Hola Chicos!

We really aren't very good at keeping this blog up to date are we? Well, we have been pretty busy if that is any consolation.

After the last blog entry we spent about a week in pucon doing the normal things- helping out in the shop selling trips, equipment and ice-creams, lots of ice-creams! Also teaching kayak lessons on the lake, on the river and running ducky trips (inflatable kayak trips on white water) Then on the 15th of January we set off up north to Santiago to pick up three german clients who were arriving for a two week paddling trip. Luckily we got to 'sleep' on the way up in back seat of the truck as Ben and the driver (whos name i currently can't remember) were driving through the night to avoid the worst of the heat and the traffic.

We spent a day in Santiago, which was oppresively hot as it is built essentially in the middle of a desert! The following morning we picked up the guys, Toby, Tommy and Bernie, from the airport and thankfully said goodbye to Santiago. Fran and i were now in the luggage compartment of the truck as there were now seven of us, its a massive dodge pickup with an enclosed luggage compartment, and ben didn't want us to all be crammed into the cab. This was slightly cramped but fine until we went and did a huge super-market shop for the next two weeks, following which we now had clothes bags, paddling kit bags, camping kit, tents, bedding etc along with all the food in the back with fran and I.

Fran stayed in the back with me until we had to stopped at the fresh fruit wholesale shop at nearby orchard, at which point she got promoted to the cab as there simply wasn't room for her in the back. After this we set off for the first river and campsite, about two and a half hours away. This was fine at first as it was still baking hot but we were at least on tarmac roads. After an hour and a half however we hit the dirt roads. Suffice to say that by the time we reached the campsite i had given up trying to prevent the avalanches of food and bags and was now stuck chest deep in a mess of both!

This set somewhat of a tone for the next two weeks. Although all the food was packed away much more efficiently thereafter and often the paddling kit was left wet in the boats, Fran and i spent many a happy hour being shaken half to death in the deafening oven that was the back of the truck as we travelled the many dirt roads to the rivers we paddled! It wasn't always as bad as that of course and the rivers we ended up paddling more than made up for it. We paddled twelve new rivers in the 14 or 15 days we were on the trip, which wasn't bad at all for Fran seeing as she was originally only going to be with us for 3 days!

In all we paddled off about thirty ish waterfalls by the end of the trip, five of which were 30ft or more, and our bodies and backs were aching by the end of it. The german guys were all really good kayakers and we all got on brilliantly. It was partly because they liked fran so much that ben let her stay for the whole trip. Tommy unfortunately came out still recovering from a chest infection, and had to take it easy some days so he wouldn't knacker himself for thr whole trip. Bernie was initially fine but picked up some kind of flu over the last few days and sadly missed out on the last three rivers. Fran, true to form, couldn't cope with being the only invalid, and so decided to get some attention by head butting a rock on a particularly fast and committing river! She ended up with three stitches and her third concusion! But also true to form there was no way this was going to hold her back for long. She missed one river the day after while she recovered and then decided that that was quite enough and she couldn't miss out on any more!

Unfortunately she had to miss out on one more as the following day we were back in pucon and fran was needed to teach a lesson. However, at this