By George Kalli
Do you know those bits of Styrofoam that some parents buy for their children to learn how to kick in the water and maybe, if they are quick learners, also to catch a small wave in the lake, pool, or possibly even the ocean? Well in Pucon, Chile they have souped up those pieces of Styrofoam a bit and have made quite an exhilarating adventure sport out of it that they have named "Hidro Speed". In addition to the pimped out Styrofoam; a pair of flippers, wetsuit booties, a helmet, an inner farmer john wetsuit, an outer farmer john wetsuit, and a separate wetsuit top completed out the equipment that we wore. The inner wetsuit was a normal wetsuit; however, the second wetsuit that we put on over this "base layer" contained several pads and resembled what I wear when I play hockey or when others play football. The need for a padded wetsuit should have been a warning sign. My girlfriend Ashley needed no warning, however, as she had seen this sport before, featured in a film short in an outdoors film festival a few years back. The film started with beautiful shots of steep rocky rivers and raging water chutes coming off a glacier, and ended with shots of bloody and broken Norwegians clutching pieces of Styrofoam as they dragged themselves out of the water. She had wanted to try this sport ever since.
The manner to navigate down the river was to rest your upper body on the Styrofoam and to use your legs (and hands when desperate) to propel and navigate yourself down the river. After a quick in water tutorial from our guide we were off and down the river. Immediately I realized that the Hidro Speed experience was going to provide me with a feel and view of the river that I have not experienced either kayaking or rafting. Previously, I believed that the best way to feel as one with the river was to get in a kayak and go paddling. Well now I have to say that it is best to get on a bit of Styrofoam and start kicking. After all, when you are barreling down a class 3 river hanging on to a glorified piece of Styrofoam, you truly are part of the river - a piece of flotsam to be exact.
Well, as it turns out, Ashley and I survived (barely at times) a descent down a chilly stretch of the Trancura River. The stretch that we descended contained several large rapids (class 3 and 3+). As we were to learn, Hidro Speed very well can be a contact sport. In the very first rapid, although instructed not to do so, I managed to not follow directly behind our guide. It was only moments before I smashed into a rock with my Styrofoam, then another, then one with my legs, then one more to push off with my hands. Guess what? It's hard to see the barely submerged rocks coming at you when you are a piece of flotsam in the river. We also found out the downside of wearing two wetsuits is that you are so buoyant that it is a challenge to get your legs all the way underwater to kick your flippers. So you mostly end up slapping your flippers on the water surface, which isn't quite as effective as we hoped while being blasted through Class 3+ rapids.
Some of the subsequent rapids were simply pretty damn big, with large waves, rocks gardens, and hydraulics. I would have been hesitant to run some of them in my raft and never ever would have imagined running any of them only with a piece of Styrofoam to hold on to. I was relieved after we made it through what we were told was the biggest rapid named Pescador. Once I started to stop kicking and relax however, the guide started to explain the next rapid which was the longest (300 meters) and apparently contained "solomente una salida" (only one exit) at its end. Well half way through the rapid, a large wave flipped Ashley over onto her back and away from her piece of Styrofoam. Ashley and her Styrofoam were now free floating through a wave train on their way to the "una salida", which we were told beforehand, would require some precise maneuvering to get to and through safely. Even though I was bringing up the rear in our group of three, I was only able to view the potentially impending disaster between episodes of getting doused in the face by wave after wave. Somehow in the melee, Ashley and our guide managed to swap their pieces of Styrofoam with each other. Shortly thereafter, upon reaching the "una salida" they each brushed up against (which is a nice way to say "hit") the large boulder that marked one side of the exit and subsequently got flushed through to calmer water on the other side of the salida.
All in all, I don't know how many major rapids we managed to plow through with our pieces of Styrofoam. I would estimate that it was somewhere around 10 though. At the end of the trip we had some time to stop kicking and enjoy the views of three different stratovolcanoes, including the smoking Volcan Villarica, visible from the river.
I think Ashley summed up the day's experience best, "I never thought I'd pay to do what I've tried so hard to avoid when rafting."
Being that we enjoyed how the company that we went hidro speeding with let us take chances with our well being, we decided to go on another adventure with them a few days later; to hike to the summit of the nearby active Volcano Villarica which towers over the town of Pucon. When I say active, I truly mean active. There has not been a day spent in Pucon when clearly visible smoke and steam was not billowing out of the crater of the volcano.
They have a warning system in town which is set up like a traffic light. If the light is green then there are currently no immediate concerns about the activity of the volcano. If the light is red, it's time to get out of Pucon. To give you an idea of how active Volcano Villaricca is, small flows of lava descending down its flanks accompanied with medium strength explosions only warrants a yellow light on the warning system.
The hike actually started below a chairlift at the ski area that is located on the lower slopes of the volcano. One of the first points of interest on the hike was a large concrete building that was the upper terminus and shelter for one of the ski lifts until it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the 1980s.
In addition to the needed crampons and ice axe, the equipment that the tour company provided included a gas mask that covered your nose and mouth. Since I noticed that not many other companies provided gas masks, I thought perhaps that this was just for show, not a necessity, and to facilitate some unique and adventuresome looking photo opportunities. I was to learn otherwise, however. Upon reaching the summit we wanted to walk around the crater and veer down into it to try to view the red hot molten lava that we both knew was down in there somewhere. There was lots of gas, smoke, and steam pouring out of the crater. As advised, we put the gas masks on before heading too close to the crater itself.
As I started to walk around a portion of the crater a sudden shift of the gusty winds fully engulfed me in the steamy mix of gases that were pouring out of it. This is approximately when my throat, nostrils, and eyes started to exhibit their first reactions to the toxic gases I was to subject myself to for the next 10 minutes or so. I noticed that Ashley was no longer following behind me; she had turned back when the winds shifted because she had started to feel like she might faint. I also noticed that the guide that led us up here was standing about as far away from the crater as you could while still remaining on the summit itself. After I walked around a good portion of the crater, subjecting myself to more gases, I determined that it is difficult to look down into a volcanic crater in search red hot molten lava while it is spitting up unlimited amounts of gas, smoke, and steam. Eventually a whistle and a wave of the arm of our guide indicated that we should head towards him. He informed us that today there was much more gas than normal, that the gas was very toxic, and that it is dangerous, especially since the gas masks don't work "100%." So as it turns out, maybe the gas masks were just for show after all — my burning nostrils and throat would attest to that.
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