One funny side note about renting a car. Neither of us knows how to drive manual and it's significantly more difficult to find and expensive to rent an automatic car. When we arrived in Pucón, we called a few agencies about renting an automatic car but none were available. Karen vaguely remembered that some car rental companies offer a chofer for an additional fee. She called one small car rental company that's run out of someone's home asking about a chofer. The women who runs the rental company said that they didn't offer that service, but on second thought she'd call some people in town she knew to see if anyone might be willing to drive us around. She called us back half an hour later with good news- she had found us a chofer! At $30 USD/day, the chofer was surprisingly within budget and worked out great. Although he's currently a real estate agent, it turns out he spent 15 years working at Villarrica National Park. He ended up doing all the hikes with us and was able to share lots of interesting information about our surroundings. He's got 6 kids at home, so we got the feeling he was just happy to be out of the house and exploring nature with us.
Many of Conguillío's trails were closed due to snow, but that really wasn't an issue. The park boasts over a dozen trails and turn-offs, each of which delights. Rather than opting for a popular all-day trail called the Sierra Nevada, we cruised around to many different spots in our car and did a couple 1-2 hour easy hikes.
1) Lago Verde & Volcán LLaima
The view from Lago Verde is quite beautiful. This photo really does not do it justice. The road leading up to Lago Verde is covered in black volcanic rock from Volcán Llaima, which can also be seen in the distance. This black rock contrasts sharply with the greenery that starts at the lake's edge and continues up the surrounding mountains. According to our guide, the green line marks the limit from previous volcanic erruptions. We ran into a couple groups camping here, and would love to do the same at some point in the future.
2) Lago Arcoiris
Lago Arcoiris (Rainbow Lake) is really mostly turquoise- but what a turquoise! It looks artificial, and is apparently a result of the basic minerals dissolved in the water from all the volcanic rock. There is a 20-minute loop you can hike around Lago Arcoiris and it's neat to see how the water changes different shades of blue depending on the angle you look at it. From some angles it mostly reflects the landscape and hardly looks blue at all. From others, you can see dozens of trees fallen in the bottom.
There is a wide stream that actively fills Lago Arcoiris. However, the lake does not look super full. Some park rangers told us there's an underground volcanic cave that leads the water out. They also told us the water is so cold (it's snow melt-off), that people can get hypothermia *very quickly* if they fall in.
3) Madre Araucaría
The Madre Araucaría is actually male- you can tell from the bark, among other things. When a male and female Araucaría tree are within about 10m of each other they are able to produce the piñon nut. This particular tree is estimated to be 1,800 years old, some say double that! It is large, but not compared to the Giant Sequoias of northern California, a testament to the fact that Araucarias grow very very slowly.
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| The bark of a female Araucaría tree has a turtle-shell pattern. |
Aside from the Madre Araucaría, we walked through a forest of thousands of other Araucaría trees, which made for a pretty view up.
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Matt sitting on another large tree (not an Araucaría) |
We ate our picnic lunch at Lago Conguillio. During the middle of Winter it freezes over, but by now it had warmed to a comfortable temperature. Even Matt waded in- which means a lot!
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| Matt's artsy take on the landscape. Inspired by our Iguazu photographer friend. |
5) Salto Truful Truful
Truly BLUE. A 10-minute walk through volcanic rocks to reach this river and waterfall.
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