NELTUME, Chile
My first clue that Huilo Huilo, in central Chile, might not be your typical wilderness park was when I unfolded the tourist map and spotted the word 鈥渃anopy.鈥�
An English word. Not one you鈥檇 expect to find in a Spanish dictionary. Nor a name you鈥檇 be likely to see on a map of a rare temperate rainforest, a 101,000-hectare preserve in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.
I looked again and found a second 鈥渃anopy,鈥� and a third, as if the map-maker tasked with illustrating Huilo Huilo鈥檚 鈥済reen mansions鈥� decided that if one canopy was good, three must be a charm. So I poured another cup of tea and took a closer look.
Huilo Huilo, a UNESCO-designated biosphere, is a park like Yellowstone or Glacier national parks, a protected biological reserve. But it鈥檚 also a tourist resort, a for-profit business. Here, on the border between Patagonia and the Lakes District, where the Mapuche tribe once shared the trees with the forest fairies 鈥� living spirits of ferns and flowers, frogs and fungi 鈥� eco-tourism is booming.
If any doubt remains, Huilo Huilo鈥檚 tourist map, a 鈥淲here鈥檚 Waldo鈥� visitor guide, proves the point. Done up in comic book colors and crowded with cartoon figures, it鈥檚 chock-a-block with visitor services, nature trails, ski slopes, trout streams and hotels built to blend into the undergrowth.
Here is the Reino Fungi Lodge, the 鈥淢ushroom Queen,鈥� a fat round shape resting on a cement stalk. There is the multi-sided Nothofagus Hotel & Spa, also known as the Baobob Hotel, with a tree growing in the dining room, guest room doors opening onto a spiralling corridor and an activities desk offering an infinite array of outdoor adventures.
The Montana Magica hotel 鈥� the Magic Mountain 鈥� connected to the other hotels by a covered boardwalk, was the owner鈥檚 first experiment in rustic design; the result is a moss-covered, cone-shaped, tree-like building with inset windows and a brook spilling off the top. Made almost entirely of custom-hewn local wood, its giant logs, thick beams and untrimmed board paneling are a one-off work of art.
On one corner of the map, a 125-foot waterfall rushes over a fractured rock; in another corner, a pair of horseback riders canter across a meadow. Forest trails, the Rio Fuy and Lake Pirehueico promote hiking, fishing, kayaking, easy and risky whitewater rafting, birding and horseback riding.
At the map鈥檚 upper edge, an ice climber scales 7,946-foot Mocho Choshuenco鈥檚 glacier while a skier schusses down this active volcano鈥檚 snowy slopes. Miniature deer 鈥� the endangered Andean 鈥渉uemul鈥� 鈥� and a puma, Darwin frog and a clutch of long-necked guanaco 鈥� first cousins to the llama 鈥� peek out from between the trees.
On the volcano鈥檚 lower forests, 鈥淐anopy鈥� zip lines mark the spot where 鈥� as I was soon to discover 鈥� five dizzyingly long cables straddle deep dark gorges.
鈥淓l canopy, you know, it means rides in the air,鈥� said our guide Juan Valencia, on my second day of vacation, leading me and a handful of other visitors to the zip line鈥檚 check-in hut.
Buckling us into our harnesses, he led the way up a trail hacked into the hillside where the cables were bolted into rocks beside precariously perched platforms 鈥� or so it seemed as I teetered on the edge.
As Jacob Salgado, the second guide, clipped me onto each cable, he reminded me to lean back, straighten my legs, point my feet and fly like the wind. 鈥淩emember, it鈥檚 very long,鈥� he said, prying my hand, locked in a death grip, off the cable. 鈥淚f you brake like that you won鈥檛 get to the other side.鈥�
The next 鈥渃anopy鈥� 鈥� a sign pointing to the Darwin Trail around the village complex 鈥� was tamer. Starting early, we joined ecologist Diego Rojas, from the Simon Bolivar University in Santiago, for a half-day walk around the perimeter.
Diving into the forest, we stopped beneath a stand of giant beech trees to look at the flora and to learn why Huilo Huilo is classified as a rare temperate rain forest.
The beech trees, said Rojas 鈥� 鈥渃oihue鈥� and 鈥渞auli,鈥� in Mapudungun, the native Mapuche language 鈥� 鈥渁re members of the Nothofagus genus, indigenous to the area since the Jurassic period.鈥�
But the forest was isolated when the supercontinent Gondawanaland broke up, creating today鈥檚 continents. Now an eco-island, the forest occupies a limited range, between 35 and 40 degrees south and 2,300 and 3,900 feet elevation.
Farther along, we stopped at the Darwin Frog Museum, a one-room cabin with exhibits founded to support research into the fungi killing this and other frogs worldwide. When Rojas explained that the chirp-chirp heard overhead was a recording of the endangered frog, we realized that not even this museum had a living specimen. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to find one,鈥� said Rojas, shaking his head.
Challenged to locate one of the critters, we combed through the surrounding understory for a few minutes, searching under ferns and vines, but found only the wispy 鈥済uila鈥� bush. Pronounced 鈥渉uila,鈥� said Rojas 鈥渢his one grows everywhere, even when nothing else will.鈥� Could it have been the root of the name Huilo Huilo?
By the time we stopped to watch an Andean condor overhead and admired the pre-European Mapuche artifacts in the nearly finished Volcano Museum 鈥� named for its shape, not its contents 鈥� the sun was high in the sky. Joining the boardwalk trail across a boggy meadow, we found the third 鈥渃anopy.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 Canopy Village, right there,鈥� said Maria, a housekeeper who was pushing a cart of towels. 鈥淚t鈥檚 this way,鈥� she said, putting down the laundry and opening the door to one of the spartan wood cabins shaped like old-time pioneer wagons. The cabins, priced for campers and families, perch on stilts next to the Huemul enclosure, another of Hulio Huilo鈥檚 wildlife preservation projects. 鈥淚f you look through there,鈥� she said, pointing to the windows near the floor, 鈥測ou can see the deer when they come to drink. We had three deer to start; now we have 20.鈥�
I could have put on crampons, roped up and climbed Mocho Choshuenco鈥檚 icy summit. This guided trek, a match for glacier skiing in Norway, earns an eight on the risk-meter. Instead, I joined a snow mobile tour accompanied by glaciologist Antonio Vasquez, who also runs Huilo Huilo鈥檚 ski area. Making angels and snapping selfies among blowing snow clouds was a buzz. But it was a bittersweet buzz because the glacier is melting away. While we watched, Vasquez fetched his shovel and as he does at intervals, dug down through the snow, hollowing out a hole in the ice. Peering down at the last few year鈥檚 layers, we saw each was thinner than the one below it.
But Huilo Huilo is booming, confirming the belief that there鈥檚 only one way to save a wilderness: buy it and prevent development. In North America, governments traditionally assume this role. But in countries which can鈥檛 or won鈥檛 step up, the eco-tourism model can save scarce wilderness, as it has done in Africa, Asia, in the Pacific and elsewhere in South America.
How does it work? Individuals or groups buy a piece of land, agree to preserve most of it and dedicate space for a tourist center with lodging and services. Travelers looking for new, unspoiled destinations visit the area, stay at the hotels and spend money for rooms, food and guide services, creating jobs for local residents. An unbroken circle, it鈥檚 not 鈥渂y and by,鈥� but now.
And about those 鈥渃anopies.鈥� For me, none rivaled the real canopy, the treetops reaching for the sky, brushing against the balcony of my fourth-floor hotel room, framing my view of Mocho Choshuenco. The next best thing to a treehouse, this was where I went to catch the sunrise, watch the birds twitter and follow the stars. Looking toward the horizon, Huilo Huilo鈥檚 250,000 acres were all mine.
鈥斺赌斺赌�
THE NITTY GRITTY: The resort is at Neltume, a village near Lake Pirehuico. Fly to Santiago, Chile, and on to Temuco airport, a two-hour drive from Huilo Huilo. Rent a car or hire local transport. Summer months, December through February, are warm and dry. Spring and fall are beautiful; winter recreation includes skiing.
For description, history and mission, go to www.huilohuilo.com/en/. For reservations and rates go to www.huilohuilo.com/our-accommodation/hotel-nothofagus. Rooms for two in the Nothofagus hotel start at $222 per night, but vary depending on seasons and packages. Always ask for special rates. Kids sharing with parents are free or discounted.
鈥斺赌斺赌�
(Anne Z. Cooke, who divides her time between the Santa Monica and the Rocky Mountains, believes that travel opens doors.)
