Horse riding holidays in the Chilean Andes, from Bano Morales, cajon del Maipo near Santiago

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Riding Season: Longer rides with camping are usually only possible in the 3 months from January to March. After a winter with little snow it might be possible in the second half of December. Shorter rides, or hotel based riding tours, are possible from November to April.

It is important to read the terms and conditions before booking a trip.

Ride IV, 5 days and 4 nights - level easy

Day 1, drive out from Santiago to Bano Morales from where we start

This is a gentle ride up to the campsite. We arrive in time to make camp and perhaps bathe before .a pisco sour round the fire. This is a 2 to 3 hour ride, easy but still beautiful and with a small river to cross. The idea is to have an easy day to set up camp, relax, get to know the guides, the horses and the place on day 1

Day 2 Ride to Valle Engorda

We ride up the valley Engorda, a flat pastoral area with cattle grazing and flowers. This is a gentle day's riding, with nothing very steep or difficult, although the river is crossed twice on horseback. The valley is full of flowers and there are horses and cattle grazing. As you ride further up the valley the flowers get more interesting and a final picnic near the water and below the steep mountain at the end of the valley makes a pleasant end before riding back down.

Day 3 Ride to the glacier

The Morado Natonal Park of Chile, accessed from Bano Morales, is famous for its red river and its glacier. Many tourists visit it, but we take a different approach, where you will see almost nobody except possibly a mountaineer. This approach is from the other side of the mountain, where the glacier is equally spectacular and where the red river begins its flow towards Bano Morales. The approach after a heavy winter is a ride over snow, while after a dry winter, or later in the season, there will be less snow. It is exciting and surprisingly easy to ride across the firm snow - the horses are used to the snow and have no problem - to the foot of the glacier where there is a lake, blue in late summer and frozen white in early summer. We picnic among dry rocks at the base and enjoy incredible views, both of the glacier and further up into the snow-clad mountains. Riding back gets us into camp in time to relax, read, bathe, play cards, photograph flowers or whatever, before a pisco sour and a hot evening meal in the delightful campsite where the horses are let loose to eat their fill of the rich grass.

Day 4: Ride to Refugio el Plantal

Some of our visitors have voted this the best ride of all. It starts from the Valle Engorda and goes up steeply through what is known as the funnel (embudado)- a narrow steep gorge- and emerges at a plateau with a 'vega' or meadow with cattle and goats and often baby animals of various kinds. Once we actually saw a kid being born. Then more climbing to a second vega with mares and foals and amazing views of all the high cordillera roundabout. The refugio itself is also fascinating. It is a stage for the climbers attempting Volcan San Jose. It was built by a family called Plantal and is always open, because once a climber was descending in a snowstorm, could not get into the refugio and died of exposure. The custom is always to leave a little food or something for future users.

Day 5: Pack up camp and ride down to Bano Morales. Optional vist to hot springs Colina

** For photographs of these days, see the page detailing all the rides.

** For photographs of the campsite, see the page on the campsite

For experienced riders we would exchange Valle Engorda on Day 2 (ride 3) with the ride to the fossil lake (ride 4)