Introduction

East from San Fernando, in the Cordillera de los Andes, lying between the Azufre and Tinguirirca rivers, rises a geologial system which has the Tinguirirca as its highest point. It is a long stretch of mountainous and geothermically active terrain.

The Tinguiririca is a transition mountain. It lies immediately to the Southeast of the granite walls and impressive glaciers of the "Sierra del Brujo". It is also, from the North, one of the first volcanic cones that will continuosly dominate the Andes to the South. In order to reach this volcano, one must go through a beautiful (and long) hike, which allows, not until the second day of hiking, to admire its slopes. Besides its impressive summit views, and the rewarding hotsprings just by the high camp, the Tinguiririca has also an historical interest: in October of 1972, an airplane belonging to the Uruguayan Airforce and heading for Chile, smashed one of its wings against the slopes of this peak. The survivors stayed in the mountains during 72 days, until in December 22^nd they were rescued by Chilean helicopters.

Its complicated name comes from the Mapundungun (Mapuche language) and means "shining quarz", though it also may be interpreted as "round quarz".