Río Fonce

The planned activity for the day was white water rafting. The Rio Fonce nearby had rapids of class 2 and 3 that wasn't of interest to us since we had already rafted on class 3 rapids in Petrohue earlier. We anted to try something even more extreme. The river Suarez nearby had class 4 and 5 rapids and we had opted for that.
We got up early and had our breakfast on the hostel terrace and were ready by 9 am. We walked over to the main square to the operator's office and from there we had to walk over to the office of the actual rafting organizer's office. There we signed the waiver forms and then were off in their van. The starting point of the rafting was about 25 kms away at a small village called Baraya. The van dropped us there. There was no cabin or hut to change or go to the toilet. Some people went to a small local restaurant to use their toilets, most used the open green forest around. Before we put the zodiacs into the water, our safety instructor told us about the dos and don'ts, what to do if one is thrown overboard. There are multiple levels of seriousness if one falls overboard and he demonstrated all the various positions to get into depending on how far one is thrown or how strong is the current. The starting point of the rafting was in the Rio Fonce which doesn't have a very strong current but the main part of the rafting starts from the confluence of the Rio Fonce with the Rio Suarez about a km downstream.
After the instructions, our guides told us to jump into the water and try swimming downstream to get used to the water and try getting to the sides while swimming with one hand with the oar in the other. We all jumped in and started swimming. I got caught in a strong current in the middle of the river and swimming with one hand didn't help. I was swept downstream for about a 100 mts before I decided to skip the instruction of swimming on the back and started swimming with the stomach down and managed to get to the shore. :D
Then we were off on our zodiacs towards the confluence. It was fun to be in the water!!!Read more