Chile - Elqui Valley
I went to Elqui Valley after Zach went back to the US after our amazing stay in the chilean Patagonia, and a bit less amazing stay in San Pedro de Atacama, and the marvellous mining town of Calama (full of pharmacies and strip clubs). This was my penultimate stop before leaving Chile and heading on to my next South American destination - Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Valle de Elqui is famous for two things: having one of the clearest skies in the world, and pisco production. The place is full of astronomical observatories. In fact, I just read that "By 2020, this grape-filled valley (along with the greater Atacama desert) will have an estimated 70% of the world’s astronomy infrastructure, thanks to its high altitudes, low population density and near non-existent cloud cover". Of course, I visited an observatory while there, and if course by now I have forgotten almost everything that I was told there :-P I also visited a pisco distillery with two girls that I met at the hostel I was staying at - one Brit, and one Brazilian. We communicated in a mix of English and Spanish since the Brazilian girl didn't speak very good English, and the British girl didn't speak much Spanish. This wasn't the first experience of this type on this trip, it's nice how things work out anyway in spite of language barriers :) since our hostel was in the middle of nowhere, my companions' first idea was to try and hitchhike to the place. It was the first time I almost hitchhiked :-P it was funny how natural this was for them, and how terrified and excited I was - of course I was playing it cool and tried not to show any emotion at the idea. Get into a stranger's car without knowing if they're a serial killer and/or a terrible and dangerous driver? Oh yes, no problem at all :-P Luckily/unluckily a local bus came over sooner than we were able to hitch a ride and we were off. I don't remember much from the pisco distillery (naturally), apart from how delicious and refreshing their pisco sour was (amazing after walking in the hot sun), that it was a family distillery and parts of the process were still very manual - including one bit that if done wrong, would result in a very toxic product (was a little worried about drinking that pisco sour later :-P).
The Cosmo Hostel in Elqui Valley is the only place during my trip where I really struggled to sleep. During my first two nights there I shared the room with a group of Chilean guys that 1) drank and partied till early hours, then came back to the room, turned on the light at 4am and didn't mind the other people 2) were the loudest f*cking snorers I've ever seen in my life. I swear, I slept in ear blockers AND noise cancelling headphones, and it was still not enough. People in other rooms in the hostel were laughing because they could hear them. It was insane! Oh how glad I was when they left.
Spent some time stargazing and talking to some nice Argentinians at the fire.
Valle de Elqui is famous for two things: having one of the clearest skies in the world, and pisco production. The place is full of astronomical observatories. In fact, I just read that "By 2020, this grape-filled valley (along with the greater Atacama desert) will have an estimated 70% of the world’s astronomy infrastructure, thanks to its high altitudes, low population density and near non-existent cloud cover". Of course, I visited an observatory while there, and if course by now I have forgotten almost everything that I was told there :-P I also visited a pisco distillery with two girls that I met at the hostel I was staying at - one Brit, and one Brazilian. We communicated in a mix of English and Spanish since the Brazilian girl didn't speak very good English, and the British girl didn't speak much Spanish. This wasn't the first experience of this type on this trip, it's nice how things work out anyway in spite of language barriers :) since our hostel was in the middle of nowhere, my companions' first idea was to try and hitchhike to the place. It was the first time I almost hitchhiked :-P it was funny how natural this was for them, and how terrified and excited I was - of course I was playing it cool and tried not to show any emotion at the idea. Get into a stranger's car without knowing if they're a serial killer and/or a terrible and dangerous driver? Oh yes, no problem at all :-P Luckily/unluckily a local bus came over sooner than we were able to hitch a ride and we were off. I don't remember much from the pisco distillery (naturally), apart from how delicious and refreshing their pisco sour was (amazing after walking in the hot sun), that it was a family distillery and parts of the process were still very manual - including one bit that if done wrong, would result in a very toxic product (was a little worried about drinking that pisco sour later :-P).
On our walk from the bus stop to the distillery there were some nice valley views and some cacti fruit.
I had read that you shouldn't eat those fruits straight off the cacti without burning their tiny needles first, but the British girl decided they looked needle-less; she spent the rest of the trip trying to pick out barely visible cactus needles from her lips and fingers. TOLD YOU SO ;) Before boarding our bus back to the hostel were came across some kind of water party in the town we arrived at, the local fire brigade was pumping water at people in the street, it was fun to watch. Wanted to join in but the prospect of being soaked to the bone on the mini bus back was not very appealing :)
The Cosmo Hostel in Elqui Valley is the only place during my trip where I really struggled to sleep. During my first two nights there I shared the room with a group of Chilean guys that 1) drank and partied till early hours, then came back to the room, turned on the light at 4am and didn't mind the other people 2) were the loudest f*cking snorers I've ever seen in my life. I swear, I slept in ear blockers AND noise cancelling headphones, and it was still not enough. People in other rooms in the hostel were laughing because they could hear them. It was insane! Oh how glad I was when they left.
Spent some time stargazing and talking to some nice Argentinians at the fire.
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