Misson to Futa!!

Pucon Chile - Through Argentina - Futalefu Chile

As I said before we had an interesting 48hrs, so here is the run down.

First hour - We had previously decided to head south for the grand prix white water kayaking champs (wwgp) for the following day. Our first issue was insurance for the van , the current insurance only covered Chile and covered Argentina in four days time, so simply (or not) needed to add on another four days of insurance to get over the border. We left the hostel at 10am spent the day in Pucon, after five different places we found no insurance, and also found that to legally drive a van in Chile the driver requires a bus licence. We soon departed and headed for Osorno to resolve the insurance issue. After three different places we found the insurance we needed.

From here we got to the border after many hours spent travelling. The border took us about half an hour each side; including meeting up with some friends hitchhiking in no-man's land. Seth and Caleb needed to renew their Chile visa, which require an overnight in Argentina. For them however after being dropped off at the Chile side of the border and walking for an hour in the rain, they were stoked to see us on the road. We picked them up and drove the additional 20 odd km to the Argentina border patrol. We passed through with NO required paper work for insurance...(which meant Nick and I won the bet)

Caleb and Seth hitching in no-mans land between Chile and
Argentina, (After 1 hour and 20km to go)

We drove through some nice Argentinean rural ski towns to arrive hours later at Bariloche..... After driving on the wrong side of the road in winds that literally blew us across the road, we stopped for some cheesy olivey pizza dinner at 11:30pm. We were lucky enough to find some of the locals getting a bit close to the van, after chasing away one, another pulled up with a knife... threatened us but managed to scare him off, called the police and followed up as best we could.

Our van after a visit from the locals, apparently you need
to break two windows to get in ..WTF

 Currently we have two cardboard windows in the van covered in packaging tape for waterproofing. We were actually lucky to have another local from the restaurant help us out with temporarily fixing the window and offering shelter and beer :)  we decided to push on finishing in the middle of nowhere at 330am. We slept in the van for the night avoiding the rain and wind outside. Some locals on a moped pulled up at about 4am in need of assistance to inflate a flat tyre, which we couldn't help at all. they continued on with their flat to ... well I have no idea.

Our van getting searched at the Chile border patrol

After a few hours sleep and 24hrs since we left Pucon, we arrived in Esquel and attempted to find a replacement window. With a bit of a wild goose chase we had little / no success. So onward with cardboard windows... We came to the border crossing again at around 7pm and were completely searched and had food confiscated.

the local campground

After 32 hours of travelling we found Fudalafu, and began the search for the cabin...... With no luck and darkness arriving we bailed for a local campground. 

                                   

The next morning we found the cabin about 50m from where we were searching. The cabin had been ransacked and had big braches on the roof, so required a bit of cleaning. After the clean we headed off to meet the wwgp and go for a paddle... The paddle was sweet big white water, with pushy moves and huge holes.

Photos and Story from Ari Walker, and Greg Allum