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November 20, 2003

Ran the local playful waterfall stretch of Ojos del Caburgua - The eyes of the Caburgua. Caburgua is the name of the upstream lake near the volcano area outside of Pucon. This name is derived from the shapes of the pools resemblance to eyes.

The core group-Andrew, Ian, Dan, Todd, and Michael ran an upper continuous stretch of waterfalls with Christian Knight. I took the remaining students down a walkable stretch that had six waterfalls within a 300 yard section.

We spent the afternoon learning how to scout rapids, picking our lines, observing possible dangers and the safest and unsafest routes, and practicing boof strokes and entry angles on the drops. It was another great learning afternoon. David, Grant, Matt, Logan, and I would run the drops twice. Conor, Emily, and Jennifer selected the easier rapids to practice some of their earliest lines off of the waterfalls that averaged eight feet in height.

On the second run we had a contest who could boof away from a waterfall the straightest and furthest. Logan came away with the most power on this round while Matt was the straightest with his perfect line. Spending the afternoon exploring and running waterfalls is always a favorite activity in this group, and our group was in high spirits.

Christian's group returned with stories of elation as well. Their five kilometer stretch was packed full of more continuous waterfalls. And they had to spend more time scouting and setting safety. Dinner was comprised of stories of the best and most memorable lines.

November 21, 2003

Matt's birthday. I went shopping early today and spent most of the day away from school taking care of logistics. Our afternoon paddle session was a class III stretch of four kilometers above our Liucura house down to our house.

After paddling we had dinner. Christian now requires his classes to read papers decribing the students' hometowns at dinners. Three students per night describe in detail why their home is home-the beauties, stereotypes, people, landscapes - It has became an interaction I look forward to at dinner. The essays gave me the perfect opportunity to video tape Matt's surprise cake without telegraphing to him the soon-to-come surprise.

During dinner Andres, Grant, and Veronica hid behind the counter murmuring as they tried to light the sixteen candles. Meanwhile, Jennifer spoke about the greatest whitewate state in the nation and her home-Cornelius, North Carolina.

Soon the candles were lit and Jennifer finished her report to the standing ovation of students cheering, "Cornelius, Cornelius, Cornelius" ...OK...the chanting, "Cornelius, Cornelius, Cornelius..." after Jennifer's report didn't happen. I just had that great picture that it did happen in my head for a brief moment, and how proud Cindy and Sam Chewning would have been.

Grant carried out the cake as everyone sang "Happy Birthday." They tried to get a speech out of Matt, but he declined. I did hear him say later how cool it was to be in Chile running rivers for his sixteenth birthday.

After Matt's birthday we went to Pucon for email, phone calls, and looking for girls. Surprisingly, they did not find any girls.

November 22, 2003

We slept late, and later drove an hour and a half to Temuco. Temuco is a larger town to the north of Pucon. There is a large market there each Saturday. Students spent four hours Christmas shopping for gifts from the craft market. There were too many crafts to name, but here goes my best-wool and cashmere clothing, wood carvings, copper art, all other sorts of art, Chilean foods, musical instruments, hats, colorful dresses, I think the most popular items were sweaters of many colors decorated with Llamas.

The video class was assigned to see who could capture footage of the best purchase of the day. This is typically entertaining as they negotiate their trades in Spanish, and are always happy with their great negotiating skills. It is hard for them when their best friend tells them they bought the same item five meters away for 1,000 pesos less.

We left the market and arrived a bit late for our awaiting dinner. We were out of firewood. Matt volunteered to go with me after dinner for the wood. We returned and everyone unloaded the dry wood as we built the fire. Matt is great to always help and selflessly volunteer his time. A great quality we strive to instill, he is a natural.

Lately, we spend our nights watching movies or playing games. I enjoy this family style atmosphere most as we play dice, card games, and chess. Teachers are working closely with individuals to assure a strong finish to an incredible semester of experiences and education.

November 23, 2003

Sunday was a day off from both paddling and school. Students had the option to sleep late, go to town, or paddle a small section. A group had planned to hike the volcano, but it was cloudy, and ruled this option out.

November 24, 2003

Back to school. The sun is out and classes were both inside and outside on our porch today. The afternoon paddling session will be on the Upper Trancura. A class III-IV run our group has yet to paddle. There is one difficult rapid and one must portage on the beautiful stretch. This is one of the few stretches where you can actually see the volcano from the river. This will be a great afternoon surprise.

Once we realized the Futaleafu was not an option we began researching a play-spot in Argentina. The difficult part is that our vans can not cross the border due to insurance purposes. We have arranged lodging and food for a stay in Argentina. Although, we are still working on having vans meet us at the border. Thus, we would never actually have vehicles cross the border. Rather, we will walk across and meet our vans on the other side.

We could leave as early as Wednesday. Due to thanksgiving we have opted to stay here near Pucon where we can stably offer a more appropriate celebration of thanksgiving dinner. Then we would take the following day off to travel one hour south of the tourist town of Bareloche.

The lodging at the Rio Manso hole is camping with a large house. The large house has a kitchen, showers, and lots of space if we desire to sleep inside in our sleeping bags. The greatest asset about this site is that it is at the training feature. And according to Diegeo the hole is currently good.

We will store items we do not need for this trip at our Pucon house. After the Rio Manso we will return through Pucon for a minimum of one day. Our next date is December fifth where we will visit a winery east of Pichilemu. We will spend our finals week at Pichilemu. Pichilemu offers a stable environment, everyone enjoyed the surf, it is easy to keep contact with the U.S., and we are close to our departure city.

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