Then not hard to skip 18. Took me about half a day taking multiple buses (puerto fuy - panguipulli - los lagos - paillaco - futrono - llifen), maybe a bit longer on WE with less buses.
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2024-12-28 to 2024-12-29 / 1.5days / Packrafting/ SOBO/ RP (new option from Liquiñe) / Natalie & Tomáš'''</span>.
From Pucón we took one of the many minibuses to the Villarica terminal and then caught a minibus to Coñaripe, which was already waiting there. We were told they go every ten minutes from 6:15 until evening. Both Lican Ray and Coñaripe were cute and tranquil towns, if Pucón didn't have good food I would have rather stayed on this side. From Coñaripe, where we got at about 11:30, we got a hitch to Liquine in about 30 minutes; a bus supposedly left at 2pm.
Tomáš was very curious about the river section that started at the end of Liquine. We flipped a coin and he won so we made a put in at the end of town near (just after) the parking for Termas rio Liquiñe (waypoint Ferry {17H} [5.7/237] (Rio Liquine)). A friendly caretaker and ferryman chatted with us for a bit and gave some river advice. My preference for a start was at the bridge in the beginning of town due to time but both worked.
This section that we paddled from Liquine to the start of the regular route had more rapids. I am not one to judge, but I would say they were class01, no greater than Low class 02 rapids. (Tomáš: the biggest rapid was right at the beginning, but it was straightforward). With that said, it was slightly more enjoyable than the later half of the river. Obstacles besides the river were shallow rocks. We hit our exposed knees a few times (canoe seats). There was an excavator working under the bridge in town (where the river temporarily splits) so we had to go right, but I think the left would have been better. They are renovating the river bank so time will tell with what happens to the river. Lots of fishermen out with their long lines in the water so be careful.
Having canoe paddles that fit together to form one kayak paddle helped for the sections I wanted to walk and Tomáš wanted to paddle. There was only one section that was in the very beginning of RP route that we both chose to walk as it looked dangerous: -39.70205, -71.88634 so far, everynody seems to have out in after that). It was a fast moving narrow bend with an undercut like feature and lots of wood and current driving you onto a rock at the end of it.
The RP in my opinion was more woody than expected. Sometimes it felt like a battlefield squeezing the Packraft between the necks of sunken logs, but I am new at this, luckily the flow was pretty slow. Also, remember to go left at the first leftward bend after Quilmio camping, the river splits there.
We made camp on a lovely grass bank opposite of camp 6.2 (-39.70521, -71.92260). There is a road that leads to it and I believe a property nearby because I heard horses, but we did not see anyone except for some fishermen on the other side of the river. Besides a spring on river left, shortly after town, we never found a good water source, so I boiled water from the river and Tomáš did without water.
The next day we continued the meander. Everything felt like it got progressively easier but wood was still sneaking up here and there. The tebanos were relentless, this is our third year here and for me I have never had them at the level we had them that day. They didn't even leave us alone while crossing the windy lake Tomáš: I must have killed like 70 of them over this section). And as for the lake, when we got to Lago Neltume, we had a moderate headwind, however the waves were noticable but harmless. Therefore we basically aimed and paddled straight to the campground @24.7, which took us slightly above one hour.
At the campground there were two groups of people but very spread apart. No (free) drinking water but there were toilets and tables ext. Nobody asked us for anything. I had a super lovely swim in the lake, the temperature was perfect and I enjoyed a break from the tabanos. When we left we made a silly mistake. We both assumed the double padlock on the closed gate was locked so Tomáš ended up cutting a bunch of blackberries near the side fence in order for us to jump over. We found out later it wasn't actually locked because the couple that gave us a hitch to Neltume were staying there. Before getting that hitch we walked perhaps 1-2km on the road.
It was Sunday but shops were still open in Neltume to buy food. Definitely enough to resupply if needed. There are a couple of main shops in the center but the best shop of all was the fruit/veg stand on the right of the main road just at the east end of town. Good prices and quality.
There was good internet in Liquiñe, all over lake Neltume and both Puerto Guy and Neltume (and it seemed in between too) including our last camspot. Also we noticed upper Rio Cuacua had some coverage, but our middle camspot was offline.
The last hitch to Puerto Fuy was easy and short and we had dinner at the only restaurant open, the main restaurant "Puerto Fuy". The salmon and salsa appetizer was very good, but a bit pricey. If you can order just a jar of the salsa I would try for that! Then we walked a bit to find a camp spot (Water {17H} [34.0/646], -39.87034, -71.87386; that is 50 metres after the well built MR ends, from there on, the trail is a trail that used to be an NR but is not passsable for cars at all) to start the paddle of Lago Pirihueico (GPT18) the next day and say hi to Clara (whom we missed in Pucón), hi Clara!
* '''24-12-26- 24-12-27/ 1,5 days / SOBO / RR/ Volker'''
