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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 text links elsewhere on the page Route to virgin rainforest Food supplies at the north end of the lake Along Lago Vidal Gormaz Camping at the south end of Lago Vidal Gormaz Torrentoso turning
part o Section 4: Click on the "i"s above for information and photos of the route. part q

p. The turning at Torrenstoso

The house at Torrentoso

Torrentoso is the second main place to get lost coming from El Leon. The path runs through a meadow crossed with small brooks and passes a beautiful, new log house set in a meadow with a CB radio antennae out the front. The house is Torrentoso, if it's getting on in the day the couple here are the campsite marked on the map. They didn't have any food for sale when we passed but implied that this was 'for the moment' it is probably worth asking if you need more supplies. Shortly afterwards it crosses a bridge marked as unsuitable for cattle, then the path splits. The route to Lago Vidal is the less travelled route to the right, once followed for 500m or so it widens out again and returns to trenches. From here on the route climbs to Lago Vidal, there are many potential camp spots on the way up but we found few streams, and even fewer that looked good to drink from. Our next water stop was much further up towards the lake.