Peñuelas is a Nature Reserve about 100 kms from Santiago on the highway to Viña del Mar and Valparaíso. The artificial lake, a resevoir, was created between 1895 and 1900 to provide drinking water to the higher areas of Viña and Valpo which are about 30 kms away. It opened as a Nature Reserve in the 1950s.

If you don't have a car, you can get to it on any of the buses which go down that highway, #68, to the coast. You just get a ticket for Peñuelas and let them know that is where you are getting off. It costs 1500 pesos per person, 700 for seniors, to get in. Once inside, you can follow the dirt roads around the edge of the reservoir for 5 kilometres. It is about 1.5 kilometres from the entrance to picnic spots around the reservoir. There are areas with built in barbecues and picnic tables and some with just the barbecues. There are so many places that you find one even on a very busy day. The risk of forest fire is too great to allow people to build fires outside these specific areas. The shade is mainly provided by eucalyptus trees, quillay, peumo, litre, boldo and espino. It is a good place to look at birds, ducks and coots and other marshbirds if the water level is right, and also, apparently, a good place to fish.

The Reserve is closed on Mondays and occasionally on other days so it is a good idea to check. If you are coming from Santiago, you do not want the first entrance marked on the highway but the one 3kms further on where the park guard's hut is. You want the one for "area de pesca", fishing. It opens at 9.30 and they start getting people out at 5.45.

Note:  This information originally came from material in the TripAdvisor forums: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-...