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Published: November 8th 2006
Cattle graze under the gaze of Volcán Villarica
Views of the local volcanoes are typical along the roads around Pucón, in Chile's Lakes DistrictThe Pucón area is blessed with stunning physical beauty, and we couldn't resist giving our bikes a rest to stay for awhile to explore. Besides, we'd booked ourselves a week of Spanish lessons.
Pucón is a very touristy tourist town, and we're glad to be visiting outside the tourist season. There is lots of money traded here during the short summer, and now it is quiet. Villarica, although larger, is quieter, being 25km further away from most of the natural attractions.
We did take the bikes out for a jaunt out of town one afternoon after a Spanish lesson, to follow the Trancura River and one of its tributaries, the Liucura, along a gravel (ripio) road that not only gave us lovely views of the two rivers roaring and tumbling with snow melt, but also vistas over fresh green fields to two nearby volcanos, Villarica and Llaima. It was fun riding with no luggage: for an afternoon, our sturdy touring bikes felt as light and free as the latest high-tech road bikes.
Most of our exploring has been on foot. We spent a couple of lovely days wandering through postcard scenery with Lavinia and Fernando, a couple we
met as we cycled into Pucón. Lavinia is an Australian who has just moved to Chile, and Fernando her Chileno partner. Lavinia is a cyclist, too, and has introduced Fernando to the fun of being on the road under your own steam. A Chilean cycling for the pleasure of it is a rare sight in this country, where (as in so many other parts of the world) locals ride a bike for transport only if they cannot afford anything motorised.
On one of these outings, we picked our way along a path at the foot of Volcán Lanín, ignoring the national park ranger's advice that the track was closed because of snow. He was right about the snow. But what else do you do when confronted in spring by a sunny day and snow above 1,000 metres — enjoy a snowball fight after lunch. Our walk took us through large thickets of quila, a native bamboo, to local ecosystems dominated by araurcaria as we gained height. This magnificent tree has been felled in huge quantities throughout its range in Chile, so national parks play a critical role in helping to protect what stands remain. It is an relic from
Gondwanaland and is of the same genus as two Queensland natives, the bunya pine and the hoop pine (which are not true pines); in its overall shape, an the structure of its leaves and seed cones, the araucaria resembles the bunya pine.
A second outing was into another stronghold of the araucaria, Parque Nacional Huerquehue. This is one of the parks most frequented by tourists to Pucón, partly because it is accessible by public transport. It is also like walking in a postcard, following paths that open to beautiful views across valleys of ancient forests to lakes and snow-covered mountains. The forest here also supports several species of the pretty southern beeches, or nothofagus, another genus that Australians will be familiar with. There is at least one species in Queensland, the Antarctic beech, which is facing extinction, and a couple in south-eastern Australia, including the beautiful winter-deciduous beech found in Tassie.
While we were in Pucón, we treated ourselves to a climb of Volcán Villarica, one of the most active volcanoes in South America, and also one of the most accessible. It is 2,847 metres high, and although it is not technically difficult — it is a steepish
An huaso shows off the skill of his horses
On the road to one of the thermal springs for an evening soak we came across this local huaso (jackeroo) hike — Chilean parks authorities do not allow it to be climbed without a local guide. So we hired Rodrigo, who took us out for a day at his office. We were the only two in his group, which was great because it meant we could climb at our own pace, and we quickly left the other groups behind. (Those weeks on the road had given us the edge!) There were perhaps 20 other people on the mountain that day; Rodrigo told us that, in summer, about 400 tourists climb the peak every day.
The accessibility of Villarica did nothing to detract from the wonder of the climb. Even from quite a low altitude, we had breath-taking views over Lago Villarica and the Andes to the north, where range after snow-capped range was massed. Even far away banked against the enormous Chilean skies, its hugeness was a reminder of how small humans are in the scheme of things. It felt appropriate that this single mountain, which dominates the landscape around it, whether at ground level or from its flanks, made us work hard to reach the summit. Reach it we did, though, through snow so pure and glary it
The huaso in the road
Workers on horseback are still common in Chile was difficult to see the horizon, and through ice that tinkled like ice-cubes in a summer drink, as shards blew across a collar of glacier near the top. The summit itself was a narrow lip of only a few metres, where we balanced ourselves against a freezing gale that instantly made our faces ache and gazed into the crater that dropped under us. On some days, one can see the lava in its throat; when we were there, sulphurous steam hid the lava. We were on the summit for only a few minutes, but it was enough time to gaze over the vista to Lanín, the greatest volcano in the area. The descent was fun, as we slid down, our bottoms in-built luges, in only a fraction of the time it took us to climb. (Claire beat Dave in our only race.)
Santuario Cañï In a fortnight of highlights, it is easy to pick the high point: Santuario Cañí. This 500ha environmental park is a place of magic in the hills north-west of Pucón. We went there on a two-day hike the day after fresh snowfall when the landscape looked as though it had been drawn from
Stirrups and spurs
Intricately crafted wooden stirrups and fancy spurs are part of the hauso's usual attire, along with hip-length leather chaps that wouldn't be complete without tassels a dream or a child's picture book. Ours were the only human footprints in the snow, which was a metre deep at the top of a very steep, two-hour climb. Only a pudu, one of the smallest deer in the world and a native of Chile, and the huiña, a mountain cat, had been there before us. (We liked to imagine that the cat prints were those of the puma, which lives in this area, but the marks were too small.) As we reached the snowline, we had to put on our rainjackets, to protect us from the melting snow raining from the trees. It felt odd, when we had a clear blue sky overhead. Up to an altitude of 800 metres, we climbed through a forest of several beech (nothofagus) and other species; coihue, lenga, tepa, maño, raulí, much of which was burned or clear-felled for pastures before being replanted in the 1990s. Higher still we came into untouched araucaria and lenga. The park ranger told us that the araucaria here is up to 2,000 years old, among the oldest remaining in Chile. We were awed to be in the presence of such still, mossy age. After pitching our
tent beside a group of iced-over lakes, we climbed a lookout a few hundred metres directly overhead into the late afternoon light to enjoy a 360 degree view of our surroundings. That night was a snowy camp under a universe crowded with stars, and in the morning we woke in clear air to the resonant knocking of magellanic woodpeckers, among the soft twitterings of other birds. With all this beauty around, it was difficult to hike back down to farms and the town.
Peter and Lorena, keen hikers and our delightful hosts at the hostel we stayed at in Pucón excited us about Cañí, with their memories of hiking there this time last year. (If you want a homely, soul-infused place to stay in Pucón, consider El Refugio, Palguin 540, tel. (045) 441 596, info@hostalelrefugio.cl.) Cañí was the first private sanctuary in Chile, which has legislation that allows for such parks. It was created in about 1989 when a couple of ex-pat farmers bought the land to stop it being logged by a New Zealand lumber company. It has since been taken over by an environmental group, Fundación Lahuén, and runs along lines that anyone in Australia familiar with
Landcare will recognise. At the bottom of the ridge that leads into the park is an information centre, which is run by a ranger. He tends a nursery of seedlings of plant species native to the sanctuary, and runs education programs with local landholders and schoolchildren about the value, economic as well as ecological, of using local species in a way that is sustainable. He also runs reforestation and other restoration work in the park itself.
Our heads and souls eventually followed our feet back to town, as we prepared for venturing south again on the bikes.
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Mark and Becky
non-member comment
OMG!
OMG! Some of the best photo's yet! And that's saying something considering how good they've been so far. Snow! There's snow! Ski! The views are magnificent and further down the mountain it looks so lush and what about that huaso - like something straight out of an adventure film. Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito are going to pop up in your next pictures for sure! That picture of Dave outside the green tent with his arms outstretched showing off his man-boobies was so funny! Put a shirt on Dave! :)) Love, Mark and Becky