As adventure travel continues to grow, it becomes harder and harder to really find true adventure anymore. The rivers and trails in many of our national parks are overrun by people who want a little visceral, outdoor experience, reducing them to not much more than parking lots with great scenery. Rafting the Colorado through the Grand Canyon can often be an exercise in patience, with a gridlock of motorized boats, crowds of people, and a waiting list that stretches for decades.

But that isn't the case on the Fu. Patagonia offers an incredible absence of people. The region barely has roads, let alone cars to contend with. Southern Chile is an undiscovered eco-travel paradise. The glacier-crowned peaks of the southern Andes dominate every view and rival the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. Small rivers and streams offer unparalleled trout fishing. Primeval forests are everywhere. "It's like Switzerland. It's like the Grand Tetons. It's so many places rolled into one," says Aleen Steinberg, a retiree from North Carolina joining us on the trip. But once you get a glimpse of the river, it immediately becomes the center of attention.

I was a little wary at first when I heard Earth River's Fu trip described as "the world's wildest, most comfortable river trip." The word comfortable threw me. Not that I was looking to be uncomfortable on my seven days in Patagonia, but I also didn't want to be insulated from the wild I came in search of. I didn't want to be catered to, waited on hand and foot. I wanted to get wet. I wanted butterflies in my stomach. I wanted adrenaline. I soon found out I had nothing to fear.