Chile

This follows on immediately from my previous blog, about my visit to see the forest of Araucaria trees (Araucaria araucana) at the Nasampulli Reserve in Chile, during the southern autumn in April this year.  In the afternoon of my fourth day there, the snow had stopped (or so it appeared at least), and Esteban Arias (the researcher and park ranger based at the reserve) and I decided to go for a longer walk. This was along an old logging track, and it was easier going on that because it was more open, although the snow was still knee-deep in most places. As we walked I couldn’t stop wondering at how remarkable it was that just 24 hours previously, this entire area had still been in the middle of the rainstorm, but now it was a white wonderland. [Read more…] about Wild weather in the Araucaria forest of Chile, part 2

One of the places I’ve been keen to visit during my trips to the Araucaria forests of Chile in the past three years is the Nasampulli Reserve. It’s an area of 1,200 hectares that is owned and managed by the UK-based conservation charity Rainforest Concern, in partnership with the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and Chilean scientists. Located on the site of a former logging concession, it contains undisturbed primary forest of Araucaria araucana, as well as previously logged areas that are in the process of recovery and restoration. [Read more…] about Wild weather in the Araucaria forest of Chile, part 1

This blog follows on directly from my previous blog, ‘The Araucaria forests of Chile, part 2‘, which ended up with me descending from the Sierra Nevada ridge in Conguillio National Park at night, with low-lying clouds covering Lago Conguillio and the surrounding forest. I knew then that the next morning the Araucaria forest would be shrouded in fog, which is one of my favourite times to be out in it. So although I was very late getting back to my campsite, where I then had to cook my dinner before going to sleep, I planned to get up early the next morning to take advantage of the special weather conditions. [Read more…] about Misty mornings in the Araucaria forest

During my most recent trip to the Araucaria forests of southern Chile in late March and April of this year one of my most memorable days was towards the end of my journey, when I was in Conguillio National Park. Centred around the active volcano, Volcan Llaima, the park contains a large area of forest dominated by the tree known in English as the monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana), and gains its name from the large lake, Lago Conguillio, immediately to the north of the volcano. I’ve visited the park during several of my recent travels to photograph the Araucaria forest, and it’s one of my favourite sites to see the tree. [Read more…] about The Araucaria forests of Chile, part 2

When I went to the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) forests of Chile in March and April of this year I had a specific list of target species I was hoping to photograph, to complete the images for my book project about the Ancient Araucaria Forests of the Andes. I referred to this book in my previous blog, and my visit this year was the last of five I’ve made since early 2015 to document the forest in all the seasons of the year. This time I was going in late summer and early autumn, hoping to catch some of the features and phenomena of both seasons. [Read more…] about The hummingbird stake-out

For the past 3 years I’ve been making regular trips to the Araucaria forests of the southern Andes in Chile. I first encountered these remarkable forests in 1977, during an extended 6 month trip throughout the southern countries of South America, when someone I met mentioned there was an interesting forest on the pass between the Argentinian town of Junin de los Andes and Pucon in Chile. As I was planning to cross from Argentina to Chile, I decided to take that route, and discovered that what he had referred to was a whole forest of what I knew from Scotland as the monkey puzzle tree. [Read more…] about The Araucaria forests of Chile, part 1