The River of Dreams Base Camp

The River of Dreams Base Camp is located at 75 miles northwest of Balmaceda airport and about 50 miles from the city of Coyhaique, right at the Confluence of the Paradise spring creek and Blanco River, overlooking the river and the spring creek. The specific location of the camp its 45°39'40.04"S and 72°36'20.23"W.

Just to get there is a full experience by itself. A very scenic and beautiful drive for over two hours will get you to the end of the road, where we still start a horseback ride for two hours to get into the middle part of the Blanco River Valley. After the horseback ride, we will jump into our jet boats and ride for another hour to get to our Camp. Once we arrive, our staff will welcome you with drinks and appetizers. Our camp is located in a 2,000 acres Ranch, surrounded by the most beautiful landscapes. Pristine forest, mountain peaks, glaciers, and the most spectacular river, will make you feel as if you are right in Paradise.

It wasn't easy to set a Camp in this place, right in the middle of nowhere. It took two years to set up our own outpost at the River of Dreams. We are the sole fly-fishing operation in the entire Blanco River Valley. More than 30 miles of water, just for us. The tents were designed and built by Andy and Eduardo, intent on making as little impact as possible on the beautiful environment where they are located. Our guests will stay in three double-occupancy, insulated, wooden frame tents equipped with heat, electricity, and wooden floors. We have beds and all the amenities needed for a comfortable stay.

One big tent with a nice living room and dining area for the rainy days, plus a beautiful outside table located under a big coigue tree with a nice fire pit to spend the night around the fire telling fishing stories and enjoying the stars after the fishing day. The camp has electricity, hot water, and two showers and bathrooms.

Food & Drink

A touch of class, in the most unique setting on the planet, is brought to the tables of The River of Dreams by accomplished chefs at our Camp. You will be treated as royalty to celebrate your visit to our place. Fresh, homemade, organic, and locally-grown food will be part of your meals every day.

Magic Waters Patagonia Lodge, our main operation in the region, is famous for its fantastic food and service, recognized as the Best Dining Lodge in 2014 for Anglers Choice Awards, and the Orvis International Destination of the Year for 2016. We prepare dinners on an outside grill for our guests, using organic beef, lamb, fish, and seafood mixed with vegetables to blend in some of the best Patagonian recipes. Our stews and soups are favorites, and even at the Camp, expect to have three-course dinners. All our food is organic and the main ingredients come from the ranches around the camp.

Chile is famous for good wines and at the River of Dreams Base Camp, we are proud to have a large selection of great red and white wines from the best vineyards in Chile. Every night, excellent wine and Pisco sours, our national cocktail drink, will be paired to match your evening cuisine.

We plan our week menu depending on our guests, so just let us know in advance if you have any special dietary requests.

Gear Recommendations:

At the River of Dreams, we mainly use 6-7 wt. rods with floating line for dry flies and sink-tip for streamers in the main river. A 5-6 wt. rod with floating line will be perfect for the spring creeks and mountain streams. For leaders, 0-1X for streamer fishing and 1-2X for dry flies. Trout are not leader-shy here, so they don't care much about the size of it. Waders, rubber wading boots, and rain jackets are mandatory for this trip.

What to Bring:

Bring a mix of summer and winter clothes, so you are prepared for any kind of weather. We will be staying in a very remote place, so it's better to be prepared for anything. In case of heavy rain, bring two rain jackets. Buffs, face mask, and gloves can be very helpful if it gets cold. 50+ factor sunscreen, hats, and a head lamp.

Species:

At The River of Dreams Base Camp, we target just brown and rainbow trout. These big, wild, fat, and aggressive brown and rainbow trout, have never seen a fly before. So, the behavior of this trout is something completely different than the behavior of trout in other places.

90% of the fish are brown trout, with big numbers of trout in the 14"-18" range, with lots of big fish between 18"-24" range and some monster brown trout up to 27" and longer.

Expect to cast big beetles, mouse patterns, and big streamers in the main river and smaller dry flies in the spring creeks and mountain creeks.

Season:

The fly-fishing season at the river of Dreams is very short. Because of weather conditions, we divide our fishing season into the spring season and the fall season.

Our fly-fishing season at the River of Dreams Base Camp, starts October 14th and ends by May 7th. The prime fly-fishing time is during the months of October, November, and December, and then March, April, and May. The River of Dreams starts as the outlet of Caro Lake, that gets all the waters from the Paloma River Valley, famous worldwide for its excellent dry-fly fishing. About two miles downstream, it gets the waters from the Caj'n Bravo river that come from a big chain of glaciers. During January and February, our warmest months, Caj'n Bravo brings a lot of run-off into the River of Dreams, giving the water a silty color and bigger size, so we close down the season for those months.

During the months of October and November, we get excellent stonefly and mayfly hatches followed by the appearance of many different types of beetles during mid November. Golden Stones, Yellow Sally's and some huge October caddises. Lots of different types of mayflies and beetles, including the famous Cantaria beetle. We start seeing Cantaria beetles in late October, mid November through late December is their peak, including some very big ones up to two inches.

It is streamer-fishing paradise during these months, because of the huge presence of trout smolts in the river after the spawning. In December, dry-fly fishing becomes epic with big brown trout hunting everywhere.

Late summer and fall bring back the stonefly and mayfly hatches to the river and the presence of grasshoppers and big beetles makes everything as fun as it can get. During the fall, brown trout start getting spawning colors and they get really aggressive, attacking big mouse patterns and large streamers. The spring creek fishing is just insane during the whole season, with trout averaging 20', and daily catches of bigger fish up to 24' in very shallow waters. Excellent sight-fishing for big fish!

Region/Terrain:

To get to the River of Dreams is a full adventure itself. A very pleasant and scenic two-hour and 20-minute drive in, going across the town of Coyhaique, the Simpson River National Park, as you view glaciers, mountain peaks and beautiful rivers. You will just love the drive. At the end of the road, we will met Jorge Martel, our Gaucho, who will be waiting for us with his horses ready to start the most wild and incredible horseback trip for around two hours. The horseback trip to get to the middle section of the valley is an incredible fun and scenic adventure, but it's not recommended for everybody. This is only for the adventurous angler that can manage a very rough two-hour horseback trip, going up and downhill, jumping rock to rock, going through deep, muddy areas, and across small creeks. At the end of the horseback trip, our guides will be waiting for us and we will jump in a jet boat for another 45 minutes to get to our destination, The River of Dreams Base Camp.

45 minutes of going upstream in one of the prettiest rivers in the planet, surrounded by beautiful wild forest, thick jungle, spectacular waterfalls, snowed mountain peaks, majestic glaciers, and very, very fishy water.

When you get to camp, our Chef and staff will be ready to welcome you and your friends and prepare you to go fishing.

Typical Weather:

Our River of Dreams, is a coastal river, located in the rainforest, very similar to the coastal rivers in Washington state and British Columbia. October, November, December, February, March and April, are our dryer months, but here you should spect to get rain at least one or two of the days you will be there.

2022-2023 Season & Rates:

October 14th - May 7th

7 nights/6 days fishing package:

• Per Angler Double Occupancy: $6,990
• Per Angler Single Occupancy: Call for pricing
• Per Non-Angler Double Occupancy: Call for pricing

What is Provided:

At the River of Dreams Base Camp, we offer a full-service, all- inclusive package. We include all the ground transportation, lodging, all meals and beverages, guides, fishing license, flies, and terminal tackle. We have rental waders, boots, rods and reels, but please notify us before the trip if you need any fishing gear.

We just don't include trip insurance, extra activities, and gratuities for guides and staff.

Additional Activities:

The River of Dreams Base Camp is mainly a fly-fishing Camp. We also welcome explorers, outdoor people that want to stay in a place where they will not see any other humans around, so they can have a total privacy faraway from civilization.