Huerquehue National Park

"The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday, December 12th to Sunday, December 14th 2008

One of the most noteworthy features of Huerquehue Park are its millenarian forests of Araucarias, which are the perfect backdrop for the small lakes and ponds that dot the park. Those strange trees that have an even stranger English name, monkey puzzle trees, are not the only reason to visit the park though. It´s easily accessible from Pucon, has great scenic hiking routes between forests and lakes and some incredible views, like the Pucon river to the Villarrica volcano. I set out with a group of four others to explore the park, Gili, Harel, Shaked and Ela. We bought our supplies in Pucon and got off the bus at the park entrance at about 10:00 in the morning. One of the great things about Chile is that during the summertime the sun sets at about 10:00pm so we had plenty of time to reach our planned camping site deep in the park and since we were walking with heavy packs - we were in no hurry... The trail from the entrance took us to a nice view point over lake Tilquilco and than continued into the forest starting on level ground but than climbing steeply to an unseen pass above. Luckily the climb was interrupted every hour or so by a short detour to a waterfall or a view point over the Pucon valley and volcano Villarrica allowing us to put down the heavy packs and enjoy a snack and the scenery around us. This was also the first time that I found that the walking sticks, that did me no good in the high Andes, are actually helpful when walking in lower altitudes with heavier packs.

When the climb ended we found ourselves amongst the park lake sector which consist of three small lakes surrounded by Araucaria trees and the snowy Andes. We leisurely walked amongst the lakes resting on their shore and dipping in Lago el Toro. When we had enough we shouldered our packs and headed up to cross another pass and down a dusty descend into our camping site where we setup our tents and ate a hot meal before retiring to sleep. In the next morning we woke up late and climbed through the forest out of the valley we camped in and down to the Rio Blanco valley on a well marked although a bit boring trail. We stopped in a forest clearing for lunch and 2 hours siesta before arriving to the San Sebastian hot springs at around 14:00. At the springs we got a camping site with bathrooms and running water on soft grass and free access to the hot pools as well as found a local family who agreed, for a small fee, to take us to Pucon on the next evening saving us 5 hours walk and the need to hitchhike. Since we had arranged transportation, we found ourselves with nothing to do but to rest, enjoy the hot springs and eat for a day and half. In fact we ate so much that we run out of the food we brought and paid for a mediocre asado. After an exhausting day in the springs (including a late night deep under the stars), 5 of us climbed to the back of the pickup for the drive to Pucon, to which we arrived tired and very dusty (the road was unpaved..) just in time to visit the local supermarket for supplies and cook a great Spaghetti Bolonese...