While waiting out the blowing ice on the volcanoe in Pucon, we met a British girl who was a north bound traveler and had just come from Puerto Varas. She highly recommended a trip on horses up the Cochamo Valley. When we arrived in Puerto Varas, we went straight to the Campo Aventura office and signed up for a 4 day trip. The Cochamo Valley is often compared to Yosemite and for good reason.

We took a bus on Sunday to the town of Cochamo to meet up with the Campo Aventura outfitters. The snag was that it was a Sunday and a holiday and the buses to Cochamo were not running until late that night. So we caught a bus half-way there and then hitch hiked. An old man in a pickup picked us up after about an hour. He was Chilean, but of German desent. His family imigrated here 150 years ago he said. He spoke German and Spanish only, so we cobbled together a conversation along the way. It was fun. There are a lot of Germans in this area. Apparently the Chilean government made a deal with Germany in the 1800s to offer incentives to Germans to settle in this area. Previously they had been unable to keep people settled in the area due to uprisings of the Mapuche indians. So the restaurants serve "kuchen" (German pastry) and businesses often have German names. And there is a lot of good beer.

Anyway, we arrived safely at the lower camp and spent the night in a lodge with 4 rooms, beside the river. The next morning we ate a big breakfast before saddling up the horses and hitting the trail. It was a 6 hour ride to the upper camp in the farther end of the Cochamo valley. They trail was incredibly rugged and looked impossible for a horse to negotiate. But they were mountain horses and had no problem. We forded 2 rivers, which was exciting - the river reached the horseīs belly and I had to pull my feet up onto the saddle in order to avoid getting wet.

The upper camp is spectacular. It is filled with huge granite domes which are a metalic gray color. There was a light rain when we arrived and it made the wet granite look like satin sheets. Truly a beautiful place. Unlike Yosemite, which has several huge waterfalls, this valley is streaming with many many ribbons of waterfalls cascading off the peaks. They are small, but plentiful.

Day 2 we were free to enjo the camp and the area. We ate another big breakfast and headed out for a hike in the rain forest. We visited 2 of the larger waterfalls. The 2nd was high up on the mountain side and was beautiful. Campo Aventura has built a small shelter there, which they keep stocked with a pot, mugs and tea. We built a small fire and heated some water and enjoyed a peaceful half-hour admiring the cascada while sipping tea. It was great.

We returned in time for a hot lunch back at camp followed by an hour nap. This was turning out to be a perfect day.

After the nap we set out for another waterfall. This one, La Junta Cascada, was not as tall as the others (maybe 125-150 ft tall), but was wider and flowed over a smooth granite slab. We climbed up the dry portion of the slab alongside the waterfall and our guide, Bhavito, proceeded to demonstrate how you could ride the waterfall down the slab into the pool below. He had never done it before. He hike way up the slab and then scooted on his butt into the flow. He gained a lot of speed quickly, as the granite is covered in a thin film of moss, and was launched into the air at one point due to an upward curve in the rock. It was quite comical to watch. He came out of the pool sputtering about how fast it was, but smiling all the time. His Speedo didnīt provide much protection and he ended up with a large rasberry on his butt-cheek.

I elected to try it from a bit lower than Bhavito and it was great. A wet suit and helmet would come in handy on this activity. The water is snow melt from the top of the granite domes above, so it was ice cold.

It was a dream perfect day. This is a place to revisit again.

http://www.campo-aventura.com

The next day we saddled up again and rode back down to the lower camp. We stayed the night and had dinner with a group who had just returned from a 10 day horse packing trip.

The next morning we said good-bye to Campo Aventura and met up with Philipe, a french guide who ran an adventure travel business. He took us to La Potta, a slot canyon about an hour from Cochamo. We donned a wet suit, neoprene socks and shoes, neoprene hood and gloves and a hard helmet and jumped into the canyon (literally).

We spent the next couple of hours traveling down canyon through the water. At each waterfall we would lie down in the pool above it and let the current take us over the falls! It was incredible! I hadnīt had that much fun in several days. We reached the canyone exit - a 40ft waterfall, clipped into a rope and rappelled to the bottom. It was an awesome experience.

Tomorrow we fly to Punta Arenas, which is at the tip of Chile. AKA Tierra del Fuego.