February 18 - Heurquehue Park

So what's a 'Heurquehue?'  I don't know and I'm not sure the Chileans know either, except that it is one of their national parks.  It is pronounced "where-ke-we"  (the 'e' is 'e' as in egg, not a hard 'e').

One of the good things about Spanish is that it's pronunciation rules are fairly rigid, especially when compared to English.  Unfortunately, Chilenos (Chileans) often seem to ignore that principle.

So, after breakfast we're on the bus to Heurquehue park.  Breakfast was interesting - we were too early for the hostel breakfast so the night desk clerk (who also folds laundry) helped us out.  He's of African descent, used to have some sort of interest in condos in Whistler and whose girlfriend is in Germany.  He knew about Tofino because the owner of this hostel used to own property out there.  I didn't write this all down so it might not be exactly correct but you get the gist.  He definitely seems worldly.

Laura and I are going to hike from the park entrance to 3 little lakes a ways along.

Here is a view of the lake at the park entrance.  It is a gorgeous day (bad photo, but it gives you an idea of the day).








And, tucked in across the lake (but out of the park) is this gorgeous little piece of paradise.  Tough life, eh?

First viewpoint up the trail and we get a view of Villarrica again.  Now, Villarrica isn't the only volcano in the area - it just happens to be the one we've seen so far.








Laura noticed that these trees seemed to be the predominant species in the park.  We didn't know what they were, but the Canada flag luggage tag on my day pack came through for us!  We met a couple who noticed the tag: she is Chilean, they live in Toronto and he works in Alberta, but they come  back to Chile regularly.  He gave us some botany lessons.  These are Coihue trees.










 We weren't sure what these were, but they appear to be a holly leaf with a honeysuckle flower.












Sorry, bad photo, but these look look like a bamboo.  Apparently, (according to our friend) they are related to bamboo and it is a native species.

We still have a bit of botany to go, so bear with me.

 Here's the second viewpoint, and another postcard shot of Villarrica.  Last one, though.  You can see that we are hiking through some pretty lush forests.

By the way, your eagle eyed forester spotted something you can see in this photo.  To the left of the lake you see a rectangular patch of trees taller than those adjacent.  These are probably BC Douglas Fir, which are being planted in Chile.

Next bit of botany.   These are Araucaria trees, or Monkey Puzzle in common lingo.  I think they are a relative and and not your "standard" Monkey Puzzle trees (but what do I know).  They seem to self prune and end up with only this flared top.

A close up of the top of one of these.

Our new friends also told us ab out some trees near Puerto Montt that are supposed to be among the oldest on earth.  We'll update you on this later on in our trip.

We were hiking to 3 lakes in the park - Lago Chico, Laqo Tore (shown here) and Lago Verde (below).  Gorgeous lakes and beautiful countryside.  We were above 1350 metres in elevation and still well below the treeline.  This is a huge contrast to  my hiking further south where the treeline was 900 metres and the trees were pretty scrubby well below that elevation.

Lago Verde

All in all a very pleasant day.  the hiking here was very different from what I did down south.

Another nice result - Laura was able to hike for about 15 km without significant problems, so she is getting better!





Last photo - not that I am complaining but.... when Laura has to bend over to avoid the ceiling the room must be pretty small!

She has booked our next hostel in Peurto Varas, so maybe she will redeem herself there.

We're still in Pucon tomorrow.  This may be a quiet day - our underwear needs washing.  Whatever we do, I'll try to bore you with the details.