PATAGONIA NATIONAL PARK

Pumalín means “watery place” in the language of the Huilliche people (“Pu” is place, and “malín” is marshland or flooded area). This spot is a beautiful mosaic of ancient forests that abruptly give way to fjords, rivers, granite walls, glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, and lakes suspended in mountain heights. It’s also home to 25% of the thousand-plus-year-old alerce trees (Fitzroya) still growing in Chile today. The temperate, or Valdivian, rainforest was untouched by the ice that covered most of this region 14,000 years ago, which kept these unique forests and their many endemic species protected for millennia. Here, Douglas Tompkins began carrying out his vision of conserving Chilean Patagonia––a vision still alive today in the Route of Parks of Patagonia.