Villarrica

Villarrica National Park was created in 1940 in the La Araucanía and Los Ríos regions, and protects some 630 km² around three volcanoes: Villarrica, Quetrupillán and the Chilean sector of Lanín. It is one of the oldest national parks in Chile.

Villarrica, at 2,847 metres, is one of the most active volcanoes in South America and one of the few in the world with a permanent lava lake in its crater, visible from the rim on guided ascents. Its activity forces periodic closures of the access and shapes life in the surrounding towns, such as Pucón.

The vegetation combines araucaria forests at higher altitudes — the sacred tree of the Mapuche people, which can live more than a thousand years and whose seed has been a traditional food — with Valdivian forest of coigüe, lenga and raulí below, and ñirre scrub at the treeline. The fauna includes pudú, the smallest deer in the world, puma, Magellanic woodpecker and the monito del monte, a nocturnal arboreal marsupial unique in its lineage. The park forms part of two biosphere reserves recognised by UNESCO: Araucarias, declared in 1983, and the Temperate Rainforests of the Austral Andes, from 2007.