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*2024-Jan-4 / 7.5 days / Packrafting / SOBO / RH + OP-LK-2 + RP / Lauren & Sebastian
Note: We were told you need a reservation is needed for one of the a camp sites site at La Junta to be allowed into the valley from Cochamo side, so we did that. However, one of the wikiexplora entry mentioned that they were allowed in when mentioning that they wanted to camp at El Arco Refuge but we read it too late. Camp Trawen is the most expensive (15k per person), which is the reason why it’s been available on short notice. There are several other sold-out camps around for 8k-10k, but they were all sold out.
Day 1:We hitchhiked from Cochamo to Cochamo Base Camp at 9am and reached there at 9am in the morning.We hiked to Camp Trawen and finished early by 2pm. It would have been better to go on the El Arco Refuge straight away and camp there. It’s a super touristy stretch and in our view not really worth doing, if you like the general quiet nature of the GPT.
Day 2:The next day we camped Camped at the beach at Lago Vidal. Easy hike but long day with lots of ups and downs.
Day 3:We packrafted Lago Vidal and had a good lunch at Luisa’s place (make sure to drop by!), before continuing on to Torrentoso (not the paid camp, but on the meadow a few hundred meters after the official camp). It started raining that afternoon and continued to rain on day 4.
Day 4:The bridge at wp Bridge {22N} [51.8/146] (Rio Steffen) does not exist anymore. It’s not a very demanding ford though. There but there are short steep ups and downs on both sides. We stayed near wp Settler {22N} [50.1/307].
Day 5:We hiked down to Rio Manso and rivered in right at wp Rio Manso. Great spot to go in the water. The ride was super scenic and beautiful and there were no rapids, just a bit of boiling water but nothing difficult, which might be due to different water levels compared to previous accounts. It’s 45 minutes from there to the bridge at wp Bridge {22N} [40.8+0.2/36]. We rivered out behind the bridge on the right side. There is a nice flat open space. When going up towards the road, there is a path beach which leads by to the cabin of Harv and VictoriaVeronica. We were lucky to catch them, as they said they are not there very often, but they offered to They let us stay camp on their land and even offered a hot (wood fired) shower for 2.5k per person, which we were happy to accept. There is also craft beer in the a cervezeria and shop across the road. We resupplied at the shopfor resupply.
Day 6:We took the bus at 1 pm to intersection at wp X {22-01} [25.0/187] and went on OP-MR-V (along Hunter’s estate) to Lago Azul. You will be charged 5k per person to pass the stretch to access the lake. We crossed Lago Azul with much backwind strong waves and tailwind so we sailed to the other side in no time. Considerable waves though…
Day 7:Crossed Lago de Las Rocas, Lago Inferior, and Lago Puelo to the Argentinian border controlwhich opens at 8am next morning so we camped there. Good sailing all the way with our two person canoe. Day 8:Checked into Argentina in the morning and Next day we finished in at Lago Puelo in the morning and spent the day by the which is a popular tourist beach :) .
Tip: It is a hot & dusty walk to town from the beach and hitchhiking is not as easy in this part of Argentina as in Chile. Keep some small change of USD or Argentinian pesos for the bus ride to resupply in town. If you plan to continue packrafting Lago Puelo on GPT23 after resupplying, the earliest bus back to the beach reaches around 7.30am but it will be too late as the wind picks up by 8am. Lago Puelo is known for its strong gusts so it’s best to check wind forecast and paddle early morning 5.30am to cross. Therefore it may be easier to camp at one of the campsites nearer to the beach instead of staying in town. Just go there for resupplying.