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ediciones
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==Season 2025/26==
*''' 2025.28.12 / 1 days / Hiking / SOBO / Opt. 1 (Laguna Los Quetros) + RR to El Callao/ Kris and Stiina'''
(Continued from Section 20)
Day 5 - While we had the Movistar cell service in Las Gaviotas we wanted to at least make sure that Rudy is at his Refugio Dos Condores to help us with the boat the upcoming day.
When we tried to call him the call didn’t go through, we tried different phone nrs.
We didn’t guess it then but what Rudy told us later is that you should write him a WhatsApp message instead, because he has internet there but no cell service.
Don Rudy Yefi phone nr. +56 950 180 447 as mentioned earlier.
So, we googled boat services on Lago Todos Los Santos and we found this website with 3 different phone numbers for different ferries www.lago-todoslossantos.cl/informacion/
First we called the Elizabeth III, there was no answer, then we called the Catamarán (a fast express boat between Petrohué and Peulla) +56 942 623 484 and a man answered. We explained that we want to be picked-up from El Callao the next day to which he said yes no problem and that the boat will be there at 9:30 and that’s it, no further information was given. So oblivious to our faulty arrangements we continued on to section 21.
A lot of the following information we only learned the next day because we didn’t read the trail notes careful enough.
Even though we thought that we spoke with someone who operates the Catamarán boat, it later turned out we spoke to the captain of the Elizabeth III as he himself confirmed.
What we didn’t know at the time but learned later was that - in El Callao there isn’t actually any ferry port or a dock, just a sandy beach.
And the main cherry on top of the cake that we somehow missed was that to actually board the Elizabeth III you have to have your own independent boat arrangement for a boat that will actually take you to the ferry that just passes El Callao from a distance. This somehow very “obvious” information wasn’t even mentioned by the captain of the ferry. However I spoke to him about it once we were on the ferry that next time some extranjeros calling for a boat pick-up to please mention this little detail.
Long story short, we were simply lucky that Rudy himself and another settler from the valley had to go to the Puerto Varas the same morning that we had to go. Otherwise we would have waved to the ferry from the coast watching it go past without stopping, scratching our silly heads.
The 5min boat ride to the ferry cost 10k CLP pp, the 2h ferry with toilets and wifi to Petrohué cost 660 CLP pp, all makes sense.
So once we “”arranged”” a boat transfer from El Callao for 9:30 tomorrow we went on to join the Option 1 (Laguna Los Quetros).
On the way along the road 3 dogs started following us and those weren’t some street dogs they all had collars and they looked very groomed, at least when they started following us later they were completely dirty like dogs. No matter how we tried to stop them from following us they just continued all the way to Laguna Los Quetros which was a bit annoying. People that we saw along the way kept telling us that the dogs will return home, sure. We had this happen before in Armenia, hiking the TCT where we became known as foreigners that stole the dog.
Anyhow, when we go to the Quetros lake there was luckily an ariero who had a horse tour with some people whom he had brought to the lake for lunch. We asked for his help with the dogs and he tied them all to a tree until we left, to later make the dogs follow them back instead. Because when we tried to continue on from the lake the dogs kept following us again, instead of hanging out with the people who were actually giving them food. We didn’t give them anything except some swear words, however we did name them - Chikito, Negrito and Goldie.
We met Isabelle at Rudy’s termas, she works for Rudy and was there with 3 other foreigners preparing the hot tubs she was very nice and friendly. The termas were two bathtubs carved our of logs with a pipe of warm water filling them up. And it was all inside a shed, which is presumably locked when nobody is there. We just did small talk and kept walking.
Rudy is a lovley old gentleman, we explained to him that we had arranged a boat for tomorrow and that we will be heading to El Callao for the night to avoid the very early morning hike the next day to which he didn’t say anything, just nodded so we though all is good!
We also bought some pan amasado from him, a really delicious dense, homemade bread 400 CLP per piece a bargain!
The trail from Don Rudy’s place to El Callao was slightly undulating and took us about 1.5hr even though Rudy advised us it will take about 3h.
We camped not far from the harbor on a meadow we saw on the satellite that had a stream running by. When we were setting up our tent, we heard some people talking. Behind the stream and the bushes were a few houses and the people were at home so I went to ask if it’s ok that we camp there. We talked a bit and I explained about the GPT, the man was nice bus asked me not to disclose their location as they value their privacy.
Day 6 - Cows started blaring from around 5:00 in the morning in the neighboring meadows. The evening before the man said there is a bull that visits the meadow that we were on in the mornings. And sure enough the bull was there at 6:30, staring at us, what the heck are we doing in his field, so we had an earlier departure than anticipated.
While waiting for our ferry to “pick us up” on the beach in the El Callao we enjoyed some sunshine with some, Rudy’s pan amasado and a few protein bars which was all that we had left from food.
Unexpectedly Rudy arrived with two other man and that’s when we learned about how this whole thing works, luck definitely saved us from having an unexpected adventure that day.
We boarded Elizabeth III about a kilometer from the coast, which would have been a long swim otherwise. It was smooth sailing all the way to Petrohue with the most incredible views of Volcan Osorno, Volcan Puntiagudo and the Tronador on the other side of the lake.
There are toilets and wifi on board and we didn’t make any other stops which brought us to Petrohué in about 2hrs. When we got there the bus to Puerto Varas was already waiting - 3.5k CLP pp.
Next off to Section 22 NoBo, 21 (Tronador traverse) and to Bariloche to finish another GPT season!
For more stories, photos, videos on the trail and in case you want to ask us anything you can find us on IG: @smallfootprint_bigadventures
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2025-12-07 to 2025-12-11/ 4.5 days / Packrafting / SOBO+EABO / 21-01 + RR + 21-04A (Packraft El Callao to Rio Blanco) + 21-04 + 21-02 + 21-02B (Refugio Viejo) / Antoine B'''</span>