Reserva Nacional Nonguén
Just before noon, I joined a group of seven other UdeC astronomy affiliates for an afternoon hiking excursion in the nearby Reserva Nacional Nonguén. Along the way, we passed the local football (soccer!) stadium, which will soon host several games of the 2015 Copa América. After a while, the pavement gave way to dirt and potholes (perhaps more potholes than road), and we found ourselves at the park entrance.
A little while after parking the car and paying our entrance fee, the second half of our group arrived and we started up the trail. We had selected the “Los Rojas” loop, which would take us up to a lookout, presumably with a nice view. The first bit took us up a gravel road for a ways, before we turned off at a small stream and walked towards a meadow and a small cascade. Entering the meadow we caught a nice view of a rather large spiderweb, illuminated by the rays of the early-afternoon sun.
We passed through the meadow, after which the trail became significantly steeper and we ascended a long section of trail stairs. The stairs were in good condition, and in the slippy, muddy conditions, they were nice to have.
All along the hike, we were treated to Copihue – the national flower of Chile. There were quite a lot of flowers visible along the trail. I was initially surprised to see so many, since it is now the start of winter, but apparently it is the winter rains that result in the flowers blooming.
After an hour of hiking, we reached the mirrador, which featured a small, 1-story tower with a nice view of the surrounding areas. In particular, we had a great view of the Rio Bio Bio and its final section before meeting the Pacific Ocean.
We stayed up at the lookout for about half an hour, snacking, chatting, and enjoying the view, before heading back to the park entrance via the other half of the Los Rojas loop. All-in-all, we hiked about five kilometers on was turned out to be a beautiful day in the typically rainy winter.
Before returning to town, we stopped in a restaurant on the outskirts and enjoyed a traditional Chilean meal of Parrillada – basically a large pile of meat (steak, chicken, sausage, pork, etc.) and potatoes. It was a very tasty meal, and the thought of eating again today is unlikely to cross my mind.