Golfo Corcovado, Chile

• Rugged Kayaking Travel, Medium to Hard Day Hikes

• 2 Nights Hotel, 8 Nights in Tented Camp or on Boat

• 2 Days to and from Your Home

Explorers’ Corner has found what we consider the ultimate South American kayaking adventure—a mountain-to-ocean kayak journey down a remote but calm mountain river through the wild Patagonian Andes to a famed archipelago in southeastern Chile. This Patagonian kayaking adventure travels through diverse landscapes, animal habitats and some of the finest and remotest natural areas in Chile.

Our Great Andean paddling journey starts where the mighty Futaleufu river, drains into Lake Yelcho. At the lower part, there will be few rapids that are easily negotiable by sea kayaks and the swift current will moves us along at a 5-mile per hour pace. We’ll paddle eastward towards the Ocean on Lake Yelcho and camp on the river’s terraces. Views of towering Monte Hornos, Volcan Corcovado (1827 m) often vanish in whirling blankets of damp mist during the river’s march to Golfo Corcovado.

We’ll find our way to the hamlet of Caleta Gonzalo where will start paddling north in the protected Reihue Fjord system and explore its many inlets on the way to the Pacific ocean.  This is a journey through a mountainous wilderness of majestic fjords, deep valleys, crystal rivers, ribbon waterfalls, snow-covered peaks and impenetrable rainforests. This area is part of the Pumalin Reserve, after the pumas that roam there. It is a Yosemite-sized Eden that has been saved from exploitation by a recent effort to make it into a Natural Preserve.