The Botanical Garden of Lago Puelo is located inside the Lago Puelo National Park from some time ago. Originally it was located in the village in the place where actually is the park of elves and fairies. The Botanical Garden has an area of 16 hectares. It has a lot of signs of the circuits to walk and of the characteristics of the different species and places we visited.
The valley of Puelo lake is only 200 meters above the sea level and its climate allows that plants and trees that are common across the Andes, can also grow in this area, mixed with the typical species of the andean patagonia.
To reach to the Botanical Garden we had taken the street leading from the route to "La Playita" near the place where it is the entrance of the Forest of the Shadows path. We went through the portal near it and walk a few meters with the forest to one side and the maintenance dependences of the National Park on the other side.
Then we arrived to the area where there are two entrances, one is the Pitranto Grande path, and the other led us to the Botanical Garden and the Old Settlers path...
The circuits of the Botanical Garden are:
The Voice of the Maple path
The Rietman Population path
The Cypress path
The Path of the Pitras,
and finally it connects with the Old Settlers path.
One of the places you can not miss in Lago Puelo is the Azul river (Blue river). The clear waters of this river are coming down from the mountains and finishes draining in the Puelo lake as a delta. There are two bridges that cross the Azul river, one of them is no more than 2 kilometers from the town center by Route Nº 16 to El Bolson. The way to reach it is well signposted on the road; a sign indicates where to turn, then cross the bridge over the Golondrinas stream, cross a section of the area called La Isla (The Island) where there are a lot of new houses and following the signs you can reached the river.
The Azul river shows a series of pools that makes that this place becomes a popular beach on hot sumer days. The footbridge is only for 8 pedestrian at a time. While crossing the river we can see its clear waters, the stones of the riverbed, and the surrounding hills as the Currumahuida, Motoco, Piltriquitrón and Tres Picos.
Crossing the river we arrived to a beautiful and quiet place, very green, ideal for picnicking; the camping is called "Motoco Cárdenas" and managed by a Mapuche community. Several trails start from here for lovers of trekking, of varying length and difficulty as those to Motoco Refuge, the Laguna Huemul,Los Hitos and to a nearby waterfall.
The footpath to this beautiful waterfall is easily visible, crossing the sectors where this community work we reached a forest and crossed a stream. Crossing it is possible to approach the waterfall, of several meters height and immersed into the green vegetation.
It's a nice trail that has no major difficulties, we did it walking from the center but you can go by car to the footbridge, or by bus to the turnoff on the road and then walk.
I hope you enjoyed this ride that offers Lago Puelo, my place in the world...
