Jorge’s sure-footed horses knew the trail, which was alternately (or at once) narrow, muddy, rocky, steep up, steep down and in places bolstered with logs. The two hour ride into the canyon was worth the entire trip. In a past life I’d owned three horses, but I had never done anything like this before. Jorge, the entrepreneurial huaso, had identified a market, created a world for himself to fulfill a need then inserted himself into it. Jorge would be responsible for logistics and caretaking the camp. With Jorge’s help he found a piece of land there, purchased it, and set up the camp. Eduardo, stunned by the serendipitous nature of the call, made arrangements to have Jorge guide him into the canyon. Jorge made a few telephone calls and, through process of finding likely prospects, reached Eduardo. Maybe, he thought, fisherman would come to the Blanco. Cattle was proving a poor return in Jorge’s beloved Rio Blanco Valley, but he’d heard tourism was growing in the surrounding area. The only two paths into the canyon were one along a steep, narrow trail and second trail that was steeper and narrower. The high mountains limit the sunlight and the coastal weather brings disproportionate overcast & 70 inches of annual rain. The valley floor is narrow to nonexistent. Jorge was born and raised in the Canyon, and he was finding raising beef cattle there to be difficult the forest in the Canyon is mature and thick. While Eduardo was scheming a way to get into the Canyon Jorge, the huaso, was scheming a way to make a better living for himself.
The only way in was by either helicopter or pack train.
PATAGONIA COME HELL OR HIGH WATER MOVIE SERIES
The Rio Blanco, Eduardo explained, was within the walls of a steep Canyon, and access from upstream or downstream was blocked by a series of waterfalls on either end. Jorge ran from horse to horse energetically packing them, loading them and cinching them with a smile on his face.Įduardo, our host at Magic Waters Patagonia lodge, had told the story of how he was interested in fishing the Rio Blanco Canyon which was our destination for this day. It seemed we were on such a quest and the treasure was trout. There are classic western movies, such as El Dorado, where adventurers seeking gold are led by an Indian guide through steep canyons with narrow defiles to find the mythical treasure they seek. We were told we had a two hour horse ride to the river and another hour boat ride to the camp.Looking at the elevation of the trail ahead all we could see was steep incline as the trail disappeared into the trees. A two hour drive from Coyhaique found us at a trail head with eight horses being prepared by a pair of huasos (cowboys) and the staff packing goods for shipment into the camp. That is what was inscribed on the dry bags tied to the horse panniers.
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