Jack and Jo in Chile: Huerquehue National Park

Huerquehue is a beautiful park located a few hours from Pucón.

After a very dusty bus ride, we nabbed a great campsite right on Lake Tinquilco with a little help from the park ranger, and spent 2 nights. We were pleasantly surprised at the lack of tabanos around the lake.

Jo and Margaret at the ranger station

Here’s Jo happily preparing our gourmet dinner. Mmmmm….instant pasta.

The first day we went on a grueling uphill hike through an amazing araucaria (monkey-puzzle tree) forest.

Here's the araucaria tree up close- these little buggers are sharp!

The view was worth the pain; from the top you can see 5 volcanoes.

Here's Jack contemplating life...

The view from the top

Along the way we spotted some wildlife – a pollito spider (so named due to their furry chick-like appearance, I assume)

Here's the baby pollito spider we saw...

...and here's what they look like full-grown!

These blue-green lizards were all over the place!

The next day we took off on another strenuous excursion up to a series of alpine lakes. The 1 ½ hour trail was literally a set of stairs, zig-zagging straight up the mountain. Although it was tough, it was beautiful dense alerce forest (sequoia-like trees).

Here’s Margaret and Jack with an impressive alerce tree.

When we got to the top, we took a dip at Laguna Toro, where Jo was finally bitten by a tabano! (remember the even more annoying cousin of the horse fly?) Afterwards we tromped off to find the other lakes, but were disappointed by their muddy crowded beaches, so headed back to spend the rest of the afternoon swimming along the rocky shore of Laguna Toro.

Laguna Toro