Chile // The Lake District //

Parque Nacional Puyehue

PARQUE NACIONAL PUYEHUE, 81km east of Osorno, is one of Chile’s busiest national parks, largely because of the traffic on the international road that runs through its centre. It’s part of a massive, 15,000-square-kilometre area of protected wilderness, bordering the Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales to the south, and some Argentine parks that stretch all the way to Pucón’s Parque Nacional Villarrica in the north. The land is high temperate rainforest spread over two volcanoes, Volcán Puyehue (2240m) to the north, and Volcán Casablanca (1990m), on the west slope of which is the Antillanca ski resort. The park’s divided into three sectors: Aguas Calientes where the termas are, Antillanca and Anticura, straddling the international road near the Argentine border.

The 47km road that shoots east from Osorno to LAGO PUYEHUE passes through the nondescript village of Entre Lagos. Around 30km after Entre Lagos, the road forks: the left-hand road heads on to the Anticura section of the Parque Nacional Puyehue and the Argentine border, while the right-hand one leads to the Aguas Calientes section and the Antillanca skiing resort.