I had such big plans for Chile’s Lake District: hiking in national parks, summiting Volcan Villarica, soaking in numerous hot springs. Bill Cifford really sold this place to me when he was talking about places to go in Chile… and his pictures from his stay here in 2005 are quite breathtaking. Alas, we had already used up all of our luck this week in getting reimbursed for the stolen car… so naturally it was raining and windy the entire time we were here. Sadly, I had to scale back my plans: Blame it on the rain.
Obviously I didn’t get to climb to the top of the very active volcano Villarica (an imposing backdrop seen from anywhere in town). If only we had shown up a day earlier, we would have had perfect weather. Oh well. Not all was lost though as we were able to do a few other cool things around Pucón. We rented a car (I still can’t believe it!) and toured the surrounding area on our own… visiting waterfalls, hot springs, and one national park along the way.
The park that we visited went by the tongue-twisting name of Parque National Huerquehue (Where-Kay-Way), located about half an hour north of Pucón. We did a quick but steep hike there, passing along some waterfalls and clear mountain lakes. The snow line here was pretty low (around 1500 meters), due to the bitterly cold weather that we encountered in town… so we had to huck it through some snow and ice at the top. Of coarse Ana did this in her trusty Keen Sandals :-) Besides the natural beauty of the park the big draw here is to see the araucaria trees which line the tops of the mountain peaks. These trees look like something straight out of the Jurassic period and are rare, as they were heavily logged back in the day. It’s easy to see why they were logged as well: These were some of the straightest tree trunks I have ever seen. They practically scream “cut me down and turn me into a ship mast”.
Here is a map of Pucón in Chile.
… and check the link below for more pictures of the area:
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