Futaleufu and Coyhaique

We have been traveling south from El Hoyo and things are getting a bit slower- buses are now vans that may or may not leave on any given day, supermercados may or may not have any produce, and the internet is, well painfully slow, so the pics and posts are shortened and a week or so behind us.  Nevertheless the people and sights are amazing, and we have absolutely loved getting stuck in some unexpected places.

The first surpise was a little Welsh town south of Esquel called Trevelin.  We found ourselves there with two days until the next bus to Chile, so rented a very nice cabana, which much to Bets´ pleasure came complete with a pet Saint Bernard.  We really enjoyed this friendly giant who reminded us of Mr. Finley.  The place came complete with a 8-inch TV with which we had our own little superbowl party. 

We spent a day fishing and exploring the Rio Grande.  We got there and back via a very friendly taxi driver who gave us a run-down of all the local trees, the best places to buy lamb, fish, and requested that we stay with him on our next visit to Trevelin.  As for the fishing, it was Bets´ first experience of fishing to picky fish feeding on a small hatch.  We had a blast and pulled quite a few flies out of fishes mouths, but only two fish actually made it to shore. 

Next we took a bus across the border via gravel roads to the small town of Futaleufu, Chile.  This small town is named after the river Futaleufu which is Rio Grande in Mapudungun.  The town is a major destination for whitewater rafters as the nearby stretch of the river has some very challenging rapids.  We camped along side of a tributary just off the beach, and Dan decided it was a great spot to sport his birthday shirt from the Lonergans.... ¨this way to the beach, bro!¨ 

We stayed out of the boats and chose to take a walk along the river instead.  It was a beautiful blue and we found a nice swimming hole to cool off.

The next day we took an eleven-hour minibus ride south to Coyhaique.  We were a little nervous at the start as the bus driver had to stop many times to tinker with things under the hood, roll-starting the bus after each stop, but the trip turned out to be wonderful.  The road was mostly gravel, and wound through the dense forests and along the fiords and rivers of southern Chile.  We stopped in each little town along the way for drinks, snacks, and tire changes.  This was one of the great stops, El Gato, where a bridge runs along the cliffed bank of a river.  From this vantage point we watched several salmon such as the one pictured above running the rapid.  We wanted to stop and fish but had to keep moving.

We made it to Coyhaique where we spent three nights, in part due to complications with minibus transportation.  The town was experiencing a heat wave which we weathered along the banks of the Rio Simpson.  Our first day fishing we saw only very small fish, the largest of which was caught by Bets.

We had a great day exploring the river and were later told by the locals that the river only had small fish at this time of the year. 

The next day we missed all of the minibuses, which may or may not have existed, so we headed back to the river to camp and fish just south of town.  At the campsite we ran into a Dutch couple we met in Futaleufu, and had a second great night hanging out with them and hearing their stories.  Their last trip was a 15 month excursion through Asia and Australia, so they had plenty to share. 

Upon arriving at the river we spotted a monster trout feeding in an eddy.  We spent about a half hour trying different flies and drifts before we got the fish to eat a small copper John.  Getting off of the large rocks and landing the fish was a team effort, and really made our day.

We tried our luck at a couple of other fish we spotted, and Bets got a nice fish to take her fly but no more fish were landed that day.  We swam in this lovely stretch of the river before racing into town to make certain we wouldn´t miss the minibuses that day.