Los Rios and Los Lagos Regiones

Chile is divided into "regiones", similar to our states. This post covers where we visited in the Los Rios (the Rivers), and the Los Lagos (the Lakes) regions, an area roughly between Puerto Montt (and several hundred kilometers south) and Temuco.

By the time our first two weeks in Northern Chile had passed, we were beyond sick of the pervasive desert landscape. From Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama, 1,600 km to the north, lay hill after hill of desolate, barren, and empty wasteland, dotted with only a few dusty towns and mining operations in between. The coast was populated but the vast open space between the coastal cordillera and the Andes, was largely a landscape in shades of beige. Starkly beautiful, for sure, but quite monotonous. So by the time we were due to return our rental van we were 100% ready to head somewhere greener.

We landed at 8pm in Puerto Montt and took an overpriced taxi ride over to Puerto Varas, where I had booked a cabana for the night, within walking distance of the van rental office. I double checked the information from the airbnb host – wait a second – the address was clear on the other side of town! Well... okay, it was too late to do anything about it now, so away we went. The taxi took us to a quaint neighborhood of brown wood clad homes that looked not completely unlike New Jersey or southern Washington.

We passed through the town center of Puerto Varas which ended up being a very cute coastal town (which we later learned won an award for being the most polite town in Chile), with seeming German/Dutch/Swiss influence on the architecture and language – words like Kuchen (cake), heavy timber architectural details, and wood shingled a-frame chalets abound. We even saw a windmill that looked straight out of the Netherlands.

The next morning we called an uber to take us to the van place. We got there, stepped out of the car, and took a look around. Where google maps said Wicked South America would be -- there was simply nothing. So I called Wicked and was told the address is actually on the other side of town, the side of town from whence we had just came. Hmmm...

So we got Another uber and finally made it to the correct pick-up spot, meeting David with Wicked South America. We saw a colorful van parked on the side of the road which we were pretty certain was ours! We had looked through the photos on the website and all the vans were done up in various fun paint jobs – a yellow submarine, breaking bad, psychedelic artwork, and even one done up like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo! Or, if you watch Adult Swim, reminiscent of the van in Mike Tyson's Mysteries.

Vitali did not drive the van into the dog.

We had hoped to get the Mystery Mobile and lady luck shone upon us. Her name is ‘Tiny’. And she is indeed, quite tiny. Even narrower than Numa, but quite capacious where it counts!

If you can believe it, Tiny was a free upgrade from our original reservation, which was an ancient three-seater Mitsubishi. We were sold on the upgrade that Tiny was more fuel efficient and modern!

David walked us through everything we needed to know for Tiny's care, and before we knew it, we were on our way! Our first stop, Lider (a supermercado unfortunately owned by Wal-Mart) and Doite (an outdoor retailer), to stock up on food and fuel for our journey. $400 later and Tiny was filled with canned and dried food of all sorts, and ten cans of stove fuel. We had filled most of Tiny's storage space.

Food ended up being only a little bit cheaper than the states. Some fresh items are much less expensive, but our total cart was only maybe 10%-15% less than it would be in the US.

Unlike the US, covid requirements are strictly enforced here -- every indoor space we went into whether it be a supermarket, store, or gas station, had a mask requirement, a skin thermometer, and hand sanitizer, as well as limits on how many people were allowed in the building. Everyone complied.

We also noticed that Chilenos are big on receipts. You are legally obliged to receive a receipt for every transaction, and most have a scannable barcode at the bottom. For most transactions you are asked to provide your RUT or pasaporte number, for some governmental tracking which us extranjeros were not privy to.

The back of Tiny has a small kitchen, complete with sink, stove, cooler, and folding chairs. The interior converts from two bench seats and table to a bed, with four areas of storage beneath the platform. Awesome! It is quite comfortable to sit and sleep in.

We headed north just an hour, to a campground near Puyehue National Park, called El Caulle. There was a restaurant there too, but closed due to covid. We pulled in and eventually found someone who led us to a horse paddock where there were campsites set up, complete with tables, a light, and electricity! Neat! There was one other family there, but far away and around the bend of a stand of trees.

The land was extraordinarily idyllic – rolling fields in a valley between steep mountains, all covered in lush greenery. The bathrooms were pretty great – open-air, with a simple stone floor, plain-sawn wood for cladding, and a corrugated metal roof. The hot water was out of order though...

Who were we to complain? The fact that we had power and full LTE allowed me to finish the first Chile post! We would later learn that electricity at campsites is pretty common here, unlike in the US.

One of the owner's dogs came and hung out with us all afternoon. He was very cute!

The next morning we awoke to the herd of horses hanging out with the mystery mobile. The white horse seemed to be the leader of the group; wherever he went, the rest followed. We tried to give one an apple but he got scared and ran away.

We packed up and headed east with the intent of hiking to Lago Constancia in Puyehue National Park. Several miles before the trailhead however, was some sort of pre-check for the paso to Argentina and they told us we could go no further. So we headed back towards the Anticura sector of the park, stopping at the Mirador Salto los Novios to gander at our first waterfall.

Very pretty! We left the falls and parked outside of the guardaparque to the sector and entered on foot, acquiring a map and hiking to Salto Anticura.

It was stunning! No one was there either, which we found strange but later came to be perfectly explainable. Chilenos like to stay up late and don't seem to be interested in getting up early to catch the sunrise or to hike. On the days we stayed in camp late we'd consistently see people start waking up around 9AM or 10AM!

We were there early enough (although really not early at all) to catch the beautiful morning light on the water.

We continued on to the other trail in the sector, to Salto El Pudu, a very tall and dramatic waterfall that plunged into the green jungle.

On the walk back we started to see people coming in to hike.

We packed up and headed to the Aguas Calientes sector of the park, where we hiked the Rapidos del Rio Chanleufu.

This was a nice easy trail past a developed hot spring hotel, natural hot springs in the river, and through the temperate rainforest. There was a beautiful overlook at the end down a canyon with muted turquoise water.

We decided to check out another campground nearby that was rumored to have hot showers. We found out that they were also charging for access to three trails (8,000 pesos) shown on the national park map, which confused us. We weren't sure if they were charging for access or if they owned the land. We debated and decided to spend the money to camp (18,000 pesos!) so we could take a hot shower and hike the included trails.

The campground host was excited to talk to us in English, blurting out "West Coast is the Best Coast" after hearing we were from Colorado.

We set up, made lunch, then hit the trail.

First we stopped at the Salto del Indio, which was not very tall but had a large volume of water.

Then past the Salto de la Princesa (which wasn’t running), and then to another waterfall beyond, Salto Repucura, which was very picturesque, and absolutely swarmed with giant buzzing flies that we heard would sting you. They are apparently attracted to dark colors. My entire five piece wardrobe is dark... I snapped a few photos before we fled from the bandidos.

Finally we followed the trail to a viewpoint of the volcano, which was unfortunately completely clouded in mist.

We woke up to rain the next morning, packed up, and headed north to our next stop, Pucon, in the Los Rios region of Chile, filling up our tank on the way. We realized that this vehicle, a Suzuki, circa 1990-2000?, was much less fuel efficient (and yet more fuel efficient than our original reservation!), getting only about 450 km/tank versus the near 900 km/tank our Peugeot was getting (although this van is petrol, not diesel). All gas stations are attended, like in New Jersey. We usually stop at Copec, the ubiquitous chain complete with some really well designed quick-serve snack bars (complete with green walls!), and clean bathrooms that are usually free. Some even have pay showers and free air for tires.

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Little did we know that Pucon is the casual adventure capital of Chile, and it was packed. Apparently Chilenos like to vacation here during the summer, to hike, whitewater raft, and ascend Volcan Villarrica (which is a simple walk-up, but unfortunately required a guide and $300USD).

So, we head through Pucon and see a HUGE amount of cars leaving. We arrived on a Sunday night so we assumed this was the weekend crowd departing. Monday and Tuesday featured slightly fewer crowds, but by Wednesday the hordes were back.

We stopped at three different campgrounds, all increasingly expensive (16,000; 20,000; 25,000), before finding one for 10,000/night. I am quite disinclined to spend a lot of money on a campground when we are already paying $65/day for our campervan. No wildcamping options up here unfortunately.

This campground was in someone’s very large backyard, and it was packed full of tents. We asked about hot water in the showers and were quite surprised to hear that yes, it did exist. (Upon later inspection, the water was only lukewarm.)

We said great!, paid the friendly man for four nights, and very happily parked and claimed our space with a laundry line. We spent the afternoon watching how the locals camp. About the same as the US, although those at the "bring everything and the kitchen sink" end of the spread were much greater in number. Lots of mouthwatering barbecuing and lounging happening.

We got to interact with some more people in Pucon and everyone was very friendly and understanding if we didn't know what they were saying. We also saw a lot of dogs running around, that look well cared for, mostly german shepherds and some chow mixes. Dogs out on important business turned out to be a common sight the more towns we visited.

The next morning we headed up to Mirador Laguna el Leon, a privately owned trail and steep hike up to a lookout over a lake.

We were the first folks there that morning and 5,000 pesos later we were hiking up up up 750 feet to the lookout, which had a beautiful view over Laguna el Leon. Apparently these folks have been stewards of this land going back to their great, great grandmother.

On the way back down a young kitten came hurtling down the hill beside us, full tilt. We pet her and she tried to come with us. We would have liked to take her...

Because today was Monday, the national parks we intended to visit were not open, so we went to visit some private attractions instead. It really surprised us that national parks had operating hours here.

We turned down a dirt road that held the promise of many waterfalls – there were probably eight or nine of them along this road. We stopped at Salto El Leon, which had a packed parking lot, including multiple tour busses. They charged us 6,000 pesos for the visit, and we were glad to see the prices printed on the sign -- it seemed like only in the north did we get charged the foreigner tax (where prices were not advertised anywhere and quite subject to change!).

The waterfall was very dramatic and beautiful, but also had a very narrow trail that was quite crowded with people and pawing young children. We quickly left.

Then we stopped by Salto El Puma, which was right across the street from the previous, only 4,000 pesos, and empty -- we were the only folks there.

This hike was a bit longer, maybe half a mile in, but we thought it was much better than Salto el Leon. We had the viewpoint to ourselves and could get up close to the falls.

Finally, we stopped at Salto La China, which was also 4,000 pesos. This one was very busy but the trail had multiple viewpoints which meant the crowd was dispersed.

On the way back to the parking lot the clouds rolled in and it started to SLEET!

The next day we headed to Villarrica National Park, and when we asked for a map, the park ranger showed us to a map on the wall, where we could only take a picture. We also noted that the park hours differed than what was on the website.

We intended to hike part of the Villarrica Traverse and a nearby volcano, but when we got to the trailhead we found a confusing sign which said Sendero Habilitado (Enabled Trail) but a picture of a hiker crossed out. The website said the trail was open, but we decided to go elsewhere, having heard of two recent headlines of ejected extranjeros who broke the rules in a national park.

We stopped at the Salto de Momolluco, which was a very tall cascade, but a little far away.

We got back in the car and drove a ways, to Lago Quillelhue, and the trailhead for the Sendero Lagos Andinos. We saw our first Araucaria araucana, the National Tree of Chile, and a living fossil. I wondered what the heck it was as its characteristics (thick, triangular, sharp leaves that densely cover the branches and geometric bark) were far outside any type of tree categorization I knew.

We parked at the trailhead and prepared for our journey.

The first part of the trail was through fields of orange lilies, bamboo, and these araucaria trees. I passed water and (for the first time this trip!) asked Vitali to very kindly return to Tiny to get the tripod which I forgot...

After Vitali had returned (I wasn't sure he would), we quickly overtook the two parties ahead of us.

We enjoyed the sunshine in the forest and admired the flora. We even found some wild strawberries!

We eventually came to two lakes, which were unremarkable, but pleasant.

And then encountered a sign stating that the final lake was 5km away. We began climbing up a Very Steep Hill and then through a forest of araucaria, and finally emerging onto an ash covered clearing. We climbed along the slopes of the Volcan Lanin and eventually made it to the small lake, Laguna Verde, which was quite beautiful.

We headed back, while Volcan Lanin remained shrouded.

Clouds started to come in as we crossed the ash field and we sped back down, passing multiple groups asking how much further the final lake was. We got back to the car just in time for a light drizzle to start.

The next day we headed to Heurquehue National Park, where we had to have a reservation to enter. We arrived right as the park opened, and got in line. The sign at the entrance said the hours of the park were 8AM to 2PM, which was different than the website. We were starting to (not) see a pattern of consistency here...

We showed the ranger our QR code for entry, were recommended some trails, and then headed to the Sendero San Sebastion trailhead. While AllTrails doesn't seem to be that popular in Chile this trail was listed -- we knew there was 3600’ of gain, over about 9 miles.

The first part of the trail was switchbacks, not exceedingly steep, but still quite a grind. We eventually made it up the hill and thought -- "That was it?"

We came to a clearing where we could see (although we didn't know it) the summit of the mountain we were about to climb. We had covered about 1,800’ in the first 1.5 miles (at 19% average).

We passed through the field and then into a forest of the living fossil araucaria, along with quite a bit of bamboo.

Some of the araucaria had very funny looking pinecones.

Then the trail began to climb again, and we knew that we we were in fact, not done with our elevation gain. The trail got extraordinarily steep, past slick mud and exposed roots, which we had to dodge and grab to ascend.

We made it up to where the rock started to become exposed -- and traversed a few sections of scrambling.

We must have passed three of four false summits as we ascended, getting a better and better view (and more annoyed) with every one.

Here's the first false summit, where we had a nice view of some lakes.

The view from where Vitali stood.

Very dramatic rock formations revealed themselves to our right as we continued to ascend.

Finally we topped out with beautiful views into a striking blue laguna on one side.

And more plainly colored lagunas on the other side of the ridge.

The three lakes below could be visited along another trail that we opted to skip -- as we had already seen them from above.

We were the first up that day and on our return passed about 20 people, each asking with more and more alarm how much further was left.

The last couple, only about a quarter of the way up the initial switchback section (well after the last allowable entry to the trail), when I told them they had another two hours -- they were shook.

On the way back to camp, we saw Volcan Villarrica quietly smoking…. We fried up some frozen burgers we found that were GF and listened to someone playing Have you Ever Seen the Rain on a guitar. A while later the friendly owner and guitar player came over to inspect our van and admire how it was equipped. The older gentleman who checked us in stood by Vitali (whose golden and sinewy arms were on fully display) and flexed, and we all laughed.

We left Pucon the next day, heading back south to Vicente Perez Rosales National Park, the last park before we would officially be on the Ruta de los Parques de la Patagonia, the Route of the Parks of Patagonia, and the Carretera Austral, the Southern Highway. As a side note, some of these parks, but not all, had a PDF brochure, which unfortunately, usually contained only very minimal information. We yearned for the well collated and consistent information of US National Parks.

Layers of ash, evidence of the periodic volcanic eruptions.

We stopped at Lider again to get some supplies and a hard drive (I had already shot 300GBs of photos, filling Vitali's 1TB HD at an alarming rate). I wish we could avoid Lider but we haven't found another supermarket that has the same variety of food. We found a campsite in Ensenada near VPR NP for the next two nights, for 10,000/night.

It was nice enough -- the campsites were crowded but set in a dense grove of trees with red-white bark. The showers were comically small though.

In the morning we went and visited Vicente Perez Rosales National Park, stopping at the Saltos del Rio Petrohue first. We were astonished to see the parking lot charge 2,000 pesos for parking! What?? In a National Park?

We walked out to viewing boardwalks which were very nice, and set among lava which had solidified beneath glaciers, giving them a very unusual wavy formation.

We walked over to a connecting trail, the Sendero Los Enamoradores, which passed by a small pool which had a very still surface and fine reflection.

The trail also had several viewpoints on the Rio Petrohue too, which had quite a bit of whitewater.

Finally the trail followed a creek which was very peaceful, covered in moss, ferns, and a sheer wall of lava rock.

We finished the trail, which was now very busy, and made it back to camp, struggled to shower (at least it was hot, which allows you to overlook a great number of things...), and prepared for the next day.

In the morning we packed up and headed back into the park, to hike up a portion of the Paso Desolacion. We passed several paid parking lots and were rewarded by a large gratis lot at the end of the road, at the water by the lake. Suckers!

We didn't feel like hiking to the top so we decided to stop at the Mirador La Picada, hoping to get a good view of Lago todos los Santos. I'm glad I took a picture of the map at the trailhead because there was another map later that was missing key information.

The first three miles of the trail were in volcanic sand, mostly flat, and through fields of fuzzy green, red, and purple beans.

We passed through two alluvial plains (which were somewhat hilariously translated to english as "Flurries", and then turned left on to the spur up to the paso.

The trail increased in difficulty, reminding us strongly of a cross between Mauna Kea in Hawai'i and Mount Doom.

We reached the Mirador and Volcan Osorno very coyly revealed itself, and we were treated to a beautiful view of the turquoise lake.

We admired, ate a banana, and headed back down. Back at the lakeshore we saw some dramatic mountains at the head of the lake that weren't visible from the mirador.

On the way back down we had only passed a few other groups, but once we got back to the parking lot, we found it packed and a huge amount of people and cars were maneuvering their way through a mass of humanity trying to enter the area on the single track dirt road.

It seemed like this was a popular place to go out on a boat and enjoy the water.

We eventually made it out of the lot and on the road out. We stopped along the river again to photograph the rapids, and an area where the water was cascading over more of that interesting glacial lava.

We made it back to the Mystery Mobile and headed towards a cabana, where we decided to stay as the forecast had called for two straight days of rain. We passed a hobbit hole on the way out, which coincidentally sold snacks and gasoline.

In the next post -- we officially link up with the Carretera Austral, the Southern Highway!