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==Description of the route==
The first half of or so f the route consists of hiking up the trail to Refugio El Bolsón, which is a popular stand-alone trek in its own right http://www.wikiexplora.com/index.php/Refugio_El_Bols%C3%B3n_(english). The Laguna de las Ánimas trek is the "complete" trek for the national park, crossing from one end of it to the other. In fact, the lake itself is situated just outside the park boundary.
The starting point of this trail is the CONAF rangers' office at Parque Inglés (km 0 of the trek - 1100m above sea level). Start the walk by passing around the back of the CONAF base through a turnstile following the signs to the trails. After you get out of the CONAF base, you need to turn right onto a dirt road which then bears around to the left. Within 150 m from the CONAF base area, you'll see a path, which exits the dirt road to the right, along with a route sign pointing towards Refugio El Bolsón, and that it's four hours' walk away. This is the trail you want to take. You have to keep following it until you get to Refugio El Bolsón, ignoring all of the secondary paths that you'll see branching off to the sides of the main route as you go along (most notably, Sendero Mala Cara and Sendero La Montañita). Try not to forget this! 🙂 By the way, "sendero" means "path" in Spanish.
On the way, you'll see signs saying "3 hours to go", "2 hours to go" and "1 hour to go" -- albeit not in English -- which will give you some idea of how close you are to your destination. Obviously, the time periods that appear on these signs are only rough estimates but they should be reasonably accurate for a person walking at a normal pace.
