This Adventure Called Life: Lago Verde to Palena along the Ruta Patrimonial and on to Futaleufu

Leaving Lago Verde

We soon learned there was a trail called the 'Ruta Patrimonial' between the two towns. We headed out of Lago Verde and followed our gaucho directions to the end of the road, running into a couple other farmers along the way, who generously shared a bit of their time with us, as well as some more information on the route.

Trail Marker

Another Trail Marker

We soon discovered the road turned into a faint two-track and then turned into a horse trail and sometimes disappeared all together, but we found our way without much difficulty. At this point, we were able to realize more quickly if we had taken a wrong turn, and I always had one eye on my compass. There was a bonus to this trail- we found wooden placards every once in a while with a number order to them, so we were able to count down the placards towards Palena. The country had at one point put some money into this trail, though it seemed as though the funding had run out recently because it was overgrown in some spots. A trail is a trail, and we were grateful. We wound up and then down a valley, crossed a few streams, and were into the next valley before our second night.

Beautiful water source

Morning stream crossing-BRRRR

As we followed the trail along the next morning, we noticed there was quite a bit of smoke in the valley, and it smelled strongly of wood smoke. We kept an eye out for flames, but didn't see any. The smoke persisted throughout the day into the night, and we camped in a smokey valley. I woke up with a sore throat. We lost the trail that day, though every once in a while we would come upon a numbered marker, so we knew we were going the correct direction. As we neared Palena, we ran into a man on horseback (per usual), and he told us about the fire burning outside of town. As usual, life was going on without much concern for the wall of smoke and ash, though with this fire, there was a helicopter dropping water from a nearby river on it. It was an amazing sight- since in the U.S., they would never let a lay person that close to a wild fire, and to be walking towards it for days without any concern was eye-opening. We camped in an abandoned field outside of Palena that night, watching the fire burn on the hillside downwind from us, glowing eerily in the distance as the sun set.

Fidgit and I walked into Palena the next morning and were able to do another in-and-out-of-a-town in one day! We also were able to eat a (metric) ton of empanadas, and they were delicious. As we road walked out of Palena, everyone seemed quite nice and were able to direct us along the way.

Smoke along the Ruta- campfire smell permeates all

We decided to road walk to Futaleufu because our other options were not ideal. The decision was a tough one, as we have both come to the conclusion that road walking is horrible, and we wouldn't do it if other, more viable options existed. We made the most of our trek along the dirt road, taking photos, snacking, chatting, sing alongs, pretending to be chased by cattle, and of course, laughing at ourselves. We even took advantage of a well-deserved opportunity to swim on a particularly hot day. In a couple of days, some of which seemed unending, we were all of a sudden in 'Futa', as the locals call it.