“It is called lahuan, which means grandfather in the Mapuche language,” specified Danilo Hernández Otaño, the mayor of the **Los Alerces National Park**. Proud of the treasure found in **Patagonia**: the second **oldest tree** on the planet.
A Millennia Survivor
**”The grandfather”** is a survivor. It was already alive before the creation of the Los Alerces National Park where it is located and long before Columbus arrived in America. **It is 2620 years old**. “There is a decree from 1937 that protected the area and in 1940 the Los Alerces National Park was formalized,” explained Hernández.
Previously, **alerce wood** was used because it does not decompose. It takes a long time to grow and a long time to degrade, and it was cut down to be used in carpentry and shipbuilding. Today, of course, its exploitation is prohibited.
Alerce’s History
That is why “the grandfather” is a **living natural monument**, located in the middle of Patagonia. This alerce has endured rains, winds, fires, and everything that could have happened in over 2600 years.
“It doesn’t have any fire scars,” Hernández explained, “but it does have a hatchet mark. This is because in the past loggers would chop a part to look at the grain, if it was too twisted, they would discard it. In other words, they wouldn’t cut it because it wasn’t useful for wood. So, it was also lucky not to have been cut down”.
Alerce’s Characteristics
This millennia-old tree is located in the Los Alerces National Park, on the shores of Lake Menéndez. It is 57 meters tall and 2.8 meters in diameter. It takes six people holding hands to be able to surround the tree. “It is the second oldest living tree on the planet,” stated the park’s mayor. The first one is the **Pinus Longaeva** found in the United States.
Longevity and Protection
The longevity of this tree is related to its location. According to experts, the **Andes mountain range** protected it, enveloping it in a practically unexplored forest, where there are no roads or electricity. These millennia-old trees have slow growth, and their specimens can live between 3000 and 4000 years and measure over 70 meters.
How to Get There to See “The Grandfather”
Getting to where it is located takes more than an hour of navigation and another hour of walking. It starts from Esquel and you have to travel about a hundred kilometers to the footbridge that crosses the Arrayanes River at the mouth of Lake Verde to reach the Los Alerces National Park.
From there, walk about a thousand meters to Puerto Chucao, from where you have to embark on a catamaran, sail across Lake Menéndez, and finally arrive at the alerzal, a forest where alerces coexist with arrayanes, vines, and small wild orchids on the banks of the Cisne River.
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