La Ruta de los Jesuitas / Paso de los Vuriloches

A few years back, while on holidays in the Los Lagos Region in the South of Chile, we heard of a trek called "La Ruta de los Jesuitas". It follows one of the historic trading and missionary routes that connects Argentina across the Andes with Chile, via a pass with the name Vuriloche. Start and end points are the hamlets of Pampa Linda (Argentina) and Ralún (Chile).

For easier geographic reference also refer to below Google Map (download as *.kml here):

Supposedly this could be one of the oldest treks (i.e. routes) of the Americas. Crossing the Andes is not a small mission so finding valleys that had a pass from one side to the other was useful for commerce. (One of) the oldest archaeological discoveries in America is Monteverde, dated 14.500 years old, near Puerto Montt. There have been findings of tools and weapons dated some 12.500 years old. They also found fossilised human fecal matter and mastodon bones. Some of the plants remains found at the site, did not grow in the area so it is speculated that they already used the pass for commercial exchanges with what today is Argentina.

Feasible route for crossing the Andes doesn't mean it's a walk in the park

Later on, both Puelche and Poya indigenous people used the pass before they were "discovered" by the Conquistadores in 1535. They were hunter gatherer communities that used to live at the side of rivers. When Patagonia started to be colonised they fiercely guarded the Vuriloche pass as a secret. Around 1600, the Spanish colonisers started capturing Puelches in Nahuel Huapi (Argentina) and also in Chiloé (Chile) to make them work in their mines and Haciendas. They counted with the help of the Jesuits who wanted to convert the indigenous communities to Christianity. For several decades, they looked for a pass through the Andes which would have halved the journey between Chiloé and Nahuel Huapi (and also, because there was a legend on La Ciudad de los Cesares where they would find a lot of gold, silver and diamonds). Many explorers died looking for the pass, most of them to the elements: cold, rain, river crossings, terrain, getting lost, hunger etc... but more than a couple were also murdered by the indigenous communities who knew this would make colonisation easier. Around 1714, it was a pass already in use by the Jesuits. The Jesuits were eventually asked to leave by the Spanish around 1767 as they had ruffled a few feathers but the Franciscans took over. For those really into history (and who speak Spanish), here is real a diary of what it was like in those days.

(Trivia: the sun in the Argentinian flag has uncanny similarities to the one in the emblem of the society of Jesus, a design that alternates straight and wavy rays, same number of rays)

Nowadays, the there are still a few farms dotted across the different valleys, however, from what we witnessed ourselves and based on trip reports available on the internet (who make reference to the local farms and their inhabitants) some of the local folks appear to have moved out or passed away in recent years, and the permanent population now probably stands at less than 10. Other than on the first and last day, we came across only 5 houses that might be home to someone, although at the time we went past everyone was out.

One of the inhabited houses we came across on the third day of our trek...

...it even had electricity from its own improvised hydroelectric power generator

These guys live in pretty harsh conditions, there is no road access, so if you need to get to civilization, say a hospital or whatever, it takes at least a couple of days on horseback to make it there.

One can do the trek from either end. The advantage of coming from Chile is that you get the more spectacular views of Tronador and the Chile side usually has the worse weather (so it is easier to choose a good weather window if you are flexible). The advantage of starting in Argentina is that you get more downhill. We started in Ralún  (Chile) on a drizzly Wednesday morning a few days before Christmas, catching the bus to Cochamó from Puerto Varas and getting off at the fork to Laguna Cayutue. From there, the first 10km or so follow a gravel road, thereafter it turns into a much smaller cow/horse/sheep "trail" (or a "fantastic mud fest", as we soon called it, due to its condition at the time).

The trail is relatively obvious in most places, however, there are many sections where large trees haven fallen or the path is otherwise overgrown, so progress can be slow and somewhat frustrating at times. We can only guess that later in the summer the trail may "improve" simply because a few more people and cows will have passed through by then.

Another noteworthy detail are the river crossings, some of which are fairly big ones and may become impossible if it has rained a lot. The ones that stand out are:

• the first two of the three crossings of the Rio Conchas (up to Patricia's hips and with reasonably strong currents), on the 2nd day.
• the Río Esperanza (again up to the hip, but less current, probably because by the time we got there we had perfect conditions and the rain had stopped a couple of days earlier), on the 4th day.
• The Río Blanco (one crossing can be avoided, two others have bridges, one of which we didn't manage to find)
• The two arms of the Río Traídor, on the 5th day, which used to be crossable via two hanging bridges, but which as of December 2019 had both semi-collapsed and become unusable. It takes that name because when it rains its flow rate increases significantly.

We didn't bump into very many other people, only a few huasos on the second and third day, who gave us some info on the condition of the trail further up and alternative routes, where to cross the rivers, how to avoid crossing the Río Blanco, etc. However, these guys also didn't know about the more remote parts of the trek closer to the border as they don't usually have reasons to venture there.

It's hard to plan a route like this, there is no maintained trail nor signposts and the weather may make crossing some of the rivers impossible, so we took food for about 8 days. We also experimented supplementing our diet with nalcas, clover and fresh raspberry shoots we found along the way (to save weight, we didn't carry any fresh veggies, only dried onion and garlic flakes and some dried mushrooms).

Patricia foraging for nalcas

Apart from its remoteness and solitude, another detail that contributes to the appeal of this trek is the presence of hot-springs along the route which are perfectly suitable for a hot bath after a hard day on the trail.

Christian chilling in the Tronador hot-springs at the end of day 4

Weather-wise we tried to time our little expedition to make use of a few nice days that were forecast for just before Christmas. But Patagonia being Patagonia, we knew that this wouldn't last, so we started out in the rain and finished in the rain, with 3-4 nice days in-between. In fact, on the 5th day, when we noticed that the weather was turning again, we made a big push forward in a long 12 hour day, making it beyond the Río Traidor crossing, before the heavens opened again later that night.

Enjoying the 5-star comforts of the Refugio Lomas de Huenchupan on the evening of the long 5th day

The 5th day of our trip turned out to be a crucial one, at one point Christian thought that we may have to turn back as we didn't manage to find one of the bridges that were supposed to cross the wild glacial Río Blanco, but then somehow we worked out an alternative that required a bit of backtracking and a little bit of bush-whacking (see Google Maps for some more details and additional comments)... q-:

On the sixth day we finally arrived at the border, where Chile maintains a police station (by the way, these guys get flown in and supplied by helicopter instead of overland via our route). From there, the trail suddenly improves quite a bit, descending towards Pampa Linda on the Argentinian side.

Chileans outpost on the border to Argentina, protecting the fatherland or something...

We would rank this hike as one of the top hikes of Chile. It's perhaps not as spectacular as some of the others usual suspects ("The O", "The W", etc), but due to it's remoteness, solitude and hot-springs it has a lot to offer for those who venture there. The adventure factor also makes us rate it very highly.

An important note to the reader: In many other countries, this route would probably have World Heritage Status, signage, the path would be maintained and the local people considered valuable assets worth supporting as they add to the diversity and cultural heritage... but Chile being Chile, the land is considered private, even the trail is not classed as a public path, and there are little to no state resources allocated to maintaining any of this :( One has to wonder what will happen as the few remaining settlers die or move out (Don Juvenal which was one of the most well known neighbours died last year, la tia Leti who often offered cake and directions to some hot springs has supposedly moved out a few years before that...). When the bridges fall, they stay fallen... Several hot-springs are already overgrown and impossible to get to. In short, if you are interested in experiencing this route yourself, prepare yourself for an adventure, don´t blindly rely on information you have read in this blog or elsewhere on the internet as the conditions change over time, parts of the trail disappear or change route, etc.

As always, a few more photos in a little slideshow below (for high-res click here):