Cochamó: Home of the BIG WALL

28-Feb: 12 km, 3:15 hour backpack in to Campamento La Junta.
a.k.a. ¿Dondé está el queso?

To get to Cochamó, one must first get to Puerto Varas, take a bus to the town of Cochamó, and a taxi (or walk) the 15 km from the town to the trailhead.  The trail is insanely muddy.  From the high volume of horseback traffic into the Cochamó river valley, there are deep ruts in the trail that become rivulets after any rainfall.  Because the forest is so dense, the rivulets do not dry up.  SOme of these ruts are more than 8 feet deep from the horses!  Hikers wanting to keep their feet dry have created a multitude of trails skirting the muddier and wetter of these horse ruts creating a high impact on the local environment.  There were so many of these deep, rutted trails to choose from that I felt like a rat in a maze which prompted me to ask ¿Dondé está el queso?  We arrived in camp after a mere 3 hours and 15 min of walking.

Alexis negotiating one of the ruts created by the horses.

 Camp was a wide, grassy spot in the river valley with amazing views of the sheer granite faces above.  As one American put it, it is like Yosemite, but without the people and without the bears to break into your car.


Granite walls reflected in the Río Cochamó