The Gaucho Way Trek (9 days)

After breakfast, you'll take a short boat shuttle to the start of the hike. You will carry a daypack loaded with essential items while your luggage will be taken to the main ranch where it will be waiting for your arrival.

Today holds a spectacular segment of the trek! The trail rises up intermittently forested slopes to a high shoulder overlooking the joining of waters between Lago Bertrand and Lago Plomo. These waters connect through a breach in the long, narrow moraine that forms a peninsula separating the two lakes. This short gap demarcates where the deep blue of Lago Bertrand abruptly changes to the jade green of Lago Plomo.

After the trail’s initial ascent, you hike along rocky outcroppings, across high alpine valleys, and through enchanted forests of moss-covered beech trees. The glaciated peaks are at your shoulder, and the waters of the lake are below your feet. Keep an eye skyward in search of an Andean condor with its distinctively broad wingspan. Near the lake’s end are spectacular views far up the Soler Valley and beyond to where the afternoon sun stands watch over the enormous expanse of the Patagonia Icefield summits.

Finish the day with a descent past a marble outcropping, sculpted by time and the elements, and walk across a forested pasture to the dock, boats, houses, and barns of the main ranch, all of which you’ve been glimpsing from a distance. It will be a long, satisfying day finished with a wholesome meal, a glass of fine Chilean wine, and falling asleep in the rustic, comfortable guest house accompanied by the sounds of the horses soft grazing on home pasture.

Accommodation: Guest House, Main Ranch

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Spend the day exploring the ranch and surrounding property. Choose between:

• A leisurely day exploring the old-growth forest
• Searching for wild morel mushrooms
• Enjoying a day hike, or exploring one of the surrounding alpine valleys
• Just relaxing...

In the evening, loads are prepared for panniers and packhorses that will accompany us on the next portion of our trip.

Accommodation: Guest House, Main Ranch

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Begin the day with yerba mate, a bitter tea sipped from a gourd through a metal straw. It is a traditional start to any Patagonia day and an important social custom. After a hearty breakfast, we will prepare for our trek up the Soler Valley, toward the icefield.

You’ll follow horse trails and carry only the essentials in your daypack. There are several short creek crossings so don’t forget those sandals or water shoes.

The long valleys, lush temperate forests, and mountain peaks offer a wide variety of terrain in which to trek and it’s not uncommon to see soaring condors or even the elusive huemul, a small endangered deer that appears on the Chilean coat of arms.

The varied terrain means that you’ll be able to experience everything from craggy mountain trails to long, sandy beaches, always with a backdrop of the majestic mountain panorama.

Tonight’s destination is situated on the banks of the Cacho River. This tent camp is located just beyond the intersection of two large valleys facing each other across the Soler Valley floor. This is one of our favorite spots and we always sense energy here, be it from the massive peaks, the open space, the flowing water, or the pristine landscape. There’s contentment here in an evening fire while enjoying good company and watching the horses graze against a slowly darkening backdrop that reveals southern stars above white, jagged peaks.

Accommodation: Overnight Tent Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Mate and breakfast are served around a campfire as you watch the long, creeping approach of the morning’s sun slip down from the peak tops to the valley floor. Today, you will hike and explore an untouched depth of wild Patagonia that is seldom revealed. 

If the day is clear, your views will encompass the surrounding peaks and glaciers, five and six thousand feet in elevation above you, and the awe-inspiring and formidable Northern Patagonia Icefield, with Cerro Hyades standing firm at the head of the Cacho Valley. The difference in elevation between the valley floor at the far end of our Cacho Ranch and the summit of this monumental peak is 10,000 feet!

Along the way is the old-growth forest of Coigüe, or Dombey’s beech, with its elegant branches and thick, lustrous evergreen leaves. The large Magellanic woodpecker

is frequently seen or heard here, with its resoundingly deep echo reverberating through the air as it searches for grubs in the ruin of aged trunks. This is also home to the endangered huemul, or South Andean Deer, as well as predators such as the Geoffroy’s Cat, Patagonian Fox, and Puma. Hidden in plain view, inconspicuous amongst the grandeur of the landscape is a marble mountainside.

Weather, river levels, the group’s pace, and energy levels will ultimately influence the furthest point of the trek. If conditions permit, it is possible to reach as far as the massive glacier’s edge before returning to the tent camp for the night.

Accommodation: Overnight Tent Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

The night’s long song of rumbling ice falls and murmuring tree branches gives way to the crackle of the campfire and early morning calls of the Chucao and Hued-Hued birds.

Weather, river levels, and the group’s pace and energy ultimately influence the furthest point of the trek. If conditions permit, it is possible to reach as far as the massive glacier’s edge before continuing toward the Soler Valley.

Perhaps we will have an opportunity to pass by one of our neighbor’s homesteads, subsistence ranches deep in the wilderness, an enclave of human presence and friendly hospitality.

Our tent camp location will be chosen based on conditions.

Accommodation: Overnight Tent Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

As the morning sunlight edges toward camp, you’ll sip yerba mate around a fire, and marvel as the light plays over the peaks of snow, ice, and rock. There’s plenty of time to take in the beauty before packing up camp and heading back home down the valley. Upon departing, we will travel one of several routes back down the valley to the main ranch.

The evening will include a Patagonia barbecue! Guests, staff, and neighbors traditionally all share in this feast over an open fire of meat, new potatoes, fresh salad from the greenhouse, bread, and wine.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself staying up late to listen to the strumming of a guitar and a soft, Spanish melody.

Accommodation: Guest House, Main Ranch

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Breathe in the refreshing, cool morning air. Spend the morning strolling along the beach or through the orchards, gardens, and greenhouses. Take a walk in the pasture and share a moment with the horses, or relax as you prepare to say goodbye to the ranch before departing by boat to Puerto Bertrand.

The dock there is the departure point for a whitewater rafting descent of the crystal-clear powerhouse that is the Baker River. You can choose between rafting, having an additional day at the ranch relaxing and exploring, or doing a more vigorous activity like a longer day hike.

Accommodation: Local Guest Cabin or BnB in Peurto Bertrand

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

After a private transfer to Balmaceda Regional Airport, fly back home with a refreshed body and soul.

Meals: Breakfast

This trip can be customized. There's also a shorter, 7-day version of this itinerary. Contact us to add on additional trekking days, or include excursions (for additional cost) such as visiting the:

• Marble caves and chapel in Peurto Tranqilo
• Exploradores Glacier
• Confluencia, the junction of the mighty Baker and Nef rivers
• Chacabuco Valley, the site of the newly formed Patagonia National Park
• Frontier town of Cochrane
• Town of Caleta Tortel, with its intricate boardwalks