The GoChile team was invited to visit a park where the pudú live together with the puma and carnivorous plants. This is the chronicle of the experience.

Chile has two mountain ranges. The Andes mountain range, known for its high snowfalls, and the Cordillera de la Costa, which imposes itself as a wall between the central valley and the Pacific Ocean. And although the Andes is the most visited and internationally known, the Cordillera de la Costa is the oldest and keeps gems like Nahuelbuta, an extraordinary ecosystem of varied flora and fauna to carnivorous plants and elusive mammals in danger of extinction.

The so-called Nahuelbuta mountain range corresponds to a section of the Cordillera de la Costa that goes from the Bío Bio river to the Imperial River in the Araucanía area in southern Chile. Their lands are part of Mapuche ancestral territory, that's why its name is in Mapudungun, which means "Big Puma".

We are in an all-wheel drive truck along the gravel road between Angol and the entrance to the Nahuelbuta National Park. We don't have more than a day to know its leafy forests of thousand-year-old araucarias and old coihues, so we'll be able to do only one trekking.

We are a group of travel lovers invited by Experiential Tourism Elements. Some ones have been attracted to this trip by the fascinating Mapuche culture. In my case, I was called by the rumor of a park where the elusive Darwin fox coexists with  2000-year-old araucarias , the small pudu and carnivorous plants.

After an hour's walk, we arrived at the entrance to the park where we checked in and started walking. Today we will only enjoy a taste of Nahuelbuta because we have just one day to get to know him. It is much less than the time it takes to travel, but it is enough to fall in love with him.

We begin the journey along the path to Piedra del Águila. Of medium difficulty, it is one of the busiest paths in the park because of the wonderful natural viewpoint that awaits us at the end of the road.

While we walk among oaks, raulis, lengas and araucarias covered with light green moss, the guide tells us that the Nahuelbuta National Park, created in 1939, is one of the last araucaria shelters outside the Andes.

The song of the chucaos accompanies us while we talk about the 16 varieties of orchids that appear in summer and we wonder where those two species of carnivorous plants that bloom in this park will be.

In addition to the chilote fox and pudu, these lands are inhabited by the puma and birds such as the churrin and the black carpenter, which make Nahuelbuta an excellent place to do birdwatching.

Between conversations, photos and stops to hug trees, time flies by and we are already at Piedra del Águila. The view is really impressive. Although it is a bit cloudy, you can see the Andes mountain range, the central valley and a little bit of the sea.

The scan is now complete. We identify the Andean volcanoes from above, we open our arms to feel the breeze and we take a few minutes to observe the horizon.

We leave grateful the park, but with desires of more, planning a next visit that includes camping, and why not, other trekkings.

 

 

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