Submitted by Pat

It was delicious to wake up from a night spent in a bed with sheets. Some comforts are priceless. Most of the group was catching morning flights from Balmaceda so we piled into the bus a little after 9am. We hadn't seen the other four guides since the hike back to the farm yesterday and just as we were driving out up came the four of them, showered, shaved, and ready to say good-bye. We were really glad to be able to say our farewells to these men. They had a difficult job and worked hard to take care of us.

We had some time to kill at the airport, so after we checked in we went out to the parking lot, found a spot of grass, and lay down in the sun to wait. The flight to Puerto Montt lasted an hour and a half and Nancy and I spent the time writing notes about the first part of the trip.

We were met by Maria, an Earth River employee, at the Puerto Montt airport. She was friendly and efficient and led us at a rapid pace down the lobby of the airport to the end where we proceeded to repack our gear - this time for trip #2. With us were Frank and Katie from the Lakes trip and joining us on the Fu trip were Laura and Barry from New York. That made 7 of us which meant one raft. Once everyone had repacked we were driven back to the city of Puerto Montt by a woman who only spoke Spanish and who spent the entire drive yakking on her cell phone.

I could feel car sickness creeping into my head and was very glad when we finally stopped at a small airstrip and told to wait in a little house that had a huge map of Patagonia on the wall, a sofa, and a rest room. I was too keyed up to sit. Ten minutes later we were escorted to a 6-seater Piper airplane and off we went on a half hour flight to Chaiten. We were met at the Chaiten airport by Aaron, the lead guide for our week on the Futaleufu, Jaime the driver, and one of the trainees whose name escapes me.

After a quick bathroom break with toilet paper brought by the Earth River folks, we loaded the bus and took off on another scenic three hour drive to the first camp - Terminator Camp - on the banks of the Fu. Aaron and Katie sat in the back of the bus and talked about probability - Aaron is a former Math teacher who was reading a book on probability and Katie's programming knowledge made for an interesting conversation for them. I didn't get half of what they were talking about.

We arrived at the Earth River office and staff lodgings in the late afternoon. I was so happy to get off the bus and move my legs. We were to walk to the Terminator (named after one of the Class V rapid on the Fu) Camp while our gear was transported in an ox cart escorted by Don Ignacio. The camp was amazing. All the camps were amazing. The dining area consisted of long trestle tables and benches - the entire area covered by a huge plastic tarp in case of rain. At one end was a fire pit with kindling and wood ready to be lit and benches surrounding it. We were given a tour first - the bathrooms - two open huts with three walls, one facing the woods and one facing a huge mountain - with flush, yes, you heard me, flush toilets. What a luxury! Just outside of the toilets was a bowl hewn from a tree into which a faucet poured cold water for washing hands. A bit more sanitary than anything we saw on the Lakes trip.

Our next stop was the kitchen - a huge open sided room where at least four people were busy preparing dinner for us. Everyone was very friendly and we said hello and moved on to the lodging. The places we would stay were called cliff dwellings and there were enough to sleep 24 people I think but with only seven of us we pretty much could have had the pick of the litter. Aaron assigned us the dwellings with the best views and off we went to unpack. We were each given a dry bag, a flannel sleeping bag liner and a pillow case. The dwelling consisted of a three-sided construction with a thatched roof and two raised platforms on which were a foam pad, a sleeping bag, a pillow and an extra blanket. The open end gave way through trees to the mighty Futaleufu and the Terminator rapids. The beds were raised up to above my waist height - why? So that parents with kids could have the kids sleep under their beds since little kids don't usually want to sleep alone. Nancy and Don had to rekindle their gymnastics experience in order to get in bed - let alone get down during the night to use the pee bucket.

Dinner consisted of chicken and veggie stir fry over rice. It was just before dinner when I realized I had packed the wrong gear bag and had forgotten my sun screen and my headlamp. Sunscreen, no big deal, but no headlamp and I was in deep doo-doo. I was furious with myself and Aaron calmly said he would figure something out, but I could tell he wasn't sure what to do either. Nancy loaned me her headlamp until something could be done, but I couldn't get out of my funk.

Met Claudia, the masseuse, and spoke with her during dinner. Feeling as tense and angry as I was I thought a massage might help unwind so I had a massage at 9:30 and then straight to sleep.