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.

Another COLD river crossing

Found the source of the smoke

EMPANADAS. and Fanta.

Road Walking

Cattle Herder and his herd

Rio Futaleufu, from our campsite

Rio Futaleufu and I

La Tapera to Lago Verde

Fall is creeping up on us!

We resupplied in Villa La Tapera quickly, as we didn't need much to make it to Lago Verde, and we then hung out in the Plaza de Armas, checking our email and catching up with cohorts back home. Chile seems to be taking an initiative to equip these tiny little border towns with public WiFi, and we're not complaining.

Lovely campsite for the night with a lovely view

Fidgit and I left town in the late afternoon, hoping to get a few more kilometers in for the day. We had been noticing the sunlight no longer stretched late into the evening, and we wanted to be able to find a nice spot to camp before the natural light went out on us. We crossed Rio Cisnes and stopped by to get some more directions from the estancia across the River. The husband and wife were both quite kind, though distracted as apparently their whole family was coming in for a week, and they were preparing. We stayed for a short bit, and they - of course - shared what they were preparing with us, as well as information about the way to Lago Verde. We parted ways and walked down the quiet two track into the rolling hills yet again.

Gotta love the signage here, when it exists

Coming down into Lago Verde's valley

We were following a little-used road to Lago Verde, which usually made for easy route finding, though there were a few kerfuffles where equally-as-used roads would veer off in a direction we were unsure of. When I say little-used, I mean by vehicles- we saw a few men on horseback followed by their pack of dogs that every gaucho seems to have. By this point in our travels, we had learned to always double check if unsure, or it could mean hours of back-tracking (yes, we learned this the hard way). The route is a beautiful walk through some pristine woodland with multiple water sources along the way, because you basically follow one stream up the valley then cross down into another valley, walk along a river and up another valley, then follow that down into Lago Verde. This last valley  near Lago Verde was quite smokey, and we discovered a forest fire was burning, mostly in Argentina just east of the town. No one seemed concerned; a couple people we talked to just said nonchalantly that we probably wouldn't be able to go over to Argentina (which we weren't planning to do). I found this interesting, because I was worried that the town would be evacuated,  and we wouldn't be able to resupply. Nope. Apparently it's just the U.S.  that reacts to uncontrolled forest fires that way. We walked right into town, and the only reason people were surprised was because of the way we had come in- on foot.

Fidgit taking some time to play her uke at camp

Lago Verde was an unexpected multi-day stop, but mostly because the town was so tiny we had trouble getting our town chores done in a timely manner. We are slowly adapting to this South American way of slowing down, though it is sometimes frustrating to not get direct answers. We did glean enough information to be able to follow a trail to Palena, which was very exciting news.

Forest Fire smoke as we near Lago Verde

Made it to town!

Coyhaique and on to Villa La Tapera

La familia en Coyhaique

Coyhaique may have been a respite for us, but we were not fully resting- I've found there has to be a balance of resting with socializing. Thankfully the non-resting was also enjoyable and we got to meet and talk to multiple people who were helpful and insightful. We stayed at (you guessed it) a friend of a friend's house, and she couldn't have been a more gracious and wonderful hostess. Sandra not only shared her home, she also shared her beautiful art pieces and life's story with us, helping us learn more about the Sin Represas movement and how many people in the area are trying (with some success) to keep Patagonia's river ways flowing free and wild.

Sin Represas HQ

We integrated into the family quickly, enjoying Cassandra's cooking and Francisco's stories from work, talking about life in general. We stayed longer than planned, but in the end had to keep moving after a whopping 6 days off. We didn't say goodbye because Sandra doesn't like them, though received a heartfelt note from her instead. As we wandered out of town, I was sad to be leaving the lovely family we had come to know but happy to be moving again.

Looking back on Coyhaique

Reserva Nacional Coyhaique

Giant trees in the Reserva

We got to stretch our legs for a bit walking across town, and then pushed uphill in the direction of Reserva Nacional Coyhaique. The reserve is right outside of town, and the young woman at the entrance station was concerned with our questions about how to get out of the reserve on the other side. We talked with her for a bit and then, convincing her that we would do the loop she strongly suggested, walked a few kilometers into the park and found a lovely little area to camp alongside a small pond. We looked at some maps that evening and discussed our options. The next morning, we headed further up the trail, bushwhacked a bit across to the reserve's edge, and promptly continued north along an old dirt track that we found. It is a struggle for the people in the parks to understand what we are doing, and they always want us to go on a loop hike, so sometimes we have to deceive to be able to continue walking not on roads. It's unfortunate, though with the lack of a trail/accountability system in Chile it hasn't been too much of an issue yet. As we continue north, we came upon a police estancia, and they came out-surprised to see us coming in from their back fields. We asked them if we can go to the road, and they allowed us to pass through.

Walking along two-track

We took a break at the road to discuss our options to move on, not wanting to push our luck much further. We decided to stick to the road for a bit and then turned off onto a two track dirt road that immediately went down across a stream and back up a steep grade for a couple miles. We went up and up, then the road plateaued and we wandered across open fields to where the road ended at someone's home. After talking with the home owner, he offered us a track to a town directly east of us, not in the direction we wanted to go. We decided to back track a bit though, to another two track ending and then hop across a couple of fields to another two track which eventually led us in the direction we wanted- north! Thank goodness for GPS and some decent maps for this section. After scaring some cows, a good night's sleep, and being admonished by another local as we made our way down his driveway, we made it to another paved road. It had been a tough stretch people-wise, so we were hesitant to follow a route we had found, but decided to go for it, and were not disappointed.

Moises and Fidgit in the morning

We wandered down the driveway of yet another estancia and were greeted by a kind man who offered us a place to sleep as well as some directions the next morning. A lovely way to start a chilly morning is trying to keep up with a former track and field stand-out while carrying a pack, whew! But we made it, and Moises was very helpful in us getting over the pass without many wrong turns.

We walked into Manihuales the next day, ready for some empanadas and cleaner clothes. We found Moises' wife who runs a hospedaje, and she helped us navigate the small town, and invited us over for onces that evening. We left late the next morning filled with food for our horribly long road walk to Villa La Tapera. We usually try to avoid road walks as they have a tendency to make us grumpy, though had to road walk this stretch because it was either that, or illegally cross out of and then back into Chile. We opted to keep it legal. As we wandered along Ruta 7 for multiple days getting passed by multiple vehicles, I day dreamed about what not being on a busy road was like. As per usual in life, the hours passed slowly but soon our road walk was over and we had made it along Rio Cisnes to the lovely and small town of La Tapera.

Looking out at the Andes

Hello? Are we done with this road walk yet?

KM 100 on Ruta 7

Almost to the dirt road to Villa La Tapera

Me and my giant Avocado, we named him Paul.

Road walks can be pretty- Rio Cisnes