malalcahuello

For Easter weekend, Natascha and I set out on another adventure to a nearby national park without a car. The bus dropped us off at kilometer 83, between the towns of Curacautin and Lonquimay, where we checked into our Swiss Andean lodging. From there we caught a ride (hitchhiking again!) to the Malacahuello thermal baths, which were over crowded and over priced but we forked over the cash anyway since we had gone to the trouble of risking out lives to get there. The heat of the water ended up being worth it on this chilly autumn day. Walking the 5 kilometers back to the hotel, we stopped in the tiny town of Malalcahuello and discovered a piñon festival. I had been worried I'd miss the piñon season and was happy to find that it is just getting started and we were in just the right place to find all sorts of piñon-related excitement. We bought some petrified monkey puzzle wood (picoyo), canned piñones, quinoa beer, hazelnuts rolled in chocolate, and went back to the hotel to sample the piñon kuchen and auracaria bitters they served in their restaurant. The Malacahuello national reserve is around the corner - a volcano away - from Conguillio national park and, like Conguillio, has an abundance of the ancient monkey puzzle trees. So the next day we set out on the trail through moss and lichen-covered forests which opened up to a lovely green field dotted with auracarias in their various stages of life. We sat in the sun and tried some of the piñones that had fallen from the trees, and I collected gigantic pinecone leaves that hopefully will be converted into jewelry by a certain someone when I get back to Seattle.