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Published: January 29th 2014
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Having dragged ourselves out of bed unreasonably early on 13th January, we headed to the Talca bus station to catch another rather beat up service bus to visit the Altos de Lircay national park about 63km away. We weren't entirely sure where to get off the bus, so decided to stay on board as long as possible and jump off where the road ended, a tiny place called Vilches Alto. From here we walked the last three kilometres up to the park entrance to warm up for the day's hike.
Feeling fit and healthy, we were convinced by the lady at the ticket office to embark on an eight hour trek, despite not quite having eight hours to complete the walk and get back to the bus stop to catch the last bus back to Talca. We were told the trek would take us up to two of the parks main attractions, a plateau with spectacular views (El Enladrillado) and a mountain ringed lake, 2000 metres above sea level (Laguna del Alto), plus in her experience "foreigners always walk faster", so happily we set off.
A few hours into the walk and when we felt we deserved a biscuit
break, we sat down and consulted the map. On closer inspection, and after adding up the suggested time needed to compete each section of our walk, we realised we'd actually set off on a nine hour walk (a miscalculation had clearly occurred somewhere down the line or perhaps a cruel joke was being played on us) and therefore, if we wanted to catch the last bus home, we needed to knock a couple of hours off the suggested walking time. Unfortunately we realised this at the bottom of a big mountain (suggested time to reach the top: 2 hours).
After a long, steep and very hot hike we reached the top of the mountain and the first attraction, the plateau with a view of a decapitated volcano. The climb was definitely worth it as the view was spectacular and, having raced up the mountain, we'd bought ourselves time for a lunch break.
After a rather quick lunch with volcano views, we set off across the mountain plateau towards the second attraction, the lake. As this part of the walk was flat and as we were getting increasingly concerned about missing the last bus, we decided to run this
part of the walk, which was actually really great as the air was really fresh and the plateau grassland was stunning with lots of tiny flowers.
Having quickened the pace we reached the view point of the next attraction, a mountain lake, having knocked an hour and a half off the suggested time, buying us ample time to descend the mountain and catch our bus, which we did with plenty of time to spare, waving at the lady at the ticket office as we left (and reaffirming her view that "foreigners always walk faster"). If she ever reads this, she will know why!
On returning to Talca, we hobbled back to our hostel, exhausted and covered in dust. Altas de Lircay National Park is a beautiful place and one day we hope we can return and see it at a slightly slower pace.
The next day we jumped on a bus to Chillan, where we stayed for one night gorging ourselves on cake and beer (we felt we'd really earned it), before making our way up to the small town of Pucon.
Pucon sits right underneath Volcan Villarrica, one of Chile's most active volcanoes. Villarrica is
classed as "restless" due to frequent spurts of gas and the occasional grumble (not dissimilar to Ross in many ways...), but has not had a serious eruption since the 80's. Nevertheless, the town of Pucon clearly takes the risk of an eruption seriously, as there is a traffic light system that tells you how the volcano is feeling and evacuation routes are sign posted. (The air raid siren that sounded at four in the morning is apparently nothing to do with the volcano and appears to exist solely to scare the living daylights out of tourists.)
Pucon is a tourist mecca, so as we arrived we were bombarded with offers to climb up things, throw ourselves off things, float down rivers etc etc. Too many decisions needed to be made at this point, so we decided to hire a car and defer any other decision making until the following days.
The next day we picked up what would be our means of transport for the next couple of days, a beat up Fiat Uno, with dodgy indicators and a broken fuel gauge. Thankfully, our trusty Uno took us half way up Volcan Villarica, to some thermal baths (which
were wonderful for our still aching limbs) and to Huerquehue National Park, which was one of the highlights of our stay. Huerquehue is full of monkey puzzles, turquoise lakes and volcano views. Enjoying the luxury of having our own car, we embarked on a reasonably long hike, enjoying the views and swimming in the lakes, safe in the knowledge that the Uno would get us home (although we parked on a hill just in case...).
Tomorrow we head for Valdivia, land of kuchen and beer. We can't wait!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The joys of travel
Enjoyed reading your blog this morning. Lots of great photos and experiences. Looking forward to reading more.