Between Temuco and Pucon
- asiaquentin
- 7 déc. 2017
- 5 min de lecture
So, here we are in Temuco, the main city in the Auricania region. We've spent 2 days while relaxing/geeking in front of the computer/ keeping-up with blog/ beer drinking in an appartament of 13m2 (kitchen and bathroom included). The city was built at the end of the 19th century during the pacification of the Mapuche and has only recently developed. So in terms of sight-seeing is of little interest. The city is an economic and university hub, what we could see in the neighborhood where we were staying: located in the west, seemed very recent, and resembles USA's type of urban planification (spacious streets and sidewalks, clean houses, trendy bars and shopping malls).
The things to see: the museum of Auricanie region and the Conaf park (the entity of national parks). The park : Well, we have to admit that we've got lost in less than 10 minutes after entering the park and we've came out at the other end after 2 hours of wandering around ^^ Small trick, if you come to the park between 13h and 14h, during the lunch hours, you can pass the gate without paying, because yes, for everything you have to pay in Chile, including national parks (between 2000 (2.6 €) and 4000 (5 €) pesos per person for foreigners).
The museum : Very recent museum retracing the history of the region: from the first men, through the culture and traditions of the Mapuche Indians (which before the arrival of the Spaniards lived on a immense territory between the two oceans), to the colonization by Chileans and European immigrants 150 years ago . For us, it lacked a little info on Mapuche culture in terms of religion and imaginary world, but the museum is worth seeing and the entry is free of charge (in fact , not for everything you have to pay in Chile ...).
At the entrance there is also an exhibition of local Mapuche artists: textile, goldsmith and leather goods, which mixes traditional and modern design. PS: some archaeological or ethnological terms are a little complicated, so better to come with a dictionary, because everything is in Spanish and there is no wifi.
Temuco, was only a stopover on our way to Pucon and the nearby national parks. Hey, and if we rented a car to go there ?! Yeah! Well, if you just present yourself at the car rentals, without booking a car on-line, the chances are small that it will be a real low-cost affaire, but well...
The keys of the daddys-like car in hand, we're off on adventure, direction: Pucon. The lil' fun on the roads is that while the speed limit is 100km/h, the potholes are pretty big, once off the high-way, and you have to manoeuvre between them fast. But hey, no pain, go gain, and at least, that don't let you fall asleep behind the wheel :)
We've booked a night in a hostel in Pucon before even thinking about renting the car. The hostel was really cheap as for this turistic destination (6000 pesos a night per person- although the rate doubles in December). Pucon = lots of French people = alcohol
Take first: Just after we've came to town, we've met up with friends of our friend (big up Pépé) and drunk a lot. They are traveling between Chile and Argentina for few months now, so it was really handy to get all the infos, news and tips, and to have a nice chat about everything. That was our only visit to the Pucon center, in fact we only saw one bar.
The weather was far from being fantastic during our stay (and it got much better just after we've came back to Temuco), but that did not stop us from doing some hikes.
The second day, we've left towards the Lake Caburgua located about thirty kilometers north from Pucon, halfway there's Los Ojos del Caburgua, a natural wather basin with at least three or four waterfalls (not only that you have to pay practically for everything in this country, but almost everything is privatized as well, parks and protected areas included).
After a relatively beautiful morning (at least for the Brettany/UK standards), the weather in the afternoon got much worse. With quite a few active volcanoes in the area, hot springs are very common there and so the spas exploithing them. So, in such weather conditons, the only reasonable thing to do was going to a thermal spa. The heavy rain that falls on your head while you're in a hot bath in much less annoying! All in all, that was a good day.
Sharp at 9 o'clock, after a good night's sleep (or almost) in the car, we were off and well motivated for a hike: El Caňi. It's a spotry trial, since you have to climb up about 1000 meters in 2 hours. Unfortunately, the haze and rain didn't let us enjoy the view on the valley. At 1400 meters of altitude, we arrived in the forest of enormous trees (named Coihue) that led us to a lake covered in mist and with snow on the shores. The atmosphere was dreamlike (or as from Lord of the Rings movie). Despite our will, we couldn't continue till the end of the path (that is till another lake and the highest viewpoint). In a shelter on our way up, we've met two Germans, who had spent an icy night there and had warned us that the path further up is hardly visible. As we could find out for ourselfs, the layer of snow and mud was well too deep to go through withour wetting our shoes (and our rain jackets started pass through wather), so we decided to go back.
Despite a very bad weather and the impossibility of finishing the hike it was a nice experience, we could enjoy the empty trail, since before the start of touristic season there was hardly anybody in the area (except of the two Germans) and free of charge, because there were no guards at the gate. You can dawnload the map of El Cani path here
After that rainy 5h hike we decided to go back to Pucon, to the hostel where we've slept the first night. Pucon = French people = alcohol. Take two: If the hostel was only occupied by Germans the first night, this time there are 6 Frenchspeakers. As a result, Quentin found himself organizing an improvised tasting of Chilean wines during the evening. According to Asia, that was kind of cliche of a French meeting :)
On the third day, before going back to Temuco to give back the car, we went to Villarrica National Park, Villarrica being the volcano near the town. Nice hike too, after walking along the dry riverbed (weird, looking at the fact that it was a period of snowmelting on the nearby slopes), crossed by small woods with huge trees (coihue again), we saw the snow-covered volcano, that overlooks the lake Villarrica (no, they didn't look too far for the names^^).
Return to Temuco for 3 days, the time to look for another woofing, recharge the batteries a bit after quite an exhausting week (Chiloé and Pucon), and enjoy a little Cumbia concert in a really nice bar. (spoiler: we found a woofing near Puerto Varas, which means, we go down further south once again).
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