Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta
My first Chilean adventure outside Concepción! A mid-Spring weekend (remember, it’s the Southern Hemisphere), I hopped in a rental car (one of the few automatics available) picked up Kelly and a fellow postdoc here in town, before caravaning South with another car full of astronomers (which included two folks from Concepción and two visitors from Switzerland). Owing to Friday obligations by various members of the group, our Saturday morning departure left us to a leisurely drive to Cañete, and Lago Lanalhue. We proceeded down the coast, passing Lota and Coronel on our way.
After a brief walk around the grounds of the (closed) Mapuche museum in Cañete, we continued to Lago Lanalhue. There, after a bit of searching on dirt roads around the lake, we came to our night’s lodging. The group of us were set up to stay in a cabin on the grounds of a small resort. The newly built facility had several cabins, a hotel, a restaurant, and a modest conference center (suitable for up to sixty participants). It had been built with sustainability in mind and featured motifs of the local flora and native peoples. One of our group was friends with the architect, so we were treated to a tour of the hotel and stories about the building process. In addition to the locally sourced materials, there was a lot of evolution of the design and styling, resulting from the interaction and feedback loop between architect and the craftsmen.
On Sunday morning we left our cabin and re-traced our steps to reach the entrance of Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta. The distance was not significant, but the dirt road was at the limits of what could reasonably be accomplished with our four-door rental sedan. Fortunately, I managed the ruts and rocks fine, only making contact with the ground once or twice. Along the way we were treated to increasing numbers of araucaria trees (also known as “monkey puzzle” trees).
Our destination for the day was the Piedra del Aguila, a rocky dome in the coastal mountain range containing Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta. From this rocky dome one can see both the Andes and the Pacific ocean, we were told. The weather was not on our side this day, and we entered the clouds as we neared Piedra. We did spend a few minutes on the dome, as wind blew the rain drops nearly parallel to the ground.
We did an out-and-back hike from the Piedra, first descending a rocky slab, then winding our way through the Araucaria forest while the rain fell, creating a great sensory environment:
Rainstorm in Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta from George Privon on Vimeo.
After retracing our steps and re-gaining the elevation we had lost, we piled back into the cars for the return to Concepción. Turning the overall trip into a loop, we continued East through the park before turning North through the central plains. The drier conditions were a stark contrast to the stormy conditions we encountered in the park. An afternoon/evening of driving brought us back to Concepción, and we returned the car a scant five minutes before the rental shop closed.