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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 m Section 3: Click on the "i"s above for information and photos of the route. part o

n. Conditions along the route

High trenchesImage of a waterfall pool

The route is much muddier on the Chilean side on the whole than the Argentinian side. In places, mainly on steep hills, the path winds it's way through trenches, some of them 15 feet deep. The sensation of walking through semi-rainforest picking your way through horse corrugations up a steep slope is one not to be missed. If there were people shooting and letting off mustard gas it would be like western europe circa WWI ( luckily there aren't ). The rewards outweigh the hardships even when the going is tough it is still great to know that you are walking traditional cattle and trade routes of the Andes. The pool by the waterfall pictured was deep enough to swim in, it just wasn't quite hot enough to jump in when we went past - some of that water is snow melt!