Huilo Huilo

Huilo Huilo is a large private biological reserve in the Chilean region of Los Ríos, near Panguipulli: temperate rainforest, rivers, waterfalls and the snow cone of the Mocho-Choshuenco volcano. Its foundation has worked for decades on conservation, including a breeding programme for the southern huemul, the endangered Andean deer. The lodges inside the reserve are built of wood in imaginative shapes, one of them like a giant tree.

Two nights in the reserve are enough for its trails to the Huilo Huilo falls, the forest walks and the slopes of the volcano. It is usually reached from San Martín de los Andes, across the Hua Hum pass and by ferry over Lago Pirehueico, and it continues naturally north to Pucón or south to Puerto Varas, which makes it a good hinge for a journey through both sides of the Lakes District.

It works all year. Summer is the driest; in winter the volcano carries snow and the forest is at its wettest and greenest.