Cambios

Coming from Cochamo, where we had to organize getting a new neck gasket, we once again set off towards Lago Azul. The bus for the Lago Tagua Tagua arrived in Cochamo at 10:20am and left at 10:30am (around here, -41.49304, -72.30553). It came five minutes after the bus that goes from Puerto Montt to the trailhead. We left Rio Puelo at 12:00 after ten minute break and when we got to but missed the docked ferry (didn't look @ time), before we could get out of the bus and pay the driver, the ferry that was docked left and we by a minute or two. Only had to wait about half an hour ~30min for the next oneand the busses on the other side were still there. Lots of people, so Entel did not work. On the other side, the two buses were waiting. The bus did its regular stop at Llande Grande (~10min - they have a very good non industrial salami there) and then we got off where the road to Lago Azul goes. We had to remind the driver to stop for us around 15:30. We managed to get a hitch quickly, but it was short lived. There is a man watching a gate (7mil for the car owner, nothing for us) and the car was only allowed to go ~1km further to a parking here -41.90928, -71.88832 spot (maybe because it wasn't 4-wheel drive, anand/ or they only allow certain [local?] people to go all the way to the beach, not sure). The road to the lake has very recently been "upgraded" and is quite ugly. 02B and 02C are probably roads too, based on satellite and a little foot survey where 02B joins 02A. At the beach there were a stand selling empanadas, a toilet, about 20 people and 4 cars parked. We started paddling around 18:00. First going west for ~600m to check out an alternative trail Tomáš was interested in that is on OSM leading to here: -41.92170, -71.87635. The trail exists, but might be somewhat unused, as there seems to be a new road for cars built above it too. Anyway, it looks like a more attractive and shorter approach to Azul, somebody needs to investigate it (we only noticed the trail half way on 02A). The start of the lake outlet (20 m) is magical with its blue-green water, a nice detour. The waves got stronger near the middle of the lake but then eased quickly. Near the end of the lake we had almost calm water. We camped at a spot we noted last year when hiking: -41.98306, -71.84801. It has a small flowing creek but is near a cottage. Both years of being here we have not seen anyone in it, you can camp in the trees and be mostly hidden. People vacation in tents 200m along the lake shore. Lago Azul is very pretty.

The next day was straightforward. Lago Los Rocas was "reflection-like" calm, despite starting around 11:00. We were worried about the boat and the Chilean Carabineros (read Jan's description in the manual) so we put the boat and equipment into the duffel bag and placed it all outside the Carabineros building, entering without our luggage. Everything went well because the men were nice (same ones from last year). However, we were almost busted when they asked us specifically if we were going to Argentina on foot or by boat. At first we said boat, but then they asked who was taking us, and when we struggled to come up with an explanation, they seemed to take our silence as a language misunderstanding and asked us again, so to make things easier, we said we were walking. We then slipped down using Variant U. If you are uncomfortable about this, it might be worth just putting your boat in your bag and walking the 3km to the next beach along RH. Variant S does not exist. Lago Inferior was once again sadly not windy, we started around 16:00. We were hoping to have a bit more horsepower from the waves and wind. They got stronger near the end but only at the very end, and it wasn't that strong. . Tomáš and I had a small misunderstanding about our end goal at the lake. Tomáš wanted to walk up the river to scout the rapids and possibly run them back , I, being completely unaware of the obvious, agreed. I thought we most likely wouldn't run them and just walk on the other OSM trail. What I didn't know was that the river flowed against us, despite looking at satellite images and saying, "why does it look like the rapids are going in the wrong direction?" And of noticing it's called"lake inferior". Like I said, unaware of the obvious. When I realized the river went against us I instantly hated the idea, but we were already past the normal take out point, so in the end we went for it. The first longish set of rapids (class II, around here: -42.10240, -71.73502) is north (river right), so you cannot just connect to the OSM trail next to the river. We crossed to southern shore of the river. If you want to follow us, aim for it directly. Then it was and had a slow 400m walk and 100m paddle up to here a point we could safely ferry back to the northern (right right) side, -42.10413, -71.73233, before we could safely ferry to northern shore (to which we kept from then on). It was slow because of the algae/didymo being very slippery and rocks in the river bed having gaps in between them. You will appreciate how easy entrapment could be here if you were in water was deeper and faster water. A pole in one hand will greatly improve your stability and also a leash for the boat helps a lot (in your hand, not clipped on!), so you can walk the boat as a dog). We paddled up to the second short rocky rapid(class II+?) rapid (, -42.10487, -71.72934), which . Walking along it's side was more involved as we had to lift the boat over some rocks and it was a bit sketchy trusting our dollar store locking carabiners on our leash. The last rapid (class III) rapid (, -42.10487, -71.72934) was much easier to walk upalong, once again on our left/north/river-right. We filled up on water after the last rapid and paddled towards the lake. Surprisingly there was not much wind and the waves only started to be not small just before the Argentinian border patrol, so it was a bit slower than expected. Were it not for the border and a bit sooner, we could have gone to the lake end. All in all this option was probably a little slower than just packing your boat and walking straight to the border control and about as fast as deflating your boat, walking the 2km portage and reinflating your boat. It might be worthwhile the effort if you have a boat with cargo or just really don't feel like walking. If you are careful, it is not dangerous (slips permitting). When water levels are high, it might be a different story. It took us 75 minutes. Going down the river in case you go NOBO should be much easier: capsizing in the first (going from Lago Puelo) rapid did not look safe due to undercuts, so better walk it down on the right, but the rest can probably be run (after scouting!) or easily walked down.

The camping at the border was once again packed , and this time all toilets were locked or non-functional, pretty gross considering the amount of people. There is a stream on the west side. The evening was quiet but fierce wind picked up around 3am, the wind was better in the morning but still not great. The check-in with Argentina (open from 8 till 20) was very easy and we got our passports stamped. I had a bit of "boat fever" and wanted to walk out, plus I wanted to be conservative with the waves at this lake. Tomáš felt it would be totally manageable so he sailed on down to Lago pueblo and I hiked out to La Pasarela because I hadn't gone there last year and I was curious. It was an okay hike with a little bit of water along the way. It turned into a MR for a little bit but then went back into a non-native Douglas Fir forest and through a few settlers pastures. It was up and down basically the whole way and very warm. La Pasarela is extremely popular. There is a restaurant and a smoothie joint and many other food stands. Sadly Somehow I didn't get a hitch. There is a bus stop when you hit the main road around here; -42.05087, -71.59679. I wasn't sure if it was the main road to El Bolson so I just walked went into town and caught the bus out front the hospital here; -42.05924, -71.59776 @ 14:15. It was 1.700mil and paid only in cash. The earlier bus stop would have been fine, the other main road goes to Esquel. Plum season is almost here, red ones are tart but edible, yellow ones need at least 2-4more weeks.

Despite never wanting to do the whole "yo-yo" (Natalie speaking) we did the yo-yo. Starting in Ventisquero and going until the bridge before the Rio Puelo town (didn't do the fjord). We then hitchhiked to Cochamo to deal with a ripped neck seal and planned to return to Laguna Azul to cross into El Bolsón. Last year we were inspired by Tobi and Fangwen's (T&F) trip into the Ventisquero valley and tried but didn't finish due to time and weather. On the flip side, that meant we were able to return this year with a packraft, which made the return trip much more interesting. It is a stunning valley and a beautiful river to be in a packraft (a must for packrafters, Tomáš thinks). There were virtually no tabanos which was a biggie after the mid-January infestation of 20 and 21! Tomáš did the upper Ventisquero river after the view-hike in Rincon Bonito and I chose to go higher on the mountain of the view-hikeas T&F considered, earning myself a very incredible 360-view of the glaciated mountains around (both not in GPT yet). The Ventisquero river was easy, class II at most, we hit our knees on occasion. The Upper Puelo before the hike was very easy with a faster flow, just a bit of wood (nothing that couldn't be avoided), probably class l. We skipped the first rapids of the Gorge (6.2), they are surprisingly powerful and should not be paddled by anyone unskilled or without a team. The hike was actually nice, not that overgrown and pretty easy to follow. Tomáš went back into the river a little earlier and skipped the last 6km of hiking, while I met him after the hiking section, he . He had to walk one more rapid and ride two. The rest of the Puelo until the lake was once again easy. Upon approaching Lago Tagua the headwind was strong and paddling was slow. We planned to paddle to the parque Tagua (Option 11) but the waves and wind were very strong so we camped and crossed the lake the next morning, skipping the hike. Lake was easy and fast in the morning but the lower Puelo was slow for the first 5km before the rapids. We skipped the first rapid there and went down river right, putting in a bit earlier than Jan suggests, crossing a few small rapids and hitting our knees once. The rest of the lower Puelo was a bit slow but overall the whole thing was very beautiful.

We again took the bus at 8:38 near Hostel Apel in Puerto Varas to Cochamo, we were told the bus that goes to the ferry (Laguna Tagua Tagua) was 10min behind the Cochamo-only bus. The ferry bus supposedly leaves here: 41.3160641S, 72.9853782W at 8:15 and then probably goes around town, taking a long time. The plan was to get off the first bus, look for Tomáš's inReach he had lost and then catch the second bus. Unfortunately, while we were looking for the imReachinReach, the Laguna bus passed and we were unable to stop it, it was the only bus of the day. On the bright side, with more time to spare, Tomáš managed to wake up the land owner of Camp {21} [79.3/7], and it turned out they had found the inReach the day before and gave it back to us, yay! Soon after all of this (~10:15) we were able to catch another bus to Cochamo, so there must be a few that go in a day (later we learnt they go at 8,9,10,11,12 and 16:00 from Puerto Montt). In Cochamo, we waited until a bit after 12:00 for a bus to Rio Puelo, which made a stop at the trailhead for hiking the RR. We reached Rio Puelo at about 13:45, and that is where the original bus going to and from Laguna Tagua made its appearance on its way back to Puerto Varas/Montt. Since both of us were underslept due to Tomáš having spent the night vomitting (and having had little luck with hitchhiking on that road last year), we found a very nice two-room cabaña for 50.000 here: -41.66243, -72.29821, WhatsApp +56 9 4243 2328. (Entel internet in town functional.)

The bus from Rio Puelo is said to be at 11:30 but arrived around didn't arrive until 12:15. If one is stopping in Puelo for re-supply, there is a small vegan bakery with good sourdough loafs (-41.6599144, -72.2974946; not open Mondays). Also Supermercado El Maiten sold gas canister's for 7mil. By one o'clock and 1.5mil per person shorter, we were at the ferry. There you get out of the bus and catch a new one waiting at the other side (there are two on the other side, be sure to take the correct one). It takes over half an hour and costs 1.3mil (slow but functioning 3G Entel most of the lake ferry, but not at the end, telecom tower at the northern terminal). The ferries are three and at least two of them go 7 times a day each way (December- March), so you are likely to wait less than an hour. The buses on each side of the ferry are coordinated but when the bus misses a ferry narrowwly, it can add to delay, be prepared to wait some time if you are waiting to go SOBO (for example at the end of GPT22 RH). The bus to primer coral costs 1.5mil. It still stops for some time in Llamada Grande (15 min? 10- but the driver was making a big purchase15min) at Llanada Grande, where the shop is still good and the Entel internet mostly not functioning (receiving e-mails and text messages at most). We got to Primer Corral at 16:00.

Our plan was to stash extra food near Ford 37.5 (not fordable, maybe in February or better March). It seems it is regularly used for camping. We read T&F got their food stolen so we made sure to hide/bury our duffel bag of food very well. Unfortunately, after I hid it and carried on to the first ford, Tomáš met a pig. The pig tried to invade his backpack despite Tomáš only standing a meter away. He realized quickly our food stash had no hope against this invader. Since he did not know whereIt where I hid it, he started to pursue me, which only came to fruition at the river "Correntos", which has a fitting name. Therefore our first day was extremely short. Tomáš took both our backpacks across the ford (had to cross up river near the top of the islands where it divides into three: -42.01786, -71.93876 ) and made camp (lots of spots near the OSM path). The river was above his knees (173cm), but the length of the crossing, doing it three times and coldness made it somewhat challenging. I went back to make the duffel pig-proof, taking the OSM route that follows the river in my way (-42.00228, -71.93336). It was a lot nicer than the road, recommended.

Since we were both still struggling to get over our stomach bugs, we had a late morning and a very easy day. The simple 16km walk to Ricon Bonito felt a lot harder than it should have. As T&F described this section before, it is partially a MR, with a short detour, turning into a trail midway. From our river camp, the GPT track files follow an old trail used probably mostly by cows now, until a settler: -42.02520, -71.94877. At the settler, who was not at home, we had to zig zag through gates and over one fence until reaching the MR: -42.02707, -71.94872 (it makes a detour probably to cross Rio Correntoso over a bridge). The way to Rincon Bonito is signed with little red arrows. Our first water was located here: -42.01995, -71.98929, shortly after the MR ends and trail begins. The last few kilometres of the MR were recently "upgraded", so it is quite ugly, and they may be expand it more, but who knows. On the trail, there were two more simple fords. The first ford was a calm creek: -42.01840, -72.04246. There looked to be good camping just before it, would have been a nice place to aim for the first night. The second ford [15.8/164] has a cable car, where the GPT files indicate a bridge. Tomáš went to verify this after we forded and saw other tents camping there as well. Not sure if it was organized or not, probably yes. A little further ahead there is a settler with their own cell tower. Tomáš (who is from Europe) got full bars but my Canadian phone got nothing. There is still water just before the turn off to the viewpoint trail as T&F have noted. We went into Ricon Bonito to see what they would charge us for camping. We were surprised to meet a group of American packrafters who had flewn flown in that day to paddle down to the fjord. There were 5 of them sharing the 200mil cabin, so not terribly expensive, but the plane from Puerto Montt was 600mil. Kind of nice to know we had a group of river guides near. In the end we were not allowed to camp at this glamping site, it is for reservations only. The men that worked there recommend us to camp at the Bernardita Alegría's (referred to as "abuela" in earlier seasons) place 2km up the valley but they said it was 25mil a night per person, which sounded far too expensive for camping (maybe it included half board?) so we found a place in the forest not far from Ricon Bonito and once again had an early night. It seems that while the valley is privately owned (by several landowners? - settlers still live up there), there are no right of ways issues at allissue, yet...

The trail to the view point is steep but easy (~930m in 4km). The men working at Ricon Bonito had cleared the brush the day before, so Tomáš finally almost didn't need his machete. There was a little bit of water on the way up ( -42.03631, -72.09700), but probably best to fill at the bottom. You do not have to go all the way up for a view, there is also a view point after 450m of elevation gain. At the top we decided to split and go on two different adventures. Tomáš wanted to explore the upper Ventisquero river with the boat and I wanted to explore the upper Ventisquero mountain (aka go to the highpoint above the view point like T&F considered). Luckily we both had successes and you can read Tomáš's description below. As for extending the trail to a highpoint at 1600m I HIGHLY recommend it if weather is nice. By using satellite imagery and a little intuition, the bushbashing was not bad at all. The bush is that dwarf alpine Lenga that is usually very stiff to walk through, but luckily it was not so dwarf. It was taller than me which made it possible to slither through the understory without much fight. There is roughly 500m of BB, the rest is CC. At the beginning I zig zagged between hidden open spots and then eventually made my way to a ridge-like feature that had many breaks from the bush, and some interesting views. You have to play with this ridge a bit because it is not continuous. Ridge around here -42.05122, -72.09511. Eventually you break free from the bush and enter a dry basin just below the highpoint. It is an easy walk from there and if there is snow you might come across a few small meltwater streams as I did. The views were amazing, it felt A LOT like home but obviously more special. If we did not have a plan to start paddling that day I would have explored the ridge. It easily goes to 1700m and then from there it looks you could connect to the main mountain, it will be a fun trip for one lucky person. As for meeting Tomáš, we planned to meet where the track files hit the river. However I was unable to get to that spot as there were blackberries and cliffs, so I ended up taking the main trail to the river in Ricon Bonito: no one said anything. But when you take this trail down you will hit the bottom and eventually walk along two small boardwalks, just after these boardwalks, the main trail goes left, but dont go left, a better way in is to the right after the boardwalks. It is a sneaky path but it is there and leads you to a nice small beach. Luckily I was ahead of Tomáš and warned him of this new point; -42.02492, -72.09604. We had a nice evening paddle of only a few kilometers, filled up on water at the cable car ford and then made camp in a sheltered bay. Unfortunately the day ended with a torn neck gasket: I ripped my neck gasket all the way to the bottom when taking off my drysuit. I was terribly sad and in disbelief. I had been trying hard to treat it well, not pulling it, covering my face with a balaclavawhen putting it on, covering it with a balaclava from sun, treating it once a month with 303 and so on. Luckily Tomáš had one bar of internet ať the camp site so I managed to find a store in Pucón that could ship a spare neck gasket to Cochamo (do not do that, ship things to Puerto Varras instead).

We spent the morning organizing the online neck gasket purchase with one bar of internet and then set off quite late. The Ventisquero river is indeed gorgeous and although it is rated II+, the rapids are small and easily portaged if need be (Tomáš thinks II+ is for the rapid section he did alone - or possibly for spring months with more water). We scouted a few rapids but overall there were no surprises, and obstacles were easily passed. There was very little wood, and the wood that was there was big and obvious with lots of room to go around. I saw only one rapid with possibly dangerous strainers (around here -42.02042, -72.06173 if we postidentified it well). There are two possibly low class II rapids here: -42.01429, -71.99931 and here: -42.01853, -71.99523. The first one is straightforward, the second one has a good line on the left of the main current. We picked the left side of the river there, hitting our knees a bit - better walk it if you do not take the main current. I personally agree with Jan's description that the river is shallow, we hit our knees a few times (canoe seat). (Tomáš thinks it is "Moderate with occasional ground contact" at most - and this more in the upper part than the part we did with Natalie, that is as long as you pick the correct main line to run rapids, anyway it has a lot more water than Rio Huenuhuenu). There was one more water source for drinking further down the river on river right (-42.01882, -71.98949) and then Rio Correntoso if you trust that (we did going up without issues). I wish I filled up more because it was the last water until Bridge {22N} [7.4/137]. We got to our food stash near Ford 37.5 in ~3hrs. After lunch we headed towards the gorge entrance/hiking section (Rapids Start 6.2). This part of Rio Puelo seemed easier but flowing faster and with more water, no more shallows. There was more wood than the Ventisquero but once again easily avoided. However, there were a couple of underwater logs we almost hit. Tomáš thinks the river is at most I+, when Jan mentions "up to class III" in the manual, that either applies to November or is wrong in his opinion, you can avoid all of the small rapids if you want and keep it strictly at class I. We were totally surprised when we hit the gorge because we were fighting a headwind and thought we were moving slow. Turns out we were still moving fast (~13km in 1.5hrs) and therefore missed the first exit by a hundred metres (the gorge is more than half a kilometre after the exit). We had to walk back up the river and ferry across it to get to the start of the hiking section. It was 17:30 so we just camped there and boiled river water. There is a telecom tower above Puerto Urrutia but we did not test it. Lots of didymo algae.

The bypass trail turned out to be a nice if slow (up and down) trail. It is only very little overgrown with some beautiful views of the gorge and powerful rapids within. There was drinking water throughout. We started late and stopped somewhat early. The first ~2km to Settler 7.7 (Christian) was very easy and clear but Bridge 7.4 is not there anymore, there is a new log bridge just up the creek bed (go left after the gate). Two men on very stunning horses were there but we didn't talk for long. The overgrown bit technically starts after this settler but it was ~80% easy to see and follow. The meadow sections are the only places I would often easy to loose it and it was only badly overgrown at the first beach after Settler's 7.7 gate (locked). There, the GPX wants you to walk on the river shore, which is probably a lot easier than the overgrown trail, as long as you find the entrance back to the trail again: -41.87870, -71.96787. Later, it would have been very overgrown after the last hill climb before Settler 15.3 but it had been recently cleared. I was very lucky as it seemed to have been cleared that morning or day before. There were fresh cuts, prints and horse poo. I often found the GPX was off by ~20m, which can be annoying in the forest at times. At the third beach (~6km before end), Tomáš and I split. He wanted to paddle the last bit as he believed it could be a good alternative river in, the rapids looked easily portaged. I was less inclined, so I walked and he took most of the weight and we met back at the normal put in. See Tomáš's notes below. Camping at the end of the hike, beach under Settler "Castanos", is very nice. There are lots of camping spots on the beach or grass meadow above and some tables as well. Near his boat, there is a tarp set up, if you want shelter from the rain. You can fill up on water at the top near Castanos or ferry across the river to a creek.