#108 Monkey Puzzle Trees & Nahuelbuta Park of Chile 🌲 🇨🇱 土著圣树 -- 智利南美杉 | 摄影月旦评

What's up fellow Steemians! Today I'm showing you some thousand-year-old Monkey Puzzle trees from Nahuelbuta National Park in Chile. The 3 monochrome photos are my entries to @daveks' B&W Photo Contest themed Trees. Check out his page and join the fun!

大家好，今天请跟我来看看智利中部一处国家公园里的千年土著圣树 -- 南美杉。

This national park is located in the beautiful La Araucanía Region in central Chile. Araucaria araucana is the name of the trees in this park. A more common name is "Monkey Puzzle/Tail" tree, or "Chilean pine". Nahuelbuta literally means "big tiger" in Mapuche language, and it is a sanctuary for Monkey Puzzle trees (the national tree of Chile) which are sacred to the Mapuche native American tribes.

The monkey puzzle trees in Chile look like the Bunya trees in southern Queensland where I live, which I will blog about soon. Interestingly enough, just like the sacred monkey puzzle trees to Mapuche people, Bunya trees are also valuable resources for the aboriginals in Australia. They were fiercely protected by the Aborigines, which led to colonial authorities prohibiting European settlers from cutting the trees in the 19th century.

这个国家公园(自然保护区)叫Nahuelbuta，来源于土著马普切人的语言，意为"大老虎"。这个"大老虎"守护着一大片土著人心目中的圣树 -- 智利南美杉。这种杉树是智利的国树，俗称"智利松"或"迷猴树"，可能是因为它奇特的外形，让爬树的猴子都觉得迷惑吧 :)。

These trees are native to the Chilean and Argentinian south-central Andes, typically above 1,000 meters. They are also popularly grown as ornamental trees. Some of these living fossils date back 2,000 years, and can grow up to 40 meters high, like the Sky Tree in Southwest China. Monkey Puzzle trees is the hardiest species in the conifer genus Araucaria. The scale-like triangular leaves are thick and tough with sharp edges and tips.

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You can explore the 30 roads and 15 trails in the park by car or on foot. We visited this park on a road trip from the city Concepción where we lived. After a few hours' hike along scenic and muddy paths, we reached the peak - Cerro Piedra del Águila before sunset. Most photos you see from my post were taken at the peak, where on a big rock there was only a tiny uneven surface for our foothold.

Standing at 1,379 meters in the middle of nowhere in the chilly wind, I was totally stunned by the breathtaking view of the exuberant and pristine monkey puzzle trees all over the mountain ranges, with a few extra tall ones sticking out in front.

And it's more than that - to the west it's the immense Pacific Ocean, and to the east an impressive chain of Andean volcanoes. All these framed the sky marked by spectacular hues.

We three sat on the tip of the big rock in awe, watching the postcard view in peaceful solitude. But it was getting really cold and windy when the sun eventually left us, and it's harder and harder to breathe. So we reluctantly hiked down the peak when it's almost dark.

All content by @itchyfeetdonica (the screenshot from Google Map)
图文 by Donica多

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Thank you for reading. Please tell me what you think in the comments. Until next time! =)

感谢阅读！你的关注/点赞/留言/转发就是对我最好的支持~ 下次见！:)

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Here are some screenshots from my Instagram. Follow @ItchyfeetDonica for more adventures around the globe !

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!steemitworldmap -37.792691 lat -72.998155 long Nahuelbuta National Park, Chile d3scr