A Day in the Park

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I booked an activity package with the language school in Pucon. This included a day out at Parque Nacional Huerquehue with a guide. My guide, Dominique, met me at my hostel at 8.00am and we made our way to the bus terminal to catch our bus to the National Park. It was a beautiful day and I knew I would be guaranteed seeing stunning views and scenery. It took approximately half an hour by bus to reach the park entrance. We began walking and slowly ascending when we reached the CONAF station, I realised it would be a very steep ascent to the top. I did not appreciate how steep it was so I struggled and had to make frequent stops. Dominique was very patient with me. I think my breathing was more the issue than my fitness as I felt my legs could have gone further. Back home, I rarely hike up steep terrain and most of the walking is done on flat terrain with very little uphill gradients. Another issue was the timing, I did not want to take my time reaching the top and then being put under an enormous amount of pressure to descend faster with less stops for the very last bus to Pucon. We decided to aim for Mirador 2 for lunch. This took us two and a half hours to reach the look out and we decided to have lunch and admire the views of Volcan Villarrica and Lago Tinquillo. It felt so good reaching over 1000 metres above sea level. It was nice and cool up in the forests. After half an hour or so, we began descending and stopping at Salto Trufulco and Cascada Nido de Aguila. The waterfalls were amazing, in full force, powerful and so tall! I loved being cooled down by the spray from the Cascada Nido del Aguila. We continued our descent and then took the Sendero Nimco trail to reach the park´s entrance and in time for the last bus. The descent took us around about four hours including stops at the waterfalls to the park´s entrance. I feel we did some fair trekking even if we did not reach the lakes at the top but I feel what I did was an achievement and returned to Pucon feeling proud of myself. A big thanks to Dominique whose encouragement and patience helped me reach heights that I would not have done myself. The weather was wonderful, nice and cool in the forests and at the look out. However, when out of the forests, it was very hot. Eventually, I cooled down with a well deserved beer even if I am not a beer person.

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Photos

View from Mirador 2
Volcan Villarrica and Lago Tinquillo

Dawn´s Summit
At Mirador 2

View from Mirador 2
In black and white

A New Friend!
I have never seen a spider so big from my own eyes!! Fortunately, not poisonous.