Lago Ranco

I wanted to find a quiet town in the Lake District in southern Chile where I could take it easy and prepare for the long trip home soon. It is now the height of the summer season in this picturesque and charming southern Chile lakeside town. I discover that it also attracts vacationers from the area and from further north. These tourists thrive on party music, loud, in public places until 11:30pm. My fortune was to have a room only two blocks from the electronic amplification. So I could not sleep before about 1am.

After two sleep-deprived nights in the bed & breakfast, I gathered my wits and hired a taxi to deliver me to the one major tourist attraction in the area, Piedra Mesa, a hill with a 2.5-mile gravel road to the top. Here is a panoramic view from the top.

The hazy clouds in these pictures are due primarily to the eruption of the nearby Caulle Volcano.

"Parque Alfonso Brandt, adquirido en arriendo por 90 años en 1972 como motivo de ser destinado a un parque de recreo con fines turísticos y educación. Considerado sagrado y utilizado por la comunidad de Tringlo como Tren Tren, lugar para pedir permiso para el Nguillatun."

"Alfonso Brandt Park, in a rental agreement for 90 years from 1970. A  tourist and educational park. Considered sacred and used by the community of Tringlo as the Tren Tren, place to ask permission for the Nguillatun."

Isla Huapi is one of many small islands in Lago Ranco, but one of the few inhabited by indigenous Mapuche. 

As I continue the forest trail around this sacred mountain, I face directly into the eruption of Caulle, though several kilometers to the west. My sinuses were reacting as if I were in an enclosed room with tobacco smokers.

Continuing on the well maintained mountain-top forest trail

Farms down below

I will make the return trip by walking the entire descent on a gravel road. Yuck. Once I reached lake level, there was a breeze that was clearing the air of volcanic ash.

Pucón

This is one of the most popular destinations in the Lake District of Chile. The Villarica Volcano looms over the entire area. It remains active, with puffs of steam that resemble smoke signals in Hollywood movies. I ate lunch at a table on the lawn nearby. It's easy to stretch a midday meal to at least a couple of hours when you find such a lovely place to hang out. This next photo shows the volcano alert system at the city hall. If the mountain begins to belch and rumble, people will be directed to the evacuation routes. There have been serious lava flows in the past. I'm glad the green light is on today.



This area is probably comparable to Vail, Colorado. Excuse me if I don't add photos of the souvenir shops. In this town of about 16,000 people, there are probably almost as many tourists, although the tour operators tell me business is off by 70% compared to last season. Restaurants abound, but the servers are usually just standing around, hoping some tourists will enter. Dozens of arts and crafts stands are seeing little shopping activity. Villarica Lake attracts many people to the lava sand beaches and pleasure boats. Luxury condominiums are sprouting along the shore.

Morning clouds on the lake. Located 540 miles south of the capital of Santiago, the town was founded in 1883 as part of the “pacification” of the region’s indigenous Mapuche people. By 1904 the army had left and German families from Valdivia to the west began to settle the area. The first families were Holzapfel and Gudenschwager. The Mapuche moved to the marginal lands at the foot of the mountains.