Rivendell, with Fuchsias
Written: Jan 25 '04 (Updated Jan 26 '04)
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Pros: Atmosphere. Hospitality. View from afar. View from up close. View of afar from up close.
Cons: If Don Patricio is away, it helps to know some Spanish.
The Bottom Line: You will not find better Chilean hospitality, or come closer to feeling "part of the family." It would be a great place to stay even without the scenery.
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| Urbanist's Full Review: REFUGIO TINQUILCO |
The road from the tourist-trap town of Pucón begins as pavement, then becomes well-maintained gravel. As I enter Parque Nacional Huerquehue, the road turns to dirt. Finally, after plunging through numerous opaque puddles of uncertain depth, I arrive at a rushing river. There is no bridge -- nothing to do but drive through it.
Refugio Tinquilco, on the far side, is always reached with relief, a surging of astonishment that we ever survive from each harrowing moment to the next. The road ahead is now a trail, leading steeply up to waterfalls and alpine lakes. But I am bound for the Refugio, and grateful to have arrived.
I see a small lodge, just big enough for an ample kitchen, dining area, and small livingroom downstairs, and for seven guestrooms and a high-powered bilingual library above. When I arrive in the mid-afternoon, people are lounging in artful compositions: an older couple and a younger one taking tea together on the porch; a man lying in the grass, playing with his dog while keeping an eye on his young children; the attentive staff, floating quietly in and out with hearty beverages and meals. Steep mountain slopes on both sides seem to be embracing the scene. And if an energetic, roundish man with elfin eyes pops up, checking on everyone's contentment, well, that's your host, Patricio Lanfranco -- musician, filmmaker, activist, and now, Lord of the Manor.
All around are picnic tables, and in front, proudly unfurled in the afternoon breeze, flags of Ireland, Chile, and Canada announce the various homelands that have formed the extended Lanfranco family.
Not fancy, the guidebooks say, and they're right. But I would not trade the atmosphere of this place for a million chocolates on my pillow or free internet connections. Don Patricio is a grand host, attentive but not nosy, and always giving the impression that you're part of the family during your stay. If you time it just right, you might also meet the Lady of the Manor, Lake Sagaris, a Canadian-Chilean writer whose two books on Chile are for sale inside, and are well worth the buying.
In reality, Refugio Tinquilco is as plush as anyplace out here could be. This small patch of private lands inside Parque Nacional Huerquehue is "off the grid," taking water and power from its own microdams way up in the hanging valleys of the surrounding mountains. The ever-creative Don Patricio has built an outdoor sauna, convenient to a deep cold-plunge pool that feeds off the river. Plunging into water that was ice on the ridgetops a few hours ago, visitors rediscover the profundity of cold, just before going completely numb.
But where are we? We're in a climate zone comparable to Oregon or Ireland or Tasmania: Ferociously wet in the winter, and a perfect temperature in summer, when showers still pass through on occasion. Many of the plants resemble Tasmania's flora, a reminder that South America and Australia were attached for far longer than North and South America have been.
The ubiquitous evergreen tree is the broad-leaved Nothofagus (numerous species), while the dominant conifer is Araucaria araucana. Both genera appear in Australia as well, though in different species. Botanists know Araucaria as one of the most ancient conifer lineages. All of its surfaces are sharp, designed to fend off dinosaurs. The name of this genus -- native in the Southern Hemisphere and widely planted in the North -- actually comes from the indigenous Mapuche name for this region, rendered in Spanish as "La Araucania." I had thought the region's name referred to the trees, but it's the other way around.
If you live in a North American or British city, you may know Araucaria araucana as a stately tree whose green spiked limbs reach out just far enough to define a perfect curve resembling the upper two-thirds of an egg. There is no forgetting this tree once you've seen it.
If you need a reminder, look at
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/ARAARAA.pdf
or
http://www.floridata.com/ref/a/arau_ara.cfm
(The Floridata site's pictures are color but less striking, the other is b&w and more accurate.)
But for this North American, the greatest amazement comes from the genus Fuchsia. You know, those shade-tolerant perennials with bicolor flowers pointing plumb-straight toward the ground ... Here is Fuchsia magellanica -- huge shrubs, almost trees, and in the brilliance of summer each one carries hundreds of bright red plumb-straight blooms. (For a good image, see http://www.habitas.org.uk/flora/photo.asp?item=3603a.) The sheer abundance of these shrubs, and of the flowers on each, can let you feel, on the sunniest day, the comfort of a bright red Christmas rain.
As if this weren't enough color, the pollinators of these flowers are as colorful as the flowers themselves. When the various hummingbirds aren't around, these fuchsias are the domain of the largest bee I've ever seen, a 5 cm beast with brilliant orange -- fur, I want to say.
Take the main hike up to Los Lagos (about 5 km and about 700m of elevation gain) and you will visit two spectacular waterfalls before arriving at a high plateau of alpine lakes. This is the narrow altitude band where the native Araucaria thrive. But they are nothing like the grand lawn specimens that you will see in cities. Lacerated by wind, they more resemble giant mushrooms in shape, tall with age, but holding only a few branches out, stiffly horizontally, to grab the light. Forests of them are truly otherworldly, but very few pure stands remain. Up here, too, is a small Yosemite of sheer rockfaces, and countless further hikes that I could only dream of.
If you are ever in this part of Chile, go out of your way (as you must) to stay at Refugio Tinquilco. Accommodations range from bunkrooms to a private room with bath, and if you have anything halfway interesting to say (in either Spanish or English), Don Patricio will make you feel like one of the family.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Urbanist
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Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 78
Trusted by: 72 members
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Streetwise, academically credentialed gay renaissance man. For real bio, click "more" in profile.
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