Huilo Huilo Reserva Biológica — Attraction in Futrono

Having just a few days to visit the south of Chile and travelling all the way from Canada I was most looking forward to seeing Huilo Huilo. However I was not expecting the terrible customer service, disorganization and overall unprofessionalism of park staff. I had one full day planned at the park and wanted to hike as many of the trails as possible. For this reason we were up at 7am as the park stated that the trails were open at 9am. We picked the reindeer forest trail because it had a gondola at the end. When we got to the ticket booth there was a young man who was opening the office and said that we couldn’t go in yet because he was waiting on the cashier to arrive to open the tills. We thought it was odd that the whole office wasn’t open as it was past 9am. I asked if we had gotten the wrong opening time and he confirmed they did open at 9. As we waited for the cashier I asked if they had washrooms I could use and he informed that they were not in service because they were still being cleaned but that once we started our hike we could use the washrooms in the museum that was located close to the gondola at the end of the half hour hike. If the park opens at 9 am one would expect that the staff and all facilities are available at 9am. When the cashier arrived we bought our tickets and asked the park staff if the gondola was open yet. They said that the gondola opened at 10am. So we figured once we hiked to the gondola it would be close to 10 and we could go up. We did the hike and looked at the museum and by 10 am were at the gondola, the girl behind the counter informed that the tickets didn’t go on sale until 11am, we told her that we had been told 10 am. She said she couldn’t do anything about it and refused to sell us tickets even though she was at the till and we were the only people there. We later found out that the toll did open at 10am but that a private party had reserved the gondola until 11am, I’m not sure if this is regularly done but either way we were told to come back in an hour. We had not eaten breakfast expecting to do our hike and then eat afterwards as there was a cafe at the gondola ticket building but of course, as you guessed it was also closed, they opened at 1pm. So frustrated and starving we left and decided to head to the nearest diner just outside the park in a small town. After hiking out and eating we came back to the park around 1pm and asked the front desk clerk if we could drive up to the gondola as we had seen cars driving up. The manager at the desk denied us and said it was only for handicapped individuals that driving in was allowed. We explained that the only reason we had to hike again was because we had been given incorrect information by her staff and we had been denied tickets for the gondola, and hoped to save time for another hike by driving. We were still refused. We had to hike the entire trail again. When we got to the gondola we were told the tickets were sold out. I was livid by then. The same clerk who refused to sell us tickets a couple hours ago when we were the first customers of the day now wouldn’t sell us any because we were too late. We complained to her that we had just hiked this trail twice wasting several hours of our day and that we could not stay another day to try again, as I had a flight back to Canada to catch. She offered to see if there was any room left when they boarded everyone on. If there was we could board. So she told us to wait. We waited for a half hour and then when it came to board she informed that there was also another couple who had also waited to see if there was enough space and only one of us could take the last two seats. We reminded her we had been here at the start of the day, she took too long in deciding on the seats and the impatient gondola operator just started the gondola stranding all of us. I was only able to get in one other hike after wasting hours on this first when I had four planned for the day. The staff at huilo huilo had zero professionalism or customer service skills and didn’t care to rectify...

Huilo-Huilo Biological Reserve is a private for profit natural reserve and ecotourism project in southern Chile. The reserve was created in 1999 and includes 600 km2 (232 sq mi) of native forest in Chile dedicated to wildlife conservation and tourism. The reserve is owned by the businessman Víctor Petermann who bought it in the 1990s, and was prior to the land sellings of the late Pinochet dictatorship part of Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli. The reserve has a number of unique hotels, including Montana Mágica, the Nothofagus hotel, cabins, and a lodge for backpackers. The grounds also include a brewery, various animal habitats, a funicular, and many miles of trails. The reserve includes many waterfalls and the eastern slopes of Mocho-Choshuenco, a glacial compound stratovolcano. The nearest town to Huilo-Huilo is Neltume, the site of a 1981 violent episode between members of MIR, and members of the military dictatorship in Chile .

The history of the area around Huilo-Huilo has been divided in the following periods:

Proletariatization of campesinos (1940–1964)

Rise of the worker-campesino movement (1964–1973)

Neoliberal reforms (1973–present)

Military dictatorship (1973–1990)

Transition to democracy (1990–present)

The reserve is located north east of the Mocho-Choshuenco volcano in Los Ríos Region. The main entrance is on the international gravel road that connects Panguipulli, with San Martín de los Andes, Argentina. In order to reach San Martín de los Andes from the west, one must travel through the Hua Hum Pass. After leaving Chile route 203 in Puerto Fuy, one must board the Barcaza Hua Hum a ferry that crosses Pirihueico Lake in approximately 90 minutes. After crossing Pirihueico Lake, the ferry arrives at Pirihueico, the last Chilean outpost before the Hua Hum Pass and eventually Ruta 4...

Fuente: Equipo rioenlínea.cl Dejenle sus comentarios en sus redes sociales a estos colonos inhumanos que invaden, contaminan, mal tratan y mantienen el genocidio indígena en territorio del Pueblo y Nacion Mapuche. El planeta se los agradecera. Tomate 5 minutos y lee hasta el final. Cientos de denuncias de asesinatos de familias enteras para apoderarse de tierras, glaciares, ríos , lagos, volcanes....y se hacen llamar reserva

Nuevamente la familia Petermann, dueña de la Reserva Biológica Huilo Huilo, sale a la palestra por su cuestionado comportamiento frente al cuidado y preservación del medio ambiente en Panguipulli, donde acumula más de 100 mil hectáreas de bosque.

Pese a que su misión y visión de empresa tiene como eje central el turismo sustentable, aquello dista de la realidad. Esto tras conocerse otra posible infracción al medio ambiente, luego que se constatara que intervino el cauce de un río con maquinaria pesada.

Lo grave es que no se trata de cualquier caudal, sino el que nace del glaciar que forma parte de la Reserva Nacional Mocho Choshuenco en Panguipulli y que luego se transforma en el río Blanco, colindante al extenso predio propiedad del ingeniero Víctor Petermann.

Pero el historial de irregularidades medioambientales que rodean a la familia controladora del holding Tehmcorp -que agrupa a 21 empresas-, no es reciente. En un reportaje, CIPER reveló que la Mina Panales, propiedad de Petermann y explotada por la Minera Esparta, funcionó desde 2012 sin autorización, en la Región Metropolitana.

De esto hay diversos pronunciamientos, tanto de la justicia como de entidades de Gobierno. En su momento, ni la Corte Suprema, ni la Superintendencia de Medio Ambiente pudieron paralizar las faenas de extracción de cobre que afectó a la Quebrada de la Plata, una de las últimas zonas de preservación ecológica de esa zona.

Un año después y casi a mil kilómetros de distancia al sur de Chile, en Panguipulli, otra mala práctica de Víctor Petermann, quedaría al descubierto: La construcción ilegal de una central de pasada. Esta no había sido informada al Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental, lo que motivó una auto denuncia. El 2016 y por este mismo caso, el empresario fue eximido del pago de 100 millones de pesos, al ejecutar al pie de la letra el plan de cumplimiento fijado por la autoridad.

Pero la figura de Petermann no sólo ha estado envuelta en problemas medioambientales. En septiembre de 2019, RioenLinea reveló que fue formalizado por delito tributario, por lo que debía pagar una millonaria multa, al percibir devolución de impuesto a través de un supuesta “empresa de papel”.

Dos años han pasado y Huilo Huilo vuelve a hacer noticia. Esta vez por intervenir el cauce natural de un río hacia la Reserva Biológica. CONAF y la Superintendencia de Medio Ambiente (SMA), corroboraron la veracidad de la denuncia que primero hicieron los vecinos de la zona.

Tras una visita a terreno, el Jefe de la SMA en Los Ríos, Eduardo Rodríguez, dijo que “hay antecedentes que ya se presentó una auto denuncia (…) Lo que corresponde determinar es si esa intervención de cauce se relaciona con la Central Hidroeléctrica Truful, que en este momento no se encuentra en operación, sin embargo hay que determinar si efectivamente esas obras tenían relación con esta central que cuenta con permiso ambiental del año 2015”.

Paralelamente, la Fiscalía abrió una investigación penal, que comenzó con diligencias encargadas a la Brigada de Delitos contra el Medio Ambiente y el Laboratorio de Criminalística de la PDI. En tanto, la empresa reconoció la intervención del río, dejando a las autoridades que “resuelvan según corresponda”.

Si bien Víctor Petermann ha sido la cara visible de los movimientos del holding, en los últimos años parte del clan familiar también tomó protagonismo. Es el caso de su hija, Alexandra Petermann, vicepresidenta de la Fundación Huilo Huilo. El mismo parentesco tiene Andrea Petermann, quien figura como integrante del directorio, siendo candidata de la UDI a la Convención Constituyente.

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