Rafting the Futaleufú River with ExChile

Back to real life…. I have to admit that it has taken me a full week to recover from our two week Patagonia adventure.  Hence the reason for no posts last week.  But I’m back in the swing of things now and ready to share our experience rafting the Futaleufú River with ExChile.  I’m going to do another post on our time in Argentina as well.

If you follow my Instagram feed, you might have noticed a few rafting pictures last summer.  Rafting has become Kris and my favorite spring and summer pastime.   Idaho is considered to be The Whitewater State as it has more whitewater rivers than any other state. Lucky us!  One of the main reasons we decided to go to Patagonia was to raft the Futaleufú River.  The Futaleufú River is one of the top 10 whitewater rafting rivers in the world. Kris and I went on the trip with my cousin and her husband.

After doing some research on the different rafting companies that guide on the Futaleufú, we ended up going with ExChile as they offered a four day fast track trip.  The rafting package included a taxi ride from our hotel in Trevelin, Argentina to the town of Futaleufú, Chile, assistance at the border crossing, lodging, meals, and all the rafting equipment.  We stayed at ExChile’s Campo Tres Monjas, which was right on the Futaleufú River and Rio Azul, and fell asleep to the sound of the river roaring past us each night.

We had four amazing days of rafting on the Futaleufú. Perfect weather, lots of sunshine! As you can see from the pictures, the river is an incredible light blue-green, glacier melt color. And honestly, the pictures don’t do it justice.  I was in awe of the color of the water.  Somehow the turquoise color made the rapids seem less intimidating.

Our guide, Bryant, was awesome.  He successfully led us through several class V rapids without any of us falling out of the raft or flipping in the rapids, which I have to say made me very happy!  Bryant stayed at the Tres Monjas camp with us and Chris Spelius, the owner of ExChile and legendary kayaker and Olympian, came out to the camp and had dinner with us every night.  The food, drinks, and dinner conversations kept the atmosphere quite lively at the camp.  ExChile has an incredible staff who kept us well fed and entertained.

If you ever get the chance to travel to Chile and want an incredible rafting experience, I recommend checking out ExChile.  We enjoyed every second of our time with them and would love to go back someday.