The mostly paved road from Lago Pirihueico, 101km east of Valdivia and 80km south of Villarrica, to Puerto Fuy parallels the scenic Río Huilo Huilo, which tumbles and falls through awe-inspiring scenery to the impressive Huilo-Huilo Reserva Natural Biosfera. This conservation project, begun in 2000, encompasses 1000 sq km of private land that has been developed for low-impact ecotourism and falls within a much larger Unesco biosphere reserve.
There is a wealth of excursions, a fantastic museum and microbrewery and a bevy of lodging for all budgets, including three spectacularly insane hotels. The beautiful reserve, owned and managed by Fundación Huilo-Huilo, is especially well-known for its endemic species, including the Darwin's frog, pudú, monito del monte (little mountain monkey), 111 species of birds, 35 species of ferns (second only to Archipiélago Juan Fernández) and, most importantly, the endangered huemal (South Andean deer), which is being reproduced here by the Fundación with startling success.
