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The tiny settlement of QUILLEN has the atmosphere of a very scenic ghost town, set in dreamy wooded scenery near the eastern tip of Lago Quillen . No more than a handful of estancia buildings, it once depended on the sawmill that operated here, but it is now a private specialist fishing lodge. The name derives from the Mapuche word quellen - their name for the wild strawberries that grow in the region. It has no shops or facilities other than a public phone (no international calls) where you can call for a taxi to take you into Alumine (tel 02942/496398 or 496179 for taxi; $25); there's no public transport. Some 3km beyond the fishing lodge along the northern bank of the Rio Quillen are the buildings of the guardaparque post. For information, knock on the door of the main building (8am-10pm), and if no one is in, try one of the neighbouring houses. You must register here for the walk to Rucachoroi. The lake itself, shaped like an attenuated arm and with an elbow bend, is bordered by some of the park's very finest Andean-Patagonian forests and is one of the most beautiful in the region. It's a deep green colour when still, but often gets very windy in the afternoon, when its colour darkens. At the top of a high ridge on the southern shore, a distinctive phallic rock sticks up at the sky: chastely called Ponom on maps, its real spelling is panan , the Mapuche word for penis. In the distance, the summit of Volcan Lanin can be seen poking above an intervening mountain range. There are great views of this from the lovely lake-shore campsite , Camping Quillen (with showers and shop; $2 per person), less than 1km west of the guardaparque 's house. A tranquil free site, Camping Pudu Pudu (no facilities), is some 5km further down the track. Apart from the Rucachoroi trek, there are two principal trails , both of which take the road that forks inland from near the Pudu Pudu campsite (4WD access only), heading for Lago Hui Hui , a wild lake hemmed in by an amphitheatre of forest-clad hills and dotted with a couple of small islands. The first option is the walk through to the lake (6km from Pudu Pudu ; 3hr return). At the low pass, you come to a flat pampa and a long line of old tree trunks laid end-to-end, which used to act as a corral for oxen. Up above is the Cerro de la Vibora (1720m), a mountain whose rocky summit resembles the broad head of a snub-nosed viper. The lake is just past an old disused guardaparque 's hut, over a wooden bridge. The second trail makes for a two-day return hike (10hr each way; return along same route) to the Anihueraqui gendarmeria post, at the far western end of Lago Quillen, by the Chilean border. You'll need prior permission from the guardaparque and the Quillen gendarmeria post, as you'll need to camp at Anihueraqui. Anihueraqui is one of the wettest regions of the park, with annual rainfall in excess of 4000mm, and on the way you pass through superlative wet temperate forest. This hike is best done later in the summer (Jan-March), as you need to ford a fine fishing stream, the Arroyo Hui Hui , which can be more than waist-high outside these months. Take the track towards Lago Hui Hui, but turn off left (west) at the field just before the abandoned guardaparque 's hut. Take care here, as the turn-off is not at all clearly marked. Further on, it is also often overgrown with cana colihue . Sadly, walking around the lake is impossible unless you get permission from both the guardaparque and the fishing estancia, as they control access to private land on the southern shore.
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