The Puffy Jacket Paddling begins

Hello everyone!  We left the NOLS base on October 14th and began the long drive down to Tortel where our kayak expedition began.  There is only one main road traveling north to south in Patagonia called the Carretera Austral.  It would be the equivalent of I-5 in Washington and Oregon except that much of it isn't paved!  But it's a beautiful drive through the mountains to the sea.

This is the main highway in Patagonia... the mountain is Cerro Castillo.

We stopped for a roadside picture.  This is the Rio Baker headwaters.  

 Once we arrived in Tortel, we set up camp, cooked some dinner and got a good nights sleep.  The next morning we waited along the bank of the Rio Baker (Baker River) for our two boats to arrive that would take us 21 miles out amongst the islands and drop us off to start our kayak expedition.  Once we got out in the more open water of Canal Baker we had some rough seas, but we made it safely to our first camp: Punta Rachel.

Here is our boat... we are loading all our gear and rations...

This is the second boat that has all of our kayaks loaded into the bow.  Plus four students and an instructor.  Full load!  Eventually the seas got a bit rough and the kayaks took a bit of a beating.  But we transferred all the people onto the bigger boat while it was still calm.  Pretty nice weather, huh?  We did have some sun off and on during the kayak section, but we got our fair share of wind and cold.  We even got some snow flurries a few days after this shot was taken. 

Here are most of the students riding on the bigger boat.  You can see Will and Peter in the front row... Jimmy, Isi, Jack and Devon in the second row... hunter poking his head out on the right... and Abbey and Elle there in the back. 

Well, it takes about 10 minutes to upload one picture here at the Valle Chacabuco Park where we are now staying.  I will continue to add photos and stories from the past 25 days... and then eventually I will have you all caught up on the adventures we've been having.  At the moment the students are here at Valle Chacabuco, Concervacion Patagonica, participating in a Wilderness First Aid course that will last nine more days.  They just got out for lunch, so I'm going to run and get some food too!  Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and for looking at my pictures and captions.  Everyone is healthy and happy and we are learning a lot down here!  See you soon!  --  John