As Covid-19 restrictions were easing, we wanted to travel far from home to change our environment. There were a few locations that you could go, like some National Parks.
For a long time I wanted to return to Parque Nacional Conguillío which is based on the South Central Andes. The park is known as the “Umbrella” park (parque de los Paraguas). The Araucaria Araucana tree has the shape of an umbrella, giving the nick name to the park. A very large portion of the park is covered with ashes from the Llaima volcano.
Our first time to the park was about 40 years ago, where I made just a few photographs. Went back again 10 years later with a Medium format film camera and would not return until now. Since my last visit the Llaima volcano had 2 eruptions, changing some parts of the scenery and resizing lake Conguillío. The volcano ash and terrain would be perfect for a movie of astronauts walking on the moon.
I stayed on previous visits at a cabin that was built around an Araucaria tree. Don’t know how they got permission to do so; now they were apparently dismantled. The same operator had new cabins but no availability, they mentioned another operator: Labaita (name of mountain hut in Italy as the original owner is Italian, and wanted to evoke these mountain cabins from the Northern part).
I immediately called and booked a cabin, thinking they were in the same zone. Preparing the trip, discovered that they were 12 kilometers to the South, at the edge of the volcanic lava remains. Looking a satellite view it appeared not to be a good location and got disappointed.
When we arrived, found a very nice lodge and restaurant, in addition to the cabins, which I had rented. A Pelton turbine generated electricity using water from uphill streams, which was also potable. The Turbine has limited capacity, so cabins did not have refrigerators and you could not use a hair blower.
All cabins were in the middle of the forest, as well as private houses scattered throughout the mountain. Learned later that these terrains are private property and do not belong to the park.
Although the main lodge does have wifi internet, this zone of the park receives mobile signal from towers that overlook the small town of Melipeuco at the South.
As we ate sandwiches on the road and arrived late afternoon, we decided to have dinner at the lodge restaurant. They had a few dishes, but decided to have a hamburger with “Papa Brava” (potatoes with cream, cheese, onions and hot spices). My wife ordered a vegetarian hamburger made of “Quinoa”. I drank a local beer named “Llaima”.
The following night we had 2 large pizzas, where the dough was very thin and had a light taste, with not salt, which enhanced the flavor of the cheese and other components. Having a very warm day and after hiking more beer was needed.
The last night there was live music event inviting all visitors free cheese and wine. While waiting for the live music to start, we had oven grilled smoked pork chops, excellently prepared.
Do understand that even in winter you still can get to the lodge, however they close it for a month to do yearly repairs.
This place is 100% recomendable.