We’re back from the trek (12/12/2001)

Hello from Pucon again!

We just came back from a four-day trek in park Huerquehue (don’t even try to say it out loud!)
We wanted to make it a three-day trek but Oren didn’t get up in the morning so we took the bus to the park only at 16:00. We got there looked around a bit and set up camp on the shore of the lake. The following morning we got up, packed up our things and started climbing through the most amazing forest I have ever seen. The Araucaria trees were unusual (I’ll send a photo of them) and the entire forest was “glowing” with a soft green light.


Along the way there were several other lakes, lagoons and waterfalls. The entire day we went uphill – except for when we went to see the waterfalls. But after each waterfall we had to climb back up. It was the kind of forest you read about in “The Hobbit” or something like that. When we finally got to the top of the mountain we went down the other side into a small valley where we set up camp near a small river. The next day we started walking into another part of the forest that finally turned into grassy rolling hills with a few farms along the way. This too was like a scene from a book. The trail went through the farms and we got to meet the locals and the livestock.

We went back and slept at the same place (where we had left or tent and most of our equipment). We met a Chilean couple there that reminded us that it was the first day of Chanukah - it was quite a FADIHA. The fourth day was much less interesting – we went a very long way to get back to Pucon. We caught a couple of rides along the way including a final ride of about 20km to Pucon.

It really was an amazing trip.

Before the trek we tried to climb the Villarica volcano and got up about a third of the way before the guide decided it was too dangerous to continue due to the winds. So we went down. Going down from the volcano is done by sliding on your TOOCHES on the snow. It was great, but short. Now we are getting ready to climb the volcano again and later to leave towards the south of Chile.
Anyway, have a great week and I’ll get back to you soon.

Adios!