RN Altos de Lircay, Maule, Chile

This is a very beautiful national park in the Andean foothills with some very accessible and enjoyable hiking trails, as well as campsites within 3km of the bus stop. That´s pretty good going in Chile.

There are 3 days of exceptional walks from 1250m up to 2500m. The views into the Andes are splendid. The 4000m Volcan Descabezado and Cerro Azul dominate the eastern skyline. It´s mountains all the way beyond the horizon.

El Enladrillado is an amazing terrace of huge basalt paving stones. There are local stories of it being an alien landing platform, but the more popular history is that it was constructed by the Incas. It´s hard to believe that nature could construct such a perfect temple.

Cerro Peine is a good and easy climb, although marked as restricted on the maps. Allegedly. If you had access to such maps, which of couse I didn´t. Laguna Alto is an excellent destination for lunch and a swim: it´s twice as waqrm as the Chilean Sea!

It´s not worthy of mention in the travel guides, but is a pleasant diversion from the mainstream.