A-4.0 Yamburara alto - Refugio & Cascada "Los Helechos"

Distance          6.4 km                         (12.8 km return)

Time                3.25 hours                   (6.0 hours return)

Altitude          1630m - 2410m

Ascent             825m

Descent           210m

Rating             Hard  4/5

Start                Yamburara alto

End                  Cascada “Los Helechos”

The Refugio “Los Helechos” is situated inside the private nature reserve belonging to Rene & Alvaro León of “La Tasca Tours”. If you wish to do this trip on horseback or stay in the Refugio, contact them at:  http://www.hosteltrail.com/tour_companies/latascatours

If you take a taxi for the 4 km’s to the Trailhead at Yamburara alto ($ 3.-), you save yourself about an hour walk on a dusty road.

Route: The trail starts at a small concrete bridge crossing Rio Yambala, which has a sign pointing to PN Podocarpus. Across the river follow the well-trodden trail uphill to the ridge, which you reach in about 15 minutes. In another half an hour, you get to a fork with a green metal- gate. Do not enter the gate, instead, take the right branch uphill, and reach after 25 minutes another fork. The left branch takes you to the Finca Sacred Sueños of Ives Zehnder: http://sacredsuenos.wordpress.com  but you continue along the right branch uphill and cross the reforested area. Leaving the Pine forest, the trail levels off and you get to another fork. The left trail uphill leads to a water tank and an abandoned construction site. We follow the right trail downhill, and pass after 1 km a small farmhouse, and after another 700 meters, there is a clearing in a forest which serves as a “Horse parking” of the the Refugio ”Los Helechos” . The Refugio itself is situated a little stretch uphill.

To get to the Waterfall “Los Helechos”, continue on the trail straight on. After 10 minutes you find the sign indicating that you are entering PN Podocarpus. Right after the sign, the trail drops down into a gully and rises on the other side onto a small ridge. A 100 meter steep drop with fixed ropes in the tricky places leads to the “Los Helechos”-waterfall.