Valle Cochamo is known as the Yosemite of Chile.
Getting there
There are four buses a day from Puerto Montt to the town of Cochamo. From there, pay for someone to drop you off at the end of the road going up the Rio Cochamo, and into Valle Cochamo. Walking the road is long, boring and hard on the knees. Once at the end of the road, the trail is obvious, and it's difficult to get lost. It can be very muddy when it rains. The hike takes about 4 to 5 hours.
Geography
Many 1000-meter granite walls, dense Valdivian forests and waterfalls that feed the clear turqoise Cochamo River.
Climate
A pleasant season to visit the area is from November through April. The months that usually have the best weather are from late January through March. The weather outside of these months is generally too rainy and cold.
The weather in Patagonia is difficult to predict, but locals have followed one general rule that helps forecast stormy weather. Clouds moving north to south generally bring rain.
See
Huge granite walls, waterfalls, rivers, granite arches, Alerce forests, caves, pools - basically some of Patagonia_Ls most amazing mountain valley.
Do
This is a famous rock climbing destination with many granite walls and domes ranging around 1000 meters. There are many new routes every year and thousands of new long lines waiting to be done.
'''Trekking''' Most visitors come to Cochamo to trek the four to six hours into La Junta, the heart of Valle Cochamo. From there, many day hikes reach spectacular peaks, waterfalls and 3000-year-old alerce trees. The main trail continues all the way to Argentina passing a rock arch, lakes and mountain passes. Checkout the trail info at [http://www.cochamo.com/trekking Cochamo.com/trekking].
'''Climbing''' With in the valley, granite walls rise more than 1,000 meters, holding some of the countries most classic free climbing routes. Sport climbing and cragging exist throughout the valley's basen, including the overhanging Pared Seca which stays dry when it rains. Chekout the route info at Checkout the trail info at [http://www.cochamo.com/climbing Cochamo.com/climbing] and at [http://www.escalando.cl Escalando.cl].
'''Natural waterslide.''' La Junta River offers an amazing natural waterslide. Checkout videos on [http://www.cochamo.com Cochamo.com].
Getting Horses
Many choose to visit the valley by horse or using packhorses. All horses are accompanied by guides. Cochamo offers numerous different guides but tracking them down is not a formal task. Ask around town and expect to pay from $18.000 to $25.000 per horse and be sure to find out if the guide charges for the horse he/she uses.
Many visitors have had continuous problems with one guide in paticular (website: www.cabalgatascochamo.cl) located in front of the police station in town. Avoid him at all costs. There are many other guides. Just ask around.
More info
[http://www.cochamo.com Cochamo.com] - Information on Cochamo and it's largely popular neigbor Valle Cochamo.
[http://www.stonedance.com StoneDance.com] - Rock climbing information about Cochamo.
[http://www.escalando.cl Escalando.com] - More rock climbing information about Cochamo.