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- Jan 7, 2023
- ☀️ 22 °C
- Altitude: 433 ft
- ChileCoquimboLa SerenaLa Pampa29°55’48” S 71°14’28” W
From La Serena: Valle del Elqui
January 7, 2023 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
I had the great fortune of being a kilometer away from an A+ tour agency, so I booked tours for the 2nd and 3rd of January there. I used to be a “tour snob,” trying to find places by myself. This is a good process in large cities where a map and a guidebook are enough, but to see what’s OUT of town, a tour delivers. Both of mine included 14-15 people, we rode in vans, and the drivers were also quite excellent guides who spoke extensively and knowledgeably throughout via a microphone on board.
The Elqui River empties into the Pacific Ocean two kilometers north of where I was staying. But its origins are in the west Andes, from which it flows into a fertile valley to the west of La Serena. Here a good portion of Chile’s vegetables are grown—especially lettuces, avocados, and olives for olive oil.
Our first stop was a dam of the river, and we dutifully walked over the top of it. Actually, the first stop of day-long tours is for breakfast—a kind of prize for the night owls who actually got up in time to catch the van.
To wake us up further, the second stop was at a pisco distillery. Pisco is an unaged brandy made from Chilean (or Peruvian) white grapes, and is distilled (without water) at 38-48 proof. Our tour guide also had extensive knowledge of the process, so we did our thinking before our drinking, to paraphrase a Spanish saying. (“Primero el deber, luego el placer.”) The classic South American cocktail is a “Pisco Sour,” which is pisco with lemon juice and shaken a great deal. We sampled it without the shake-up.
Other stops were at Vicuña, the birthplace of Gabriela Mistral (Nobel Prize winning poet), lunch in a nearby town, and on the way back, a place to buy goods produced in the valley.
You can see from the photos that it was quite a lovely trip. I wasn’t my usual chatty self with the other tour members, but stayed quiet and observant for a change. (A big change.)
Cheers!Read more
Traveler What a fascinating tour it sounds, and what lovely photographs of spectacular views. Like you, I used to be snobby about tours and like you, I came to realize that they can often be the only way to see some things. And even if one can arrive at wherever by oneself, a guided tour can still deliver much more than a visit alone.
Hi Doree. Thank you for sharing these delightful pics of Chile. Cindi [Cindi Watts]
Traveler Thank you Doree for this.