Chile's Elqui Valley

 

I tried several more times to get a better photo of the 3rd Millennium Cross but to no avail, guess I was lucky to get this one after we got back from our excursion.  Our destination itinerary said La Serena, a city that was actually just a little north of Coquimbo port, it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.  We headed out to the Elqui Valley, (Elqui means "thin"), a spot that our guide told us was the Roswell of Latin America.  Alas, we didn't spot any UFO's.

Here was my first view of Coquimbo from off of our balcony, looked to be a pretty setting.

We saw this little fish market on our way out of town, not sure about cleanliness and freshness of product here.

As we drove out to the lovely Elqui Valley on the edge the Altacama Desert, our guide, Javiera gave us tidbits about the indigenous people of the area.  This carved and polished piece of stone that I'm holding is called a tembetá, an adornment that would have been worn by the Ayetas (I'm pretty sure that's spelled wrong).  Any guesses where it would have been worn?  They would have pierced the lower lip so that the cylindrical part would have stuck through while the winged part at the top would have snugged up against the teeth.  Sound comfortable?  The purpose of this ornament was to invite the good spirit into the body to reach the soul.  

Our first stop was the reservoir that allows for the agriculture in the Elqui Valley.  Here you can see the Puclaro Dam that backs up the Elqui River which has headwaters in the Andes Mountains.

Pretty sure this could have been a spectacular picture if we hadn't had the cloud cover we did.  We were assured is would burn off eventually as it rarely rains here.  The reservoir was at only 10% of capacity.  The farmers had been told there would be water through May but after that it would be cut off.  

It was so different to see the green valley on one side of the dam and then cactus growing on the hillside above it.  You can see here that water was still flowing from the reservoir for now.

If you look closely here you can see the Tololo Observatory sitting atop of the mountain in the background.  The Elqui Valley has several astronomical observatories here as it is one of the planet’s darkest places at night.  It has been designated as the world’s first International Dark Sky Sanctuary in an effort to protect the integrity of the natural night sky.  Such a designation goes only to rare and fragile dark places left on earth.  It made me wish I could be here to see the stars come out, wouldn’t that be incredible!

Our next stop might be a bit unexpected for the two of us, the Cooperativa Capel, a distillery where they made the local drink called Pisco.  We just thought it would be interesting to see what transformation the grapes from the Elqui Valley go through.

There are only two areas in all of Chile authorized to distill Pisco brandy, I'm told.  The only other place is another spot in the Altacama.  

This is one of the original copper stills used to make Pisco.  Spaniards who came here in the 16th century planted vineyards in order to make wine, however conditions here weren't conducive to that venture, it always went sour.   They then decided to distill the wine into liquor instead to increase its alcohol content.  The first of the stills like this one came from Germany.

Here's a picture is of a grape press, an upgrade from the wooden container previously used where they would stomp on the grapes to juice them.  If you're old enough just think on that "I Love Lucy" episode where she has an adventure at a vineyard.

The barrels where the Pisco is stored are all underground.  Heading down the stairs to that area the scent of the Pisco was strong enough I felt like I could almost taste it.  The smell wasn't unpleasant, just strongly alcohol with a hint of citrus, mostly lemon.  The juice is stored in these oak barrels for 2-5 years before being pumped out and bottled.  To give the drink the correct flavor only American oak from California or French oak from Cognac is used to make the barrels.

There was writing on a few of the barrel ends, not sure if these were special varieties or not, something I should have asked.

These are various kinds of Pisco.  The clear varieties are distilled in metal, which is why they have no color.  Those that are tinted were stored in the wooden barrels.

Only reason I added this picture is to show how marketing can work.  This is a "special" brand of Pisco that they created at Capel called "Le-Pac".  If you notice, the name is just Capel spelled backwards.  With a different name and some re-packaging they sell the same product for more money.

At the end of the distillery tour they handed out samples of Pisco Sour, the signature drink they make with Pisco.  Our friends all said it tasted good, LeaAnn, in the middle, said it was "dangerously good".  All I can tell you is that is smelled nice.

Had to take a picture of Karl and I near an arbor there at the distillery just to prove that we were there.

You don't see it a lot but this is a scented oleander flower, most varieties of that plant have no scent.  Karl was happy to find it because it reminded him of his childhood, his neighbors used to have one.  It was a lovely smell.

We stopped next in the pretty town of Vicuña in the Elqui Valley.  The sun had come out and it was a great place to wander the plaza and a couple of landmark buildings.

Each of the park benches had these cutouts of the town name.  There were plenty of residents enjoying themselves there on the nice summer day.

A panorama view of the park, not quite a 360 degree one.  You can see what a pleasant place it was.  No water in the fountain though due to the shortage.

The person that puts this spot on the map is Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, who was born and lived here until she was three years old.  There is a display of multiple photos like the one above that chronicle her life along one side of the park.  Not only was she a writer but she was also an influential voice for women's issues in Latin America.  

Karl decided he'd like a photo of himself sitting next to Gabriela here in the park. 

 

Some of my favorite parts of the plaza were the wood carvings in dead tree trunks.   This one was dedicated to the native peoples of the area.

These gentle but strong faces were so beautiful and to be able to integrate them into the tree itself was amazing.

These are the two landmark buildings just off the square.  The one on the left is called the German Tower, showing the European influence in Chile.  On the right is the Vicuña Cathedral which dates back to 1859.

Opposite the carvings of natives in the plaza are these that are dedicated to women.  You have to look closely to see the faces and bodies.  On the right is the artist's signature on the back of her piece.

This little guy, another of wood, was sitting off by himself.  He reminded me of the trolls from Frozen.

I add this picture because Karl was able to go in here and stock up on snacks again, we were running low on Pringles.

No post can be complete without a couple of flower photos from me.  On the way back to our bus I glimpsed this glorious bougainvillea and had to detour over to take a picture.

One bit of street art in town was this one of the barren hills, the tower and the beloved Gabriela Mistral.

I decided to take a screenshot of where we were at the moment in relation to the port itself, we hadn't gone too far.

Our final stop was for lunch in a nearby town called Villaseca.  The claim to fame here is that it has one of the repositories of the World Seed Bank where seeds of every type of plant on earth are stored to hedge against an apocalypse.

Everything at our restaurant, was cooked with solar power.  The owner gave us a demonstration of how hot it gets in the center of the solar parabola, instant combustion for the piece of newspaper he held over the center. 

Our guide had given us choices for lunch at the beginning of the tour.  Her English wasn't the best and so we weren't exactly sure what we were going to get.  I hadn't expected a soup starter when she asked if we wanted Locro, but it was delicious, lots of vegetables with bits of meat in it.  Pretty sure the meat was goat.

Karl had the pork with some pasta.  The meat was tasty and tender, the pasta bland.

I had ordered a typical Chilean dish, Charquicán with rice.  It was more vegetables in what seemed to be mashed potatoes, I wasn't exactly sure.  Our English friends called it Chilean "bubble and squeak", which is a mashup of whatever you have as leftovers.  It tasted pretty good and was definitely a "stick to your ribs" kind of meal.

On the way back to Coquimbo we caught a glimpse of the windsurfers on the reservoir we'd been to earlier.  This was the best I could do zipping past on the bus.

I also needed to take my usual picture of Serenade sitting at the dock.  I don't ever seem to get tired of seeing her.

This pirate ship tour was sailing around the harbor after our return.  You can see that it was pretty packed so it must be popular with the locals.  Somewhere in town is a statue of Sir Francis Drake, erected because he purportedly stopped at this future city site during his journey around the world.  He is considered a pirate in these parts, hence the pirate ship where we could hear sword fights going on. Rumor has it that he buried treasure in the area that people are still looking for.  Ahoy me hearties!

The Beagle also stopped in here with Charles Darwin, he noted that there was nothing remarkable about the town except for the quiet.  It's grown quite a bit since then with much more here now to see and do.