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Published: December 22nd 2006
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Adrenaline time!
A friend of mine once said that white water rafting truly looks like scubadiving without the actual tank...well... That was a long long journey…Shanghai - Chicago - Miami - Buenos Aires - Bariloche… couldn’t even feel the jet lag anymore…anyway, here we are! Welcome to Llao Llao a beautiful lodge that lies by Nahuel Huapi lake, amidst woods and overlooking the andes, right in the middle of Patagonia.
After a stunning dinner during which we enjoyed our first beef tenderloin with some Argentinean malbec and a short but good night of sleep, we were ready for one of the highlight of our trip in Argentina: let’s go rafting near the Chilean border…
Well…the trip starts with a two hours drive in the middle of nowhere where each turn reveals an other beautiful scenery…lakes, mountains still covered with snow on the summit, flowers in such an abundance that you feel like in a Monet painting, and our small van driving around with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in background…
70 kilometers later, you reach what they called a “secondary road” also called “small road with a lot of gravels…” and this for the next 30 kilometers and the coming 100 muttons that look like they have been there for the past 100 years…a few trekkers and a
collection of antique cars as you will never expect to find in such a remote area of the world.
Finally reached a small lodge along the river where a few tourist were camping (just to set the atmosphere, the temperature on that day was hardly reaching the 13 degrees in the afternoon…) Our group included 4 Spanish guys all mountain guides, a couple of American tourist, a British guy and an Argentinean, pretty good so far…
Outdoors activities in Argentina imply massive breakfast and lunch (coming to that after….) and thus before going for this class IV rafting, we enjoyed some coffee and pastries while warming up next to a real old style stove.
11.30 am, ready to go…total 2 rafts and a kayaker assisting us in finding the right path in the very turbulent waters of the rio Mansur.
Adrenaline and stunning sceneries were definitely with us the whole way…while the “forward” and “POWERRRRRRRRRRRR” were rythming our “ballade” on the really cold waters of this rivers leading to Chile.
After two rapids, we quickly realized that with the seating arrangement that had been made at the beginning we were going to touch the water slightly closer
that what we had initially planed on…the American guy had clearly no ideas what he was doing and wasn’t even trying …let’s switch…Peter in front together with the British guy followed by the two girls and the American at the back still trying to understand how to paddle…
Glad that we switched as the few rapids that came after that were real class IV with on a top of that a huge amount of waters coming down from the mountain creating big waves that could have flip over the boat anytime if we had stopped paddling for few seconds.
As we finish the last rapid it is with a taste of "we want more!!" that we ended this journey. While still on the river, we had just crossed the chilean border (first time ever we crossed a border without showing a passport...). Our last picture all together thus took place on the border... that was a really cool rafting journey!
As mentioned earlier...we might have crossed the border but we quickly came back to Argentina....just on time for lunch... back to the lodge where we had the breakfeast for a gargantuan lunch...all you can eat grilled beef and
chorizo togeter with a few bottles of malbec...
Hard not to enjoy life in Argentina....
The way back to Bariloche was quiet....well no wonder...much of us were sleeping (thanks to the mix adrenaline and malbec...)
Many thanks to Aguas Blancas for this wonderful experience!!
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Mamy PA
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Argentina Genial
MACANUDO comme diraient les argentins.... rien a faire, pour moi c'est le plus beau pays au monde.... faut pas mourir bête comme dirait PA... Profitez-en a fond !!!!