HUILO HUILO BIOLOGICAL RESERVE: Volcanoes, Waterfalls and Towering Rainforests, Chile’s Lake District, Part 2

Huilo Huilo, Chile: On the deck at the top of the teleferico (aerial tramway) facing the volcano

On our second morning at Huilo Huilo we slept in again (getting used to the time change–five hours earlier than California), but got up in time to have breakfast and be at the stables for a horseback ride at 11:00.

During our horseback ride all the horses much preferred eating the daisies!

It was a warm spring day and flowers were everywhere. We rode through a field of daisies, lupins, Queen Anne's Lace, and wild roses, and then into a forest, before looping back through the flower field to the stables.

Before our ride we had taken a short walk to Salto Huilo Huilo, a magnificent waterfall located nearby.

Salto Huilo Huilo gives the reserve its name. In Mapudungan, the language of the Mapuche, Huilo Huilo means "deep crack" or "deep fissure"

The Spanish word for waterfall, salto, is from the verb saltar, to jump, and the masses of water were truly jumping over the brink to the river below, showing the power of nature in full force.

The tunnel provides access to the Salto de Puma falls through the thick foliage at the water's edge.

After lunch at a restaurant in Neltume (I had a churrasco sandwich–meat and avocado in a large roll) we drove to the trail head for another waterfall, the Salto de Puma, a longer walk ending in a path through a tunnel made of dried bamboo.

Salto de Puma. Although pumas, or cougars, are known to live in the reserve, they are rarely seen.

At the end of the tunnel is a dramatic opening to a platform in front of the falls, which thunders into the pool below..

View of the town of Neltume from the top of the teleferico. Neltume gets its name from two Mapudungun words meaning “To go to freedom” (Neltún: let free, Men: to go there).

We then returned to the hotel for a short rest before going to the cable car (teleferico) station near the museum for a ride to the top of the mountain. For dinner we had pizza in the cafe at the Petermann Brewery across the road from the hotel--where one can also see the vats where the beer is brewed.

The path to the waterfalls goes through a cave formed by a lava tube.

On our last morning, after another sumptuous buffet breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and headed back to Temuco, stopping along the way for one last walk–this time to a lava tube cave and then to another waterfall.

Rapids below the waterfall

The path was marked as a circular trail and ended up being much longer than we expected, descending to the river level to see the waterfall, then hiking back up to the entrance past an electricity generating station.
And then it was time to get back in the car for our ride back to Temuco and our flight to Santiago.Our three days in Huilo Huilo had been full of activities enhanced by perfect weather--warm but not hot and clear blue skies. We wished we could have stayed longer but it was time to go celebrate Christmas with family. It was the perfect beginning to our third trip to Chile.

Adventurous hikers could follow the path behind the waterfall, but risked getting wet!

For a report of our previous trip to Chile, in December 2009, when we went to the far north and visited the Atacama Desert, click HERE for Part 1, and HERE for Part 2. 

HUILO HUILO BIOLOGICAL RESERVE: Volcanoes, Waterfalls and Towering Rainforests, Chile’s Lake District, Part 1

Volcano Mocho-Choshuenco rises above Lake Panguipulli in Chile's southern lake district.

It was the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere. Birds were singing and a profusion of wildflowers blanketed fields and roadsides as we made our way toward Huilo Huilo Biologic Reserve at the base of the Andes in Chile’s lake district. (Huilo Huilo, pronounced, WEEL-oh-WEEL-oh, is a private for profit natural reserve and ecotourism project in southern Chile.)

Huilo Huilo is in the Patagonian Rainforest

We had landed at the Temuco airport, where we rented a car for the two and a half hour drive–made a little longer by our stop to take photos at the dramatic viewpoint on Lake Panguipulli toward the snowcapped volcano Mocho-Choshuenco, rising 2413 meters (about 7500 feet) into the blue sky.

The road to Huilo Huilo follows the shore of long Lake Panguipulli

After checking in at our hotel, we spent the next three days exploring the reserve, hiking, horseback riding, and learning about the unique life in this southern temperate rainforest. Plastic wristbands gave us free entry into most trails and facilities.

A spiral walkway around the atrium of the Nothofagus hotel leads to rooms facing the treetops.

This was a family vacation with our daughter, her husband, and their two teenage children, and there were activities for all ages to enjoy. We were staying at the Nothofagus Hotel, named after the tall trees endemic to the area. The hotel, built almost entirely of wood, surrounds a Nothofagus trunk and resembles a treehouse, with rooms looking out into the canopy.

Cheerful yellow plastic birds mark the trails in the Huilo Huilo reserve.

From our deck we could hear the roar of the river a short distance from the hotel. Before dinner we took a short walk along the river path to Salto de la Leona, one of several waterfalls in the reserve where masses of water from spring snowmelt were crashing over the edge.

A full moon rises over the mountains in the east (the Andes)

At sunset we went up to the roof deck to watch the sun disappear behind the volcano. Later, we watched the full moon rise in the east, so bright that it eclipsed most of the stars.

A herd of red deer gathers at feeding time. In December (spring in Chile) the male's antlers are covered in velvet.

On our first morning at Huilo Huilo  we crossed the road and  followed the trails (senderos) leading to the large enclosure where a herd of deer (ciervos) lived and to another smaller enclosure with a group of wild boars (jabali). We were able to observe the animals up close via raised walkways and they appeared quite oblivious of us.

A lively group of young boars, still with their striped coats, were frolicking in the enclosure.

We then walked around a large pond and its border of giant leaves to the nearby Volcanoes Museum.

Mapuche woman

Silver jewelry made by the Mapuche displayed in the Volcanoes Museum. The Mapuche (meaning "people of the land") are the largest ethnic group in Chile and constitute approximately 10% of the population (more than 1,000,000 people.)

The Volcanoes Museum is filled with exhibits of animals, minerals, fossils, history of the indigenous Mapuche people, a reproduction of a copper mine, and, rather oddly, a carved mammoth tusk from China.

Stone markers in the Mapuche style outside the Volcanoes Museum

After a lunch of empanadas, the classic Chilean meat filled pastries, that we had purchased from a stand in the local town of Neltume, we spent the afternoon relaxing in the hotel spa. We were still recovering from jet lag--the time difference in December between California and Chile is five hours. At dinner that evening in Puerto Fuy, just a few kilometers down the road, Art and I enjoyed our pisco sours, the classic drink of Chile. Back at our hotel that evening Art, Jennifer and Humberto attended a free workshop–learning how to make the perfect pisco sour, or the Huilo Huilo variation, which adds blueberries to the mix.

Pisco sour workshop.

Plans for our next day included horseback riding and a ride on the teleferico (funicular) up the mountain. Part 2 of our visit to Huilo Huilo will post next week.

For a map and directions for getting to Huilo Huilo click HERE.