As we go plummeting through our last jaunt south, we can´t hide our smitten little grins. We just spent the last week in Bariloche, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
We will be on the road for the rest of the week, and are planning for our arrival in Ushuaia on the 30th of this month.
Between Bariloche and El Bolson is the gem creeking run of the Patagonia. It is all located on 20,000 acres of private property surrounding Lago Escondido. With the help of Extremo Sur, we got permission to go in for a sweet day!
I love those rivers that are so crystal clear you can just flip over and drink.
And then huck a sweet 40 footer.
And then another one.
The scenery wasn´t bad either,
We had a BLAST on the Manso. Things have changed, and you need a permit to run the 43 foot Los Alerces falls. So our first visit we got turned away, but then Alejandro helped us get the permit, and we returned for a sweet huck session today. Thanks to Carmango for taking us there…and congrats on your descent buddy. We will have photos on this up soon.
19 year old Katie Scott hucked Los Alerces Falls!!
Scott Ligare (aka Jackie Boy) was ringin his 30 year oldness in right.
Yeeee Haw. Making our final tracks south. But not before running the Manso here in Bariloche, the Escondido in El Bolson and the Futalefu. We are taking a few days to relax here and soak it up. We have big plans to celebrate our year on veg in the Fire Truck….March 17…..Oh yeah Benny and Nick…we will be tearing it up for St. Pattys Day!
A VERY VERY Special thanks to Alejandro and Maria at Extremo Sur for helping us with all the logistics of our trip through S. Argentina. Seth met them 9 years ago on his first trip to the Patagonia. Thanks Guys!!!
On our way from the Nilihue to the Rio Gol Gol our alternator fried our headlights and left us in the dark. We used the emergecy flashers to get to the camp site next to the road. It was a little dirty, but we didn´t hear a single complaint.
We tried to get a quick run in on the Gol Gol while still having enough day light to drive over the border to Bariloche. Tyler got chundered and recieved a nasty beating in Salto De Novios and broke his boat. We barely had enough time for him to drink his bootie before we were rallying toward Argentina chasing daylight.
Much like the drop on the Middle Palguin, flooding last year completely changed the geology of this drop. It had been run by the Epicosity boys in years past, but this drop opened up into a much cleaner, much safer SWEET drop!
Everyone got their chace on this one!
Front Seat
Back Seat
We got some sweet views and great company on our way around Lago Ranco from Pucon to run the Nilihue.
We got to tear it up with Pat Camblin, Rush Sturges, Katy Scott and Scott Ligare….for Scott´s 30th B-day last night. We are busy kayaking for the next week around Pucon, Bariloche, El Bolson and the Futalefu.
Thanks to Rodrigo at Kayak Pucon for totally stylin´ us out.
We started the day with two laps on the Upper Palguin, a classic class IV waterfall run.
Next thing we know we were all at the lip of a 70 + foot waterfall…the biggest any of us had run.
It was one of the cleanest, softest big drops ever.
Rush went first followed by Rodrigo, Seth, Pat and Tyler. It was sick. The only way you can get this view of the waterfall is by running it.
Young Gun Hip Hopper Rush Sturges was only on the project for less then 24 hours, but he left fired up!
……and now we are ready to KAYAK. We have the next weeks scheduled to travel and relax as we hit all the best rivers in the Patagonia!
It was wonderful to have Alex and Jody along, but they left us in Santiago to go back home. Unfortunately, Alex´s wallet was stolen, and before we had even realized…they had charged literally thousands on her credit card. Alex….our thoughts are with you and we hope that everything goes smooth to replace all your lost items.
Tomorrow we will meet up with our new team mates Pat Camblin, Scott Ligare, Katy Scott and Trish Laury who will join us to Bariloche and South. As well, Rush Sturges, Marlow Long and Tanya Shuman will be joining for a big weekend of partying and paddling!
Special thanks to Ivet at the American Corners Institute for organizing by far the biggest school visits to date. Yesterday evening we had a visit with the Austral University Honors students and the president of the University.
The morning visit was at a technical high school.
Afterwards, we had a meeting at the town hall with the mayor…..and then straight over to make another appointment with a mechanic.
In the afternoon we had the biggest primary school turnout to date with over 1500 students to hear our last formal presentation here in Chile.
We went back for a quick parking lot demonstration and lunch at the univeristy. Finally, after meeting with the mechanic….we found the heart of the our problems with the radiator. In La Paz, we had plugged in the block heater in attempt to keep the engine warm at night. Since the truck is from Japan and has a different voltage, we fried a small part in the engine which has alloud water to vaporize and escape all this time. We just drove our first kilometers without worry of overheating……we are calling it re-birth.