Walking - Petrohue Chile

maps.google.com

Petrohue is a small settlement in the Vicente Pérez Rosales Nacional Park in the Chilean Los Lagos (lakes) region. I found little documentation in English and few maps online on walking in the area so this blog post is an attempt to address it.

It is located on the southern flank of Volcan Osorno (Mt. Osorno) and on the western shore of Lago (Lake) Todos los Santos. It is the ferry terminus of Ruta (Route) 225 to Bariloche in Argentina.

Accommodation
Petrohue Lodge provides hotel accommodation. They can also arrange guided treks and boat trips. There are cabins which can be booked through the Lodge. There is camping looking onto the beach, follow the road through to the left.

maps.google.com

There is no surface water except on the highest slopes so carry adequate water.

Ash plain walk, 1 to 4 hrs
Follow the track behind the Lodge, past the church, veer right at the phone towers and climb over the levee to enter the ash plain.

maps.google.com

Note where you entered the ash plain, nearly the left end of the levee, you can use the phone towers as a guide when you return. Walk around till you get bored, 1-4 hours, and return the way you came. Alternatively the Sendero (Trail) Paso Desolacion passes very close to the eastern edge of the ash plain in places. Though its tempting to walk to the road on the southern boundary, there is a cliff in places.

Sendero (Trail) Paso Desolacion, 24 km return
Follow the road round to just before the camping ground. The start is well signposted.
The trail follows the east edge of the ash plain, at this point it is well marked. It crosses two large washouts, then the climb begins. Shortly into the climb, the trail becomes poorly marked and braided but the parallel trails seem to join again. The trail runs through the saddle between Osorno and Picada peaks. There is a derelict hut just past the saddle. The track turns back into a 4WD track and I was told there was a Conaf (parks service) refugio somewhere down the other side.

Map, Sendero Solitario, bottom, Sendero Desolacion, top right

A good map is here

derelict hut at Picada saddle

Sendero Solitario, Petrohue Falls and Petrohue, aprox 20km
Get dropped off on the road to the Osorno ski resort at the start of Sendero Solitario.


The start of the track is well marked.

Map, Sendero Solitario, Sendero Desolacion in pink

The start of the trail is an excellent dense forest of Northophagus and bamboo, later it passes through ash plain. It is well marked and takes 1.5 to 2 hours. It hits Ruta 225 a couple of km west of Salto del Petrohue (Petrohue falls).

Dense forest

Walk east along the road to the falls. The entry fee of a few dollars is worthwhile. There is quite a network of trails, allow one hour. There is also a good interpretive nature trail, turn right across the bridge, but the signage is only in Spanish. The jet boat tour didn't look worth taking.

Salto del Petrohue (Petrohue falls)

The kiosk sells coffee, empanadas etc. , buy lunch here. Then walk a few kilometers east along the road to Petrohue. The road runs parallel to the river so you can get free views of the rapids as you walk back.

Los Pumas, 300 metres
A couple of kilometers down the road from Osorno ski resort. Passes through high grade forest, then turns left up a washout. At the top turn right. I think it takes you to a lookout on a cinder cone but it was foggy and raining so I am not sure.

Its likely that the Los Pumas walk goes to Cerro Colorado or nearby

Northophagus and bamboo forest, Los Pumas

Approved tour operators in the park (click to zoom)

from brochure "Park Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales" Gobierno de Chile

Chile Patagonia strike

I am told that only a handful of tourists remain in the region and that the Chilean government are moving troops into the area.

El Calafate and El Chalten in Argentina accommodation is fully booked. Many tourists need to use public buses to make ongoing connections. Most cafes and hotels require cash, ATM's are mostly out of cash..

Getting out of Chile was the right choice, its going to turn nasty.

Red Cross evacuates Chilean Patagonia

Chilean army maintains order at evacuation centre

Loading buses at Red Cross evacuation centre

Saturday, the planned evacuation of Puerte Natales, scheduled for 3pm finally was underway about 10 pm. There were around 1000 tourists at the evacuation centre bound for Puenta Arenas in Chile and El Calafate in Argentina.

Both destinations were to be by air, Puenta Arenas by Chilean airforce and El Calafate by commercial flights. We did see one flight arrive and were told that it was bringing in a plane load of police and evacuating a plane load of tourists. There were only two buses at the evacuation centre for the airport and I would estimate that only half of the 400 or so destined for Puenta Arenas departed by 10pm.

There was some problem with the flights to el Calafate and the evacuation was by road convoy. There were 3 large buses and 3 small, a capacity round 180 only for 700 tourists. Boarding was based on need and the army was used to maintain order (see photo). There was some issue with the first bus which presumably carried those in greatest need and it did not depart with the others.

The convey did depart at 10pm reaching El Calafate at 3am Sunday. We passed about 6 buses on the road north from Puerte Natales but it was unclear whether they were returning from Torres Del Paine or Argentina and whether they were empty. It is likely that this provided sufficient capacity to evacuate the tourists waiting at the centre.

It is likely that the strategy was to clear the hotels and hostels in Natales so that Torres Del Paine could then be evacuated. Walkers returning from del Paine reported poor conditions there, food shortages, overcrowded refugios and unsanitary toilets.

Those walking the last 5km into Puerto Natales, Saturday morning

Red Cross give instructions, names are called and the lucky walk through the line of troops to the waiting buses (Sat afternoon)

Saturday morning, strikers at the road block north of Puerto Natales

Saturday morning, roadblock on minor road to Puerto Borries

Red Cross evacuates tourists from Patagonia

Red Cross centre at Puerto Natales school

Red Cross has organised the evacuation of stranded tourists in Patagonia. Flights are leaving the airport at 3pm. The roads will be open from 3-5pm today.

Hotels in El Calafate in nearby Argentina are fully booked.

Tourists are registering at the Red Cross centre at the Natales school. Interestingly, my passport was stamped as exiting Chile so now I am in limbo.

I talked with the strikers at one of the checkpoints. Apparently, the government had proposed a 20% increase in gas prices initially but had offered to settle at 3% or CPI but the strikers rejected that offer. The strike is led by a loose coalition of industry associations including taxi drivers and fishermen.