earnest cash and promised to return within a month with a first down payment of $1200.
Marc flew home, Rick was in love with Lorena in Santiago and started a family and Lorenzo bought a 1980 Honda motorcycle in Temuco to return to the Futaleufu to consummate the deal.
Got there april 1st and found that the deal had gone south. Carlos Roa had been convinced by Rober Curry, Co founder and owner of Earth River Expeditions, that we were “bad” gringos, and that he should not sell to us!!
So Robert offered to buy the land instead and basically brokered a deal where he bought 2000 meters of riverfront 150 meters deep to take over all their river front property.
So, a Sad Lorenzo went to the town of Futaleufu and met a girl at the only bar in town who took a liking to him and heard his Whale song and said, Lorenzo, don’t be sad, I bet you my Unclo Rolando Diocares would be happy to rent his campo to you for your rafting business!!
She told me where to find Tio Rolando and I went the next day on my trusty 250 cc Honda XR, to campo Diocaretz and low and behold, they invited me in for supper and we walked the property afterwards and wrote up a rental agreement for us to camp on their sheep farm for the next summer.
Another Star was born. It’s been an amazing and tumultuous 33 year wild ride.
Rocky drowned in the Zeta rapid And other bumps in the road presented. Marc quit Bio Bio to go to graduate school and become a high school teacher, Rick quit after child number 3 ended up with 4 and said this business was too risky for his blood.
Last man standing, Lorenzo, ready to topple under the weight of pushing the same boulder size rock uphill year after year until an Angel appeared and lightened his load.
Ms. Terry and Lorenzo together forged a new deal under which it all became apparent that it could actually be a dream come true. And so they keep dreaming.
LORENZO rowing his cataraft El Catador on the mighty Futaleufu only 33 years into it.