Cambios

- Lake, Camp $ {10} [32.9/1292] : the place is nice, as mentioned there are lot of bins, the camping is also very nice and the showers still very cold. They charged me $5.000 for the night. It was written "with no (something I didn't manage to read)" on the bill so if they charge you $8.000 you can try to specify you don't have car, or I don't know... They removed the panel for the grocery just after I asked for it so it's now fixed, there is no grocery. The family selling cooked food wasn't selling food when I visited them around 11:00, maybe because it was monday morning, maybe because it was the end of summer, I don't know

- Close to GPT10-C Start there is a point of view on the whole valley, it's beautiful and you can see all the puestos

- Just after it there are many paths to go down, I haven't taken the one from the GPS but it's very easy to reach it then

- Around Puesto {10} [14.5/1297] an arriero told me there are 2 paths going down the valley, one on each side of the river, I've followed the GPT to try to reach Trapa Trapa before the night so I didn't go further about them but if someone try

- Around fords there are often a "bridge" made of one massive plank, the same arriero told me about some so they probably check each year they are usable. You just have to look for it, but it can not be the case at some points

- The number of puestos in this Valley is impressive, I only had good contacts with the people I met

In one day from Trapa Trapa to Laguna Liay, camping at the north side. There are many cow trails leading down to the laguna. The one we took seemed suitable for hikers too. Going back up the next day we got lost in the cow maze though, and only by searching for our own footprints from the previous day did we get back on the RR. It may be worth having a look at our GPS tracking data to figure out our initial path.

The next day continued to Guallalí. Beatiful plateau! Got to harvest our first piñones as well! However, we hurt the araucaria tree by breaking off a small but not insignificant branch when trying to get the green "pinecone" to break off, using the "strong rope" method described in the hiker's manual. Only later we learned you should go for the brownish, "café"-colored cones. Just hit these with your walking stick and the piñones will fall right off. You then collect them from the ground. The threatened araucaria will be much happier not being hurt :)

When in need of water at the plateau, there should be a path to Laguna Totora from S 37° 54.510', W 071° 18.580', according to an arriero who passed by. Maybe a future optional route?

The optional routes 10-E and 10-G have become MR instead of TL.

The lodging at the shop in Guallalí was not avaible, but the shop owner pointed us to an araucaria grove closeby (you can enter via a wooden gate next to the escuela). We camped there: S 38° 02.647', W 071° 16.441'. There were some villagers passing by, so it seems to be public land. There's a small stream to the east with quite clear water. Maybe it's possible to camp more upstream to the north, where there are bridges and where the stream has passed fewer houses.

After the descent, the rest is easy walking past many puestos.

In Trapa Trapa, we stayed at the house marked "lodging, food". They charge 20,000 per person for a room, dinner and breakfast. Very nice family, they might be away in their puesto sometimes though. There's also the option to take a bath in their inflatable swimming pool with shampoo, and they sell some honey. We were served cazuela and loads of sopaipillas for dinner. They were building a cabaña when we were there. Right next to them in a little red house behind a black gate there is a minishop, which according to them is the biggest in Trapa Trapa. They had pasta, rice, tuna, sodas, chocolate covered nuts, matches, toilet paper. They were open Saturday when we were there. Apart from that there are two other minishops, one in each direction, which we didn't check out.

The bus apparently leaves for Ralco at 6 and 18 every day including weekends.

After finishing GPT9 I went directly on to GPT10 and made camp at the camping ground by el barco lake (5000 pesos) you can ask them to charge your electronics by the house where you pay. They didn’t sell any food.

Like already mentioned by others, remember to bring a lot of water for the following section. The plateau you climb up on after El Barco lake was very dry. Next water source with good clean water was at Laguna Liay. I was getting desperate for water, so I took variant D directly down to the laguna. The trail was very overgrown and requires some bush bashing. Frustrating amounts of mosquitos and horseflies in this part of the section, might be worth bringing some mosquito spray!

Next section towards trapa trapa was nice and easy with perfect weather and plenty of water.

Found two mini-shops in Trapa Trapa with only limited supplies. A bus to Ralco, leaves weekdays 6:00 in the morning. Therefore I spent the night in a room that a local Mapuche family were renting out. Was served a very big plate of grilled sheep meat and really enjoyed talking with the family. Later in the evening the father returned home very drunk. He was nice and talkative but I was getting at bit of a bad vibe from him, so thanked them for the food and went off to bed. Later at night I was awaken by someone vigorously trying to open the door which I thankfully locked. Rest of the family woke up and I heard a mans voice shouting something about “extranjero” and soon after the abuela kicked this guy out of the house.

==Season 2020/21==