December 30th Short and Sweet

The above title refers to both our stay in Puerto Octay as well as the length of this entry. Remember when we alluded earlier that we might return to Pucon with the 6 days we had after we left Betsy and Rich but before we left for Peru? Well, originally we had intended to spend those days in the town of Futaleufu, located smack dab in Patagonia in lower Chile. This area is also home to the Futaleufu river, widely regarded as the best white water rafting in South America, and one of the best generally in the world.

Unfortunately, it is also a very difficult place to get to, and when we were booking from the U.S, we were quoted a price of $2000 PER PERSON for 3 days on the river bookended by travel days. Carrie had her heart set on going, but after several weeks of carefully nudging by Dave she realized that we couldn't justify spending a huge chunk of our entire 3 month budget on 3 days, regardless of how great the river was. Well, when we went rafting in Puerto Varas with Pepe, he told us how much cheaper the Futa is on the ground if you can actually get there in the first place. Once he saw we were on the hook, he quickly set it by gushing on and on about how amazing the river was. After hearing this, Carrie and I were quite entranced with trying to make it happen.

So, in other words, we spend most of the day on the 30th essentially working the details of trying to make this trip a reality. With much assistance from an extremely nice front desk woman at the hotel in Puerto Octay (who made 5-6 calls in Spanish for us), we found out that there was a 40 minute aerotaxi flight down to the town of Chaiten, which was then a 3:30 bus ride from Futa. Keep in mind that we previously thought our options consisted of a 13 bus ride or a 10 hour ferry ride to Chaiten.

We booked the flight, and spent what remained of the day marveling at the best views of the volcanoes on the other side of the lake we'd seen yet. We took a short side trip to Frutillar, a really cute nearby town to try to do a forest hike recommended by our guide books, but the forest was closed on Saturdays. Of course, who would want to hike in a forest on Saturday??

Dave even braved the cold water of Lago Ll... (will have to find the spelling of the lake). Dinner again at the restaurant, and then mucho vino with Betsy and Rich over cards as we delayed ending our final night together as long as we possibly could. Finally, around 1:30, we realized we must give up the ghost, and hugged the Heralds goodbye after spending over 3 wonderful weeks with them in in South America. For tomorrow, the honeymoon officially begins!