Cambios

BUS INFO: From Futaleufu, we tried to take the 10am bus to Chaiten with the plan to get of off at Puerto Ramírez, but it was full. Apparently the 6am bus was full too (Buses every day @ 6am & 10am). You need to reserve at least a day in advance. The ticket office opens at 10am and is closed Sundays, expect a queue in the morning. They said this does not apply for the bus to Palena (Tuesdays 9am & 430pm, Thursdays 430pm)- for that you just show up at the terminal. We did not want to wait, so we hitched: it took us 4 cars and 5 hours. We arrived in Palena 18:00, so we slept in a hospidaje here: -43.61753, -71.79944. 40 thousand for two with an early breakfast.

Walking from Palena, you do not need to cross the bridge, there is a staircase to a beach on the left just before the bridge. What others said about the river largely holds, we had even lower water than most reports. The river was probably half a meter under its maximum (in narrower places more in wider less). At the beggining ground contact was a concern, but could mostly be avoided. In the second section, there are indeed trees, but largely easy to avoid and there is not that many of them compared to 17P. The first section goes through a beautiful gorge. In the second, there are magnificent pointy mountains on the left. We wondered if they have ever been climbed, given their relative remoteness, namelessness and moderate prominence and altitude (~2000m). Side streams for drinking were pretty regular until La Juntakm 85.5, after La Junta there were only ~3 that until the sea you can easily got 10–15 km between drinkable accessible streams.  

Nats Nat's Notes: