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Vicente Pérez Rosales national park
was created in 1926 and as such is the oldest park in the country.
It has a surface area of 251,000 hectares and is situated in one
of the most privileged zones in the country.
Its principle attractions are its
volcanoes and mountains, great forests of native trees, and one
of the most beautiful and virgin lakes of the south of Chile:
the Todos Los Santos lake.
This diverse landscape and the dominant
presence of its volcanoes, has converted this park into one of
the principle Lakes Region destinations. Within its limits, the
visitor can not only observe the incredible landscape, but also
walk and observe the flora and fauna of the zone, enjoy the thermal
baths, ski, take a boat ride and fish amongst many others.
NATURAL
HERITAGE
The park is situated in a zone where
the likes of tectonic and glacial processes and volcanoes, have
given shape to its landscape - the Andes.
The main peaks correspond to volcanic
peaks of differing ages, notably the Puntiagudo volcano (2.490
msnm) Osorno (2.661 msnm) among the most recent, and the Picada
( 1.710 msnm) and the Tronador (3.491 msnm) amongst the oldest.
Retreating glaciars and the appearance
of the Osorno volcano allowed the formation of the Todos los Santos
lake, which is surrounded by high mountains with steep slopes
which drain into the Petrohué river towards the Reloncaví estuary.
The volcanic activity also manifests itself in an indirect manner
through a series of thermal baths, amongst those which can be
seen are the Vuriloche, Ralún and El Callao and others.
The Todos los Santos or Esmeralda
lake, (surface area 2.219 km2) is also within the limits of the
park. It is found at 190 msnm and receives numerous affluents,
some of which are the Peulla river, which is born at the height
of the Tronador volcano, and the Negro, Puntiagudo, Blanco, Chilcón
and Cayutúe rivers. This last drains the lagoon of the same name,
situated in the south-east sector of the park.
In the main, the forests of the park
are evergreen, developing in a range of environments. In the flat
lesser well-drained places like the Cayutúe lagoon area, the Húmedo
de Galería forest dominates, comprised principally of canelo,
coigüe, patagua and pitra. On
the banks of the Todos los Santos lake we find the olivillo, which
exists as pure forest or mixed with ulmo, tiaca and coigüe.
The most important evergreen formation
is the coigüe forest, which is situated between 200 and 1.000
msnm, associated with ulmo, tepa, tineo at the higher level and
with a rich, lower-level cover of shrubs arbustos, trepadoras,
quila and helechos. Alerce
is found between 800 and 1.000 msnm, in steep, rugged or marshy
places.
At higher altitudes, lenga forests
appear, principally mixed with coigüe, but then forming pure groups
up to the vegetation limit, where beyond, only stunted shrubs
and plants grow.
As for mammals, you can see the pudú,
or ciervo pequeño, the puma,
the güiña, the gato montés, the zorro
chilla or gris, the huillín or nutria del río and the
quique or hurón. There are also two chilean marsupials: the comadreja
trompuda and the monito del monte.
Amongst the birds you can find in
the park, the most important are the huala,
the pato quetro, the pato correntino, the martín pescador, the
traro, the picaflor chico, the carpintero
negro, the canquén, the tagua común and the águila.
In terms of fish there are, in particular,
the chilean trout as well as introduced species such as the rainbow
and brown trout.
HISTORICAL
AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
The area of the park has never been
permanently occupied by indigenous groups, however, the zone has
an influence of huilliche, with such a village further to the
west. We know now about the existence in the past of commercial
traffic with the poyas and puelches, indigenous peoples on the
eastern side of the Andes.
One of the features of great interest
in the park is the search for the way of Vuriloche used during
the XVIII century by the Jesuits of Chiloé, with the aim of founding
missions in the Nahuelhuapi region. The pass, at the south of
the Tronador volcano, avoided the risks of the lagoon route which
required crossing the Cayutúe lagoon and the Todos los Santos
lake.
The way of Nahuelhuapi was used,
according to chronicles, to connect Chiloé with the cities of
the north, after the large rebellion of the Indians in 1600.
The search for the City of the Caesars and the evangelization
of the poyas and puelches Indians, drove the explorers and missionaries
to take risky journeys who in the main, used the lagoon route
in the mountains from Ralún, in the Reloncaví estuary.
From this age came the names of Captain
Juan Fernández (1620), the Fathers Nicolás Mascardi, founder in
1670 of the Nahuelhuapi mission, and Felipe de la Laguna and finally
the Jesuit father Guillél, who failed to find the Vuriloche way.
It was not until 1900 that it was rediscovered by the Chilean
Captain Arturo Barrios. Finally, the colonization of the park
area began at the end of the XIX century, when the Vicente Pérez
Rosales was reopened, marking the beginning of permanent traffic
with Nahuelhuapi.
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