Parque Conguillio vs Pucon & Villarica

Tomás just sent me a Chile blogger's URL, is he trying to get even with that blogger for something? Here we go, this guy calls himself a geologist and then tries to pass off Villarica (pictured to the left) as a "Volcano" are you impressed by the white smoke coming out of that tourist trap well I'm not. Villarica is for pussies, and Volcán Llaima is where it's at. It's in the very north of Chile's Lake District in the center of Parque Conguillio. Personally I wouldn't be caught dead going near either one of them. Here's the picture I took of Volcán Llaima from the back of a pickup truck going 80 MPH (that is, after the truck stopped so I could take a picture):



I think the first Chilean I ever met was a Chilean Volcanologist on a geology field trip my uncle took his grad students on in the Lake District of Northern England like 8 years ago. The Circle of Life. Anyway, that guy was like Disappointment personified he wouldn't call the 400-year old bar we went to a cantina it was just "bar", way to go Mr. not-so-exotic Chilean Volcanologist.

You'll get a much more authentic experience at Parque Conguillio than you would at Villarica, which is right next to Pucon. I know because I went to Conguillio and I didn't bother to go to Pucon, but you can see Villarica from Conguillio, kinda:



See? Not even worth it. Here's the Llaima Volcano:



That's what I'm talking about. To climb the volcano you have to demonstrate fitness to the Conaf office in Temuco and get a permit but I hadn't slept the night before and the office was closed for the weekend and besides I told you I would never set foot on a live volcano (but if I did it would be Llaima) so I did an easy hike on a trail called Sierra Nevada that takes you up to epic vista of Lago Conguillio, and lots of Monkey Puzzle trees, or Araucaria.



To get into Parque Conguillio without your own transportation is kinduva bitch but not really. There's two entrances, north at Curacautin and south at Melipeuco which actually means "four Peucos" (because you asked how many). I started out in Melipeuco which is a two hour, 2 dollar bus ride from Temuco on Nar Bus. From either end though it seems like they're going to try to fandangle US $40 out of you for a hired car. Coming at it from Melipeuco, which I think is the easier way, only a complete idiot would propose finding a hired car in town. No, just start walking toward the park and someone will pick you up. Even if it's a hired car, like happened to me, who asked for 10 and gave him 5 cuz he was going there anyway, right?

Hitch-hiked back, and as often happens to me when hitchhiking around destinations in Chile, it's usually in the back of a pickup which means your experience is way more epic and a lot cheaper than if you'd rented a car.

Melipeuco has a population of about 10 but talking to the locals, many of them who moved there from Valdivia, they'd have it Melipeuco was a Santiago of the South where everyone came to make money and Valdivia was a slum like Valparaiso.