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| Alerce Andino National Park
Photos by Lois and Don Porter 3/16/2005 |
Returning to Puerto Montt, we continued south and east on the Carretera Austral (“Southern Highway” which is relatively famous, although not well marked and pretty hard to find) following the coastline of the Reloncavi Sound. Some 7 km after the pavement ended we came to the B&B Mozart, which came highly recommended by the superb hosts at the Zapato Amarillo in Puerto Octay. At Mozart our hostess, Andrea, was also very gracious. She and her husband come from Austria, and lived a few years in New Mexico, arriving in Puerto Montt some 5 years ago. Their house, right on the beach of the Reloncavi Sound, is lovely. We spent the afternoon hiking in the Parque Nacional Alerce Andino, where we hiked up to a lovely waterfall (Saltos del Chaica) and a little farther on, we came to the “Alerce Milenario”. The magnificent Alerce tree is a relative of the Redwood; it grows to enormous heights (more than 260ft) and lives for thousands of years. Except when it is cut down; so many are gone that it is now a “national treasure” and illegal to cut. This one is big, but there are bigger and older ones around. After a restful night at the Mozart B&B, we drove through the city of Puerto Montt and spent a delightful couple of hours at the Monumento Natural Lahuen Ñadi, where we walked among hundreds of Alerces, of varying sizes and ages. From there it was a short drive to the airport, for our return to Valparaiso.
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