I arranged my paddling trip through Expediciones Chile. In some ways this was kind of embarrassing, as most of my guide friends who have been down there have just gone themselves and rented a van and drove around where they needed to go. But, since my parents were footing most of the bill and I had to be back in school before too much time went by, I chose the easy route. It was the right decision to make - all the logistics were well planned; the guides terrific; the selection of boats fantastic. I found out about the company when I was back east guiding (on the Nantahala - most NOC guides have to serve some time there, though they all try hard to avoid it) and I went to a presentation that the owner, Chris Spelius gave. He had a bunch of slides and a video showing the beauty and great paddling, but what sold me was his enthusiasm and obvious love of the place. Plus, looking through his brochure, he gets some of the best people around to act as guides for him.
I met the group at the airport in Puerto Montt. I was disappointed somewhat because the flight down was cloudy and we didn't get a view of the mountains. We came out to collect out luggage and were met by Juliet, who got us to check our bags to make sure that out paddles weren't broken and that nothing had been stolen - her bags had had things stolen on the same flight a couple of weeks before, but ours came through fine. We piled into the van that was waiting and drove into town, to the bed and breakfast where we would stay later, but where now we would pick up boats and leave the camping gear we wouldn't need for a week or so. We outfitted boats - I got a red Corsica that I fit in well (a problem for me - I'm 6'6" and weigh about 250 pounds) but I was sure was going to be ugly in the photos since it would probably clash with my paddling gear. Plus, while I had learned to paddle in a Corsica, I figured it would be slow and unresponsive - even more so the T-Canyon I made the mistake of buying. After outfitting the boats we went back to the airport to pick up one late arrival and we were off, driving north towards the Fuy.
We left from Puerto Montt and drove north along the Pan American Highway towards out destination for that night - Panguipulli. The drive took a few hours - part of it over a gravel road - but it seemed to pass quickly as we introduced ourselves and talked - not very surprisingly - about paddling. For this section of the trip our guides were Ken Kastorff and his wife Juilet. I had met Ken a couple of years before when I was trying to teach someone to roll at Lake Fontana. He had taken time out from some private instruction I was doing to give some tips on rolling, and I learned a lot by seeing him teach. Later I found out who he was and that he had practically invented the C-to-C roll and I understood why he was so clear in teaching it. I hadn't met Juliet before, though I had seen her in the store of the rafting and kayak instruction business that she and Ken had opened just down the road from NOC. The other seven people in the group were all men, and no-one had met any of the others before. In no particular order there was David, a tax lawyer from Atlanta; Dan, who does lighting for movies and TV and commercials (and it is a harder job than I ever knew); Randy, who does software kind of work in Tulsa, and yes, they have whitewater there, thank you very much (I never knew that either); Toz, who is also from California and has boated many of the rivers up north; Rodger, a gruff looking chiropractor from Oregon; and two German fellows named Peter and Gregor who had a longer trip than the rest of us. Everyone was pretty nice and seemed pretty competent. We also met Pedro, who was going to be our shuttle driver for the first part of the trip. Van by the hotel in PanguipulliOur van next to the hotel in Panguipulli.
Panguipulli was a nice town and the first exposure to normal Chilean life for most of the folks on the trip. It was surprisingly normal for American standards. Many children were out on the street rollerblading - rollerblades apparently having been the popular Christmas present last year. Panguipulli is also known as the city of the Roses and there were beautiful rose bushes all around the town. The night we were there was the night of the big Peru vs. Chile soccer match. If Peru were to lose, then they would be out of the World Cup finals. People around the town staked out their spots in the cafes really early to watch on TV and root for the national team. We wandered around town a bit, bought a few small souvenirs, ate dinner and went to sleep, since we were all tired from traveling and needed to be up early for the drive around Lake Panguipulli to Choshuenco where we would be staying while we boated the Fuy. Peru won, by the way, but the Chileans celebrated a close game anyway - I woke up briefly to sounds of yelling and clapping, and it wasn't till morning I found out that Chile had actually lost. Downtown Panguipulli - City of RosesA view of downtown Panguipulli - City of Roses

Lake PanguipulliWalking along the shores of Lake Panguipulli

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