The Greater Patagonian Trail, Intermission, 30/12 2025 – 3/1 2026

30 December — Tuesday

After sixteen days on the trail, and many of those very hard days, I no longer have any shoes more or less. It feels like I have been walking barefoot the last 100 kilometers, and as a consequence my feet are destroyed. It is hard to assess exactly how bad it is as I’m still in hiking mode — as any athlete knows, injuries often reveal themselves after the match/game. Regardless, I will force myself to take a minimum of four days of rest, hopefully I can survive without hiking for that long 😉 I should probably work a bit on my fat reserves as well for continued hiking.

The first order of business today is to buy new socks and shoes. I walked to central Los Angeles — I live far out in the suburbs — to try and find some good shoes. I’m not successful. They of course have Hokas, which in my opinion are trash, way too narrow for my feet and will fall apart after a few days on these trails. I did however find some new good hiking socks of which I bought three pairs.

Being unsuccessful in securing shoes, I decided that tomorrow I will take the bus to Concepcion where there is a Salomon store. Salomon is not my first choice but will do the job. I also walked around a few bookstores trying to find an English book to no luck. Well, one store did have English books for infants, not exactly what I was searching for. 

Then I did something stupid, I walked into a supermarket that had everything that I like: kefir, blueberries, proper hummus with olive oil, nice meats, melons, avocados, etc., and I bought at least 30 kg of food — big melons, much vegetables, many glass containers, water and kombucha, etc. do all weight a lot, and I did a full resupply for my coming hike. The stupid part was that I was more than 7 kilometers from my accommodation, and carrying home all that food in shitty plastic bags is a full out workout: legs, grip, shoulders, etc. So much for taking a rest day. 

I was pretty tired, especially in my forearms, when I returned to my accommodation. The rest of the day, I cooked, did my laundry, much rehab and prehab, and watched some tv. 

31 December — Wednesday

Alright time to go to Concepcion. The bus ride takes about 2 hours. From the main terminal it is about 7 kilometers to the massive shopping mall where the Salomon store is located. The town is filled with small buses (30 occupancy maximum) swishing around everywhere, on every possible side street. Surely one of these must go to the mall, the question is which one. I decided to walk to the biggest road and simply hop on the first bus going in the general correct direction. Strategy successful. 

After some searching I find the Salomon store and immediately ask, do you have Sense Ride or Genesis size EU 42? Of course they did not, they had very few shoes in size 42. I tried all they had and decided upon Speed Cross 6. However, since being in the mall I thought why not try some other shoes as well. In the end it came down to the Salomon and a pair of La Sportiva, but the Salomon won.

I also found a bookstore that sold a total of five English books. None my first pick exactly. After that I work on my fat reserves before booking a hotel for three nights.

I was expecting a loud night, but it turned out to be very calm, no fireworks, no loud music, and no drunks walking around screaming. I slept like a baby.

1 January — Thursday

Happy New Year! Today I’m hitting the beach. I’m taking the bus to Talcahuanco using my tried and tested bus strategy, successful again, from where I’m planning on walking to one of the many beaches.

That turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Every road leading to the beaches are within military compounds. 

After my fifth try I’m about to give up, but then I meet a Chilean family, and they take me to a path and say follow this path to the beach. Alright, here we go. Following the path I exit the woods onto a road, looking at google maps, this is the road I was just turned away from by the guard. Now, however, I’m about 1 kilometer behind the gate. Starting the new year with trespassing on military grounds? I’ve come this far might as well go all the way. 

The beaches are not great, very rocky and strong waves, not to mention cold water. It is not all too easy to take a bath. I take a short bath and then chill on the sand for a while before heading back to my hotel. 

This time my bus strategy was unsuccessful, and I’m taken on a 1 hour tour throughout all of Talcahuanco. I decided to ask the bus driver which bus to take to Concepcion. He points and says “that one” after which he honks, waves to the other bus driver, who stops mid road and waits for me to hop on. Perfectly planned 😉

Back at the hotel, I have a hard time deciding where to hike next. Continue from where I came, go direct to Currarhue or go all the way to southern Chile, there are some really nice GPT sections down there. In the end I decided to go back to Guallali, hike section 11 and 12 before deciding further.

Not that great of a rest day today either. With all that effort trying to reach a beach I walked well over 20 kilometers. On a positive note, the shoes feel good. Tomorrow, however, I will rest properly. 

2 January — Friday

Proper resting day today. I walked to the park, laid in the sun, ate a lot of cakes at a Keto bakery I found, visited the nearby mall to fuel up on some more food, and planned the coming days on the trail. That is about it. Tomorrow I’m taking the bus back to Los Angeles from where I will take another bus to Guallali. 

3 January — Saturday

Mostly an uneventful day, except for me having my first bad experience in Chile so far. While chilling in the park, waiting for the bus to Guallali, I put my phone next to me for a second while going through my bag, and some guy runs past me and grabs it. I ran him down, at which he throws my phone to the side in some bushes. In my confusion I go for my phone and let the robber go. A few seconds later when the anger started to emerge, I immediately regretted it. I should have roughed him up a bit, he surely deserved it.

At 14:30 the 6 hour long bumpy and rather eventful bus ride back to Guallali begins. I especially liked that the bus runs with its windows open since there is no working air conditioning, and many people living along the road had their sprinklers on. Be prepared to duck!

In Guallali I walked about 1 kilometer to the accommodation I had pre booked and prepared for tomorrow. Super excited being back on the trail!