Baņos de Caulle
NATIONAL PARK PUYEHUE

Chile
3 days in Februari, 2011

A short trek with a lot of variation - lush forests, desert-like dune lanscapes, a volcanoe with a nice crater, hot springs and fumeroles where steams comes out of the multi-colored rocks on the ground.


Day 1: The Puyehue volcanoe

 

First we walked up through the forest,
where we saw this gigantic bug.

 

Finally above the forest, with nice flowery meadows and a view of the volcaone, which was unfortunately covered by clouds.
 
 

We climbed the volcanoe to the top. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see the whole crater, but instead we got to see this nice halo (circular rainbow)
 
 

Then the clouds disappeared, and we could see the whole crater!
 
 
 
 
 

Nice colors on the rocks
 
 

Nice colors and layers on the rocks
 
 

Back at the campsite we had dinner in front of a fire
 
 

Day 2: Volcanoe - Los Geysers
 
 

A view of Monte Tronador, the mighty mountain on which slopes we climbed to a viewpoint on our Paso de las Nubes trek.
 
 

Views of distant volcanoes.
The one to the right is Volcan Osorno.

 
 

Walking into the desert.
This was a forest before the eruption in 1960...
 
 

Old lava flows, looking like a black glacier.
 
 

In the desert
 
 

Natural hot springs.
The stream to the left is very hot and the one to the righ is very cold... Where they meet there is a tiny spot where the temperature is just perfect :)
 
 

Wading
 
 

The surreal landscape at Los Geysers
 
 

Beautiful colors on the rocks
 
 

So much smoke coming out from the ground!
And we could see muddy pools bubbling as well.
 
 

Some cool mountains visible in the distance
 
 

View back to the Puyehue volcanoe
 
 

Los Geysers
 
 

We camped just 50 meters away from the "geysers".
It smelled a bit like rotten eggs, but it was a beautiful spot.
Once during the night the ground shook together with a thundering sound, which reminded us that we were actually camping on ground with volcanic activity - scary!
 
 

Sunset
 
 

Day 3: Back the same way again...

The "Ruta los Americanos" trail was shut, so we had to walk the same way back again :( But it was anyday a very cloudy and rainy day with no views.
 
 

More fumes at Los Geysers
 
 

Back at the trail head we met up with other hikers that we had met on the trail. We bought some beer and had a nice time talking here. We joined up with two israeli guys (Alon & Daniel) and travelled with them to Puerto Montt.