For those of you who have never experienced an earthquake (listen up Diane and Jenny), what you feel before it even happens is that you get dizzy and you feel nauseous. I was sitting on the floor as Blake was typing and we looked at each other and were pretty confused. The hostel seemed to be shifting too and fro, Will described it as ¨A massage from Mother Earth.¨ We only confirmed that it was an actual earthquake because the hanging plant was swinging too and fro along with the house. There you have it, an earthquake to end the day, but all´s well that end´s well. Now let´s start at the beginning...
Jaime departed Valdivia for his village in South Central Chile, which was devestated by the earthquake, with the donations we collected. The rest of us (with Fernando) piled onto the bus bright eyed and bushy tailed. After 2 hours, the volcan Villarrica came into view and we had reached the Andes mountains. We made it to Pucon, and headed out to the parque Cañi reserve just before lunch. There, we met Manuel and Roberto, who are administrators of the park and served as our guides during today´s hike.
The Cañi reserve is owned by the foundacion Lahuen and was created in 2000 to protect the forests of Aracaria and Coihue trees. Cañi is a Mapuche word that loosely translates to ¨place that transforms¨. The reserve encompasses 500 hectares and has 12 small lakes. Our hike today took us through the reserve on a steep hike uphill (and downhill!) into these forests. The reserve is on a volcano, that with other volcanoes and mountains form a caldera.
We walked through an old Coihue stand, which included some of the species that were upwards of 500 years old.
At 600 meters, there was a transition into a different forest due to the altitude. Lingue trees only grow above 800 meters.
After our hike uphill, we arrived at Laguna Seca which is a wetland that remains wet year round. The previous owner drained this area for production of rice and other crops. While taking a break near Laguna Seca, we saw a small herd of cows and ranchers with dogs. Cow numbers in the reserve had escalated to a population of 300 but now, due to significant fencing and cooperation from the local communities, the cow population has been reduced to 30.
Here is where we encountered the "Angry Cow." On the last 10 minutes of our hike to the Laguna Seca, we kept hearing a crazy sound, part wolf, part T-Rex and part cry of some animal that at that point was unknown. Once we reached the lake and saw the herd of cows that were already grazing, we began to think that this horrifying noise was coming from a cow. To our amusement this cow came ambling towards us crying, followed by a rancher chasing him with a machete, trying to corral him to who knows where. For the half an hour that we were at the lake we watched and listened to this screaming cow run away from his rancher all around the lake. He fought with the rancher´s dogs, and the ranchers. By the end, the ranchers gave up on the cow, leaving him to cool off before trying to corral him again.
After the amusement of the cow, it was time to head back down the mountain and get back on the bus. Exhausted, we all drifted off to sleep in the bus on the way to the thermal springs. You heard us right, thermal springs. After a 9 km hike taking us 5 hours, we were all ready for the thermal springs. There was a hot, a hotter and a hottest pool and the river (which was not hot at all)! It was glorious. Then we headed back to the hostel in Pucon for dinner.
Ciao,
Blake and Katie
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