The Greater Patagonian Trail Section 10, Laguna El Barco, 28-29/12 2025

An Introduction to the Greater Patagonian Trail (GPT) can be found HERE.

28 December — Sunday

I awoke in the late morning, feeling rather ok despite yesterday’s party, but not great. My feet hurts a bit too much, but that can become better as I start walking or worse, you never know. With the state my shoes are in, my feet take a lot of extra damage. 

I said a digital goodbye to the scouts, they were all deeply asleep and I did not want to wake them, and went on my way. 

The GPT 10 starts by going through a forest, and then enters a beautiful valley filled with open grasslands, before climbing up to a high altitude plateau that offers magnificent views over many surrounding volcanoes. I would argue that the plateau part was one of the best stretches on the GPT so far. The whole trail is also surrounded by Pinonero trees, supposedly you can eat the fruit (if cooked or fermented) but they are not ripe until late January. 

I made it to the Laguna El Barco lake camp and paid the 5000 CLP entrance fee, pitched my tent on the beach and went swimming in the warm water. It is a very popular place as it is very beautiful and reachable by car. Many Chileans go here for some R&R on the weekends. The campsite is very basic, only providing some not so sanitary toilets, toilet paper not included. They did not sell anything, no snacks, no cold beverages, kind of seems like a missed opportunity to not sell cold beers and I do not even like beer.

By reaching Laguna El Barco today’s monumental challenge was completed, it felt better than expected. In the uphills I’m struggling more than I should indicating some residual sickness. Other than that my problems are with my feet, they are starting to hurt as a result of the terrible state of both my socks and shoes. I did not imagine that shoes would be the thing forcing me to take a break from the trail, but I can not continue like this for too long without risking my feet taking permanent damage. I can feel that certain ligaments and tendons are very overstrained, as my shoes no longer provide any stability or comfort. 

Tomorrow I have 14 easy kilometers to go to the town of Guallali, the end of GPT 10. In the town there supposedly is a possibility to resupply food (and toilet paper). Available resupply, accommodation, bus schedules and feet health will determine if I take a break to go celebrate New Year’s Eve somewhere, or push on a few days more. I really do not want to leave the trail, because I love everything about the hiking life expect the horse flies, but today was not particularly bad. I did however add a bit to my kill count. 

29 December — Saturday

Ouch, my feet feel terrible, I can barely stand on them. Being in no rush, I slept long into the morning resting my feet, and went bathing before making the final 14 kilometers to Guallali. The last stretch mostly consisted of some nice untraveled dirt roads.

In Guallali I went to the resupply store, no one was home. After walking around the very small town (10 houses or so) and calling out, I found one man who said the owners of the store were away today and that there were no accommodations close by.

I walked to the nearby police station and asked them about the bus, 05:00 tomorrow morning, and if there is any accommodation close by. He said that up the road, leading to Chenqueco, there was a hotel after just a few hundred meters. I walked and walked, no hotel, started to think that I might have misunderstood him. As I walked a car came by, I signaled to hitchhike, they stopped and said they were going to Chenqueco. Good I thought, there surely must be a hotel. After we drove for about 200 meters, we passed the hotel the policeman was speaking about. My brain went into a bit of short-circuit, stop or continue. I decided to continue. However, in Chenqueco there was no accommodation either. The store selling food was at least reasonably well stocked. 

At the grocery store I met a man who said I could tent on his property. I thanked him for his offer but I decided to first try my luck hitchhiking to a bigger town. After 2.5 hours of trying, two men who had been at Laguna el Barco fishing pulled over. They were driving all the way to Los Angeles, and after an additional 2.5 hours I found myself in Los Angeles late at night, where I booked a small studio apartment for two nights, operated by Miguel and his wife. Being a bit peckish, I made a stroll to the supermarket Lider to buy some fruits I’m craving. Apparently Lider is what they call Walmart here, you learn something new everyday. Despite being dead tired I had trouble sleeping. At 3 am I gave up and watched some television. 

I decided during the day that I will force myself to rest at least four days. Hopefully, that is enough, my feet are not in good shape. My left Achilles are definitely inflamed, and many other small muscles and tendons are borderline inflamed. We will see how it feels in a few days. I will take the time to make a plan for the remaining three weeks. Spoiler, I will continue hiking.

Another beautiful GPT section completed. GPT 10 is short but the high plateau stretch and Laguna El Barco is spectacular. Definitely a recommended section.

My Route With Campsites