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All Routes

Walk overview

General Argentinian route information

Rio Villegas to the waterfall

  1. Buses and Rio Villegas
  2. Hiking along the Rio Manso road
  3. Suspension bridge across the manso
  4. Meadows and flatlands along the Rio Manso
  5. Fences to avoid on the Rio Manso
  6. Rio Manso - easy camping
  7. The waterfall marked on the map

The waterfall to the Argentine - Chilean border

  1. El Manso: Rafting campsite, restaurant and minimart
  2. Argentinian customs - Gendarmeria Nacional
  3. The case of the missing refugio
  4. Crossing the Argentina-Chile border

General Chilean route information

Paso El Leon to Torrentoso

  1. Chilean Carabineros, border crossing and the hamlet of El Leon
  2. A rangers' forest camp
  3. Conditions along the route
  4. The turn towards Torrentoso

Torrentoso to end of Lago Vidal Gormaz

  1. Torrentoso turning
  2. Camping at the south end of Lago Vidal Gormaz
  3. Along Lago Vidal Gormaz
  4. Food supplies at the north end of the lake
  5. Route to virgin rainforest

Lago Vidal Gormaz to La Junta

  1. Lakes in the rainforest
  2. Junction of two rivers and two paths
  3. El Arco refugio and natural bridge
  4. La Junta refugio

La Junta to Cochamo

  1. Granite cliffs and La Junta campground
  2. Trail conditions along the last leg of the path
  3. End of the path from Argentina
  4. Main road to Cochamo and Campo Aventura
  5. Cochamo and civilization
Map of the area with a links image map, all links are available from test links elsewhere on the page Chilean Carabineros, border crossing and the hamlet of El Leon A rangers' forest camp Conditions along the route The turn towards Torrentoso
part k Section 3: Click on the "i"s above for information and photos of the route. part m

l. Crossing the border at Paso El Leon - the Chilean carabineros

Walking towards the El Leon customs, heli-pad and hamlet
El Leon Escuela (school)
This is the school on the hill east of the Carabineros' clearing.
When coming to a large bridge after crossing the official border, continue straight (don't cross the bridge). Behind the hill with the school on it is a large clearing with the official Carabineros office. The border guard, Cabo Balle, was very helpful and made us feel extremely welcome in Chile. We left his office with very good feeling about the new country - we left our map of the Argentinian side with him so that he would able to pass it on to the next hikers passing through. Over the first 5 days of January, supposedly the season to be crossing this way, he had had 2 groups through - we were one of them. The other group was 3 Chileans returning home. He showed us further back in the book and there had been German, US and French citizens through in the previous year, but not many. There were no charges at either border, we are UK and US citizens.