Cambios

I wanted to do the RR, figuring I would probably be able to do it in roughly 24 hours. Jan said we have 48 hours and I did not read Anh's report until midway, so I thought it would be fine. It was a very cold and superwindy morning walking up into snowy mountains, very pretty. There is a trail shortcut in the first zigzag of the MR. No further shortcuts found, one trail that looked promising turned into BB mid-way. After an hour, I turned off from the road. There used to be a bridge over Rio Obstaculo, but now it is an easy if freezing ford. The trail is initially marked with metal plates, but that soon stops. It feels like it used to be official but has since beem abandoned? However, the trail is mostly easy to follow. Once above the treeline, the wind was vicious. The valley was also quite marshy (after the rain?), I could not keep my shoes dry. Valley si is faster hoing going than the coastal traverse.

I started going down at 7:30 the next day (being a night owl, that is quite early for me). The first three km, I kept losing the trail, but it then improved. It is actually marked exactly like Huella Andina! I arrived at border control around eleven. Nobody seemed to be looking for me. The carabiniero noticed I had a date in my passport from two days ago. I tried explaining that it was a mistake of the Chilian side (I think - the date was wrong by one day), but I was almost ordered to walk back for a new stamp. In the end I softened him, showing him a picture from the port from the previous day. It was tense ten minutes. Seems to me the chceking checking of people who crossed happens at least after noon? The regular route is perfectly doable by most people in 36 hours I think, so you might be fine as long as you arrive (at most in late afternoon) with no more than yesterday's stamp. It needs more datapoints I think. I would have preferred to be slower though.