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Pucón

Puerto Varas

Puerto Montt

Patagonian Forest

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SOUTHERN CHILE´S FOREST
PUERTO MONTT AND PUERTO VARAS: LAKE DISTRICT

Southern Chile is home to a tremendous diversity and extension of forests. Among the most spectacular are forests of pure Araucaria (Araucaria araucana), a 60 million-year-old conifer whose fruit forms the dietary basis of the Pehuenche Indians, a mountain tribe of the Mapuche culture. Further south, floral diversity reaches its peak in the Valdivian Rainforest, the second largest temperate rainforest in the world. Finally, isolated stands of the endangered Alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides) include some of the oldest living beings in the world - at up to 3500 years of age, the Alerce is surpassed in longevity only by California's bristlecone pine.