38:30S 71:20W 3 hrs by bus from Icalma
A lovely town of pretty timber houses surrounded by snowclad mountains and large enough to have a bank and an ATM that does not accept Australian cards. But also large enough to have a Hospedaje that accepts credit cards - and that doesn`t happen often in Chile. There´s good acess by bus to Malalcahuello national park, and while the buses leave fairly reliably at their published times, no-one has reliable information on when buses return from Malalcahuello nor the next town, Curacautin. You can wait three hours on the side of the road for a service that is supposedly two hourly.
The road goes through an old railway tunnel 4.5km long and only single lane under the Raices mountains.
There is a very stunning 25km walk to Malacahuello along the little used road over the top of the Arenales Cordillera ending up with superb views over Volcan Lonquimay and the Hollandes ranges.
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| Monkey puzzle trees and Volcàn Lonquimay from the walk to Malalcahuello |
