The medium-sized bus slowly went up the steep gravel road towards Huerquehue national park. It was early in the season, but the bus was full. The popular San Sebastián trail and multi-day trails into the park were still closed, so the only option was taking the Los Lagos route. I had heard it was easier than El Cañi, so in my head that meant it would be easy. That was the wrong assumption. Beyond the rangers office and the campground you could duck into a small trail off the road. I found myself surrounded with some other solo travelers and we started chatting. One of them was a trail running Californian girl who was time-crushed and wanted to finish the whole hike in time to catch the midday bus back to Pucón. She still had to work later that day. Because we were talking, me and a British girl followed her pace.
Initially we went through a nice forest, but after a short while we started a pretty long and steep climb. My quads still felt the El Cañi workout from the day before as I made my way over the small trail. There were some small bridges, stones and steps and parts that were very muddy! And I felt like we were running, hurrying uphill. I couldn’t enjoy the path. I was exhausting myself for no reason. And I would finish way too soon at this pace. So after many steps and a viewpoint, I said I’d continue at my own pace. I didn’t come to nature to rush through it. Reaching the top of the climb was glorious. You are by no means at the top of a mountain, but by that point you’ve reached the lake area. I crossed a bridge over a stream that connected to Lago Chico and then followed the lakeside for a bit, on the way to Lago Verde.
Lago Verde is one of the two bigger lakes, but you only walk along the smaller side of it, so if you don’t stop in time, you pretty much miss your chance to sit down next to it. There were a handful of other people there, but I found a nice big rock in the sunshine to sit on and take a snack. When I kept going I heard the hammering of señor carpintero and started to search the trunks of the trees around me. Very close to the trail I saw the male woodpecker with his bright red head. He was absolutely gorgeous! Here I met the British girl again, but she was taking the loop in the other direction. For me, the trail went up and down a bit, and then around to Lago Toro. The path was high in the sky on the the cliffs next to the lake and then took a steep, short turn towards the water. I was blown away. This was so peaceful! When I arrived, I was alone and I sat down on a rock once again. I put my feet into the cold, clear water and stared out over it towards the mountain in front of me. A little bit of snow remained. Occasionally a fish jumped out of the water with a little plopping sound. Later a guide arrived with a couple and when I stood up from my rock he declared to his guests: “You should sit there on the rock. It’s the prime seat in the park”.
Not too much further on was a small beach on the shore of the same lake. A family was throwing stones in the water. I didn’t really stop here and continued to finish the loop. I crossed the same bridge as before and started my descent. There were some Dutch people ahead of me and suddenly the guy shouts: “Oh look!” (in Dutch). A tarantula was sitting on the trail. I’d read about them, but I hadn’t seen them yet. It was smaller than I thought, but still impressively hairy. I guess it was the size of a hand, minus the finger tips? After admiring this little creature from a step away, I kept going and took two side trails (I’d skipped them on the way up). The first one led to waterfall Trufulco. I had low expectations, so was surprised to see a full size waterfall that was very pretty to look at. The second waterfall Nido de Águila was smaller, but had an incredibly nice spray of water coming my way at the viewpoint.
There was only one more bus back, at 5pm, so I had given myself ample time to get there. That meant that I arrived over an hour early. More and more people arrived at the bus stop and you saw them all eyeing each other. Would there be enough seats? When the bus came, people dashed for it. The driver wanted to turn and had to wave people out of his way first. All the stress was for nothing, because everyone got a seat. Especially my feet were grateful for this! When I was back in town, showered and freshened up, I treated myself to a meal in a nice restaurant. Mash and brisket, with a dessert of tres leches. Divine!
