We’ve seen these giant leaved plants all over Southern Chile. You know they grab your attention when your nearly 11 year old asks for a picture with one. Gunnera tinctoria, better known as Chilean Rhubarb, is an invasive species. The stocks, like regular rhubarb, can be eaten. Park rangers shared with us that the Pudu […]
Rafting Rio Trancura in Pucon, Chile
My siblings gave us $200USD for Christmas to fund an excursion on our adventure through Chile. We used the gift to book a rafting trip down the Rio Trancura (wiki), a river just outside of Pucon. The 12-kilometer stretch of river we paddled has many small rapids and five Class III rapids. It was a […]
Parque Nacional Alerce Andino, Sector Correntoso, near Puerto Montt, Chile
We spent a half-day on the trail today, as we needed the kids to complete some school work in the afternoon. We drove an hour to the northern entrance to Alerce Andino. The drive included a short stretch on the Carretera Austral, Ruta 7, which runs south into Northern Patagonia. It was excited to see […]
Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales, near Puerto Varas, Chile
We visited Rosales national park today, only a 50 minute drive from Puerto Varas, where we’re living for a couple weeks. The park is easily accessible from many towns in the region, which we learned once we arrived. There were busses full of American and other foreign tourists in the park and at the well-traveled […]
Flora and Fauna of Los Lagos Region, Chile
Printouts of maps and other information can be hard to come by at many Chilean national parks. At Puyehue, the CONAF ranger handed us three aged but informative pamphlets about the birds, animals, and flowers we’ve been seeing on our hikes. He dug these out of a drawer in the park office when I asked […]
Parque Nacional Puyehue
We drove a couple hours north around Lago Llanquihue to Puyehue national park. The drive held as much beauty as the park. Morning sunlight glimmered on the blue lakes of the Los Lagos region. The sharp peaks of snow-capped volcanoes towered over low clouds. And the roads were empty. We arrived at the park and […]
First Day in Puerto Varas, Chile
We arrived yesterday afternoon in Puerto Varas. Upon arriving at our AirBnB at an apartment building, we quickly found ourselves in a situation. Since we have the cargo carrier on the roof of the car, we had to carefully navigate the covered parking deck under the building to find our marked parking space. We weren’t […]
Nightime View of Volcan Villarrica
On our last night in Pucon, we stayed up late (for us) and drove into Villarrica national park for a nighttime viewing of the volcano. The orange glow of the lava-filled caldera and the Milky Way clouds overhead made for a magical sight. The iPhone managed to capture some of the scenery, but hardly the […]
Sendero Saltos del Lallalca
Our last stop in Huilo Huilo, a hike along a trail that passes behind a waterfall and to a mini hydroelectric dam. By the end of our day in Huilo Huilo, we had hike eight miles on six or seven different trails.
Salto Del Puma at Huilo Huilo
Another short hike at Huilo Huilo to yet another stunning waterfall. The twist on this hike is that Katie and I became separated from the kids. We’ve gotten into the habit of letting them hike ahead of us, often times out of site. Katie and I arrived at the parking lot thinking the kids would […]