Parque Pumalín

The end of the year is usually travelling-to-the-South time for us and this year we went to Parque Pumalín in northern Patagonia for a few days of hiking, camping and relaxing. To get there you have to make your way to Puerto Montt (we went by overnight bus), and then follow the  Carretera Austral (again by bus) to the village Hornopirén, from where a 4h ferry connects to the continuation of the Carretera Austral on the other side of the Comao and Reñihué Fjords. In other words, a bit of an epic to get there in the first place, i.e. right up our alley q-;

Parque Pumalín is one of the Tompkins Conservation projects in Chile, which is a private initiative founded by a couple from the US who made a lot of money in the outdoor gear industry and, upon retirement, dedicated themselves to nature conservation. Since then they have been buying up large tracts of land throughout Argentinian and Chilen Patagonia (and beyond) with the aim to make them accessible to the public and protecting them from future exploitation. A bit of background on this here.

The bus and ferry rides are already very impressive. As one leaves Puerto Montt, the biggest city in Chile's Los Lagos Region, behind, the landscape quickly transforms into a mix of green, temperate rain forest and blue ocean, with the odd scow-covered volcano peaking through the clouds here or there.

Crazy clouds on a mountain in the Reñihué Fjord close to Caleta Gonzalo

Although having started as a private conservation project, the Pumalín project was designated a Nature Reserve by the Chilean Government already in 2005 and since early 2018 it is protected as a National Park. Unlike most other National Parks in Chile, however, it has beautifully designed and spacious campsites and well-signed hiking trails, etc.

The waterfall at the end of the "Cascada" trail near Caleta Gonzalo

Within Parque Pumalín also lies the Chaitén Volcano, which dramatically erupted between 2008 and 2009, and which wrecked havoc in large parts of southern Chile and Argentina as a result of the huge amounts of ash that were released in these events. Nowadays, one can hike up to the rim of the 3km wide caldera which formed in what must have been a cataclysmic eruption thousands of years ago. From the rim one can see the new lava dome, which is where the 2008/09 activity originated from.

View into the caldera of the Chaitén volcano, with steam coming out of the new lava dome (top left)

The trail goes through a recovering landscape where all sorts of new life is popping up on the ash-covered slopes among the many large dead trees that got burned by the heat of the eruption a decade ago.

One of the large dead trees that fell victim to the eruption

Another highlight of Pumalín are the large Alerces. These impressive trees used to cover many parts of southern Chile, but over the last five centuries have been logged to build boats, houses and furniture or simply burned down. Only few of them are now left in remote and difficult to access areas, such as Pumalín. Some of them have been confirmed to be more than 3000 years old...

Patricia next to an Alerce

And as if all of this wasn't spectacular enough, yet, one can also visit some hot springs in Pumalín (Termas Porcelana). These are a little more difficult to get to, i.e. no signed trails, one has to make a phone call and arrange to be picked up by boat to be taken across the fjord to a farm where one can camp close to the beach. There are no toilets or any other facilities but the place has plenty of charm.  We even had our "own" dog coming to visit us many times while we were there (we were told he lives on one of the farms nearby). From the "campsite" it is only a 15 minute walk to a steaming hot river with a few natural pools flowing through the jungle. Sounds unbelievable but it's true... Chile at it's best!

Christian flolloping in the hot springs q-:

A few more photos in below slideshow (for higher resolution click here):