Yesterday Rodrigo and I set out to explore one of the deepest cnayons in the area around Pucon. It had never been explored before and we were inspired by local rumors of huge waterfalls and impassible canyons. We entered the gorge with surprising ease, partly because a local showed us the way down out of his backyard. With full kayaking gear to keep us warm and safe, we set off in hopes of finding an exciting first descent to come back to. The river started off bouldery and steep, and stayed bouldery, steep, and infested with wood until we got to a place where it would have been impossible to go back upstream if we had passed. It looked as if there was something interesting around the corner, but we could not risk getting trapped in a deep gorge with no escape route. Also, there would have been no way to kayak to the point we made it to, so in our eyes, to continue would have been foolish, though it would haven been very exciting to see what was around that corner.
We went back up the river the way we went down, then up the canyon wall, out to the road, and walked about 10 kilometers to where our ride was waiting. Needless, to say I slept very well last night.
