Day 5

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The weather is beautiful, sun is shining and sky is clear and blue. We head down toward Cochamó and Puelo, two very small towns along the Reloncaví Estuary. The road is gravel for a good portion of the distance and there’s not much traffic, which is a good thing because the views of the volcanoes, especially Osorno, are beautiful and we make a lot of stops for pictures. If we had more time, we would have made the drive a loop and taken a ferry over the river to a different road for the return to Ensenada but we have activities scheduled for the afternoon. Another day or so in this area, and we would have gone horseback riding overnight deeper into the Cochamó Valley, which is supposed to be quite nice and similar to Yosemite National Park in the US in terms of its granite domes. I guess that’ll have to wait till the next trip.

The afternoon we had set aside for horseback riding and whitewater rafting. The riding was much nice than we thought it would be, the views of the volcanoes were very nice. And the rafting the Río Petrohué was great, the rapids were at about 3+ after several weeks of rain. Combine the excitement of the rapids with the views of the volcanoes from the river and it makes for a great experience. All of us, except Kris, took advantage of the opportunity to get into the water as we passed through a relatively calm stretch…even though it was summer, it was cold!

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