el perro, el pisco, el paraiso (the dogs, the pisco, the paradise) - Valle del Elqui

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Mira gringos!

**16 April**

Just bussed in to a town called Copiapo, staying in the most basic place yet - feels like a sort of shanty town hostel with breeze block walls but its one of those hostels which is actually a family home and has a good atmosphere to it. I will try to visit Bahia Inglesa tomorrow for the day and then get back on the bus for the trip north again to Calama, my entry point to the Atacama Desert. Today I took my first ride on a Pullman bus, most closely resembling greyound in australia - air conditioned, reclining seats, dvds, but in addition, they fed us and gave us furry blankets and little pillows. We went through the desert on the Panamericana, and it was spectacular to pass gargantuan mountain ranges in the near distance, flanked by sweeping arid plains dotted, incredibly, with several tiny roadhouses or homes that are really shacks, but seem to function well and are always lovingly adorned with flowers and the chilean flag. the bus stops sometimes in the middle of nowehre to let women selling cakes or empanadas (a sort of cornish pasty that is a south american institution) to the hungry travellers, and there is always at least one very cute curly haired baby on board who wants to play peek a boo with me.
I came here today from Pisco Elqui, a tiny hamlet nestled about 2000 ft above sea level in the mountains east of La Serena, nearing the argentine border i think. this hamlet is in the far reaches of the valle del elqui, or elqui valley, famed for its production of muscatel grapes which are used to make the national drink, pisco - a white brandy, i think. the whole valley is gorgeous beyond comprehension, nestling among towering ranges of mountains and extinct volcanoes which are always draped in an endlessly huge azure sky, with white cirrus clouds floating lazily over the whole day. It is warm in the daytime in the valley but very cold at night, with sunset proving a stunning show of several colours and huge shadows cast over the mountains by the dying sun, until youre in pitch black with no light pollution or noise pollution (except the gorgeous babbling river coming off the mountains, which locals have redirected tributaries of through their gardens and acreage to irrigate their plants and vineyards, and to provide their own water supply, so you can hear it everywhere). i turned up three days ago not knowing where to stay and as i was walking aimlessly but trying to look like i knew where i was going )travellers always advise you to look like you know where you are going and walk with confidence so as to put off any dodgy characters looking to rinse confused orlost tourists) when a lady in a pickup drove past at speed, stopped, shouted with a smile at me that if i was looking for a place to stay she had a nice one a few minutes away, my instincts about here were good, so i hopped in and ended up stayed two nights in one of the loveliest hideaways ive ever seen, hostal baquedeno. it isnt a hostal, it is a tiny house with three bedrooms, a gorgeous garden on a slope filled with avocado, fig, pomegranate and orange trees, a little kitchen and...wait... A BATH. For 5000 a night ! I was alone for most of the first night there as tourist season is over so I went all out on luxuries i havent had for several months - a house to myself, a room to myself, lounging round drinking tea, and then i ran myself a bath and soaked for two hours, even splashing out on leaving in some conditioner and drinking tea in the bath while it soaked in. i needed music but of course there was nowhere to plug in the ipod - but the lady owner, the lovely and extra helpful gabriela, had left a tape player and some of her tapes. so i lay in the bath like a queen to the strains of whitney houston and joe cocker. the Bodyguard soundtrack never sounded so good as it did that night. Later a couple checked in and the next morning another couple checked in, and gabriela drove us in her pick up (i rode in the back of course, wind in hair, hand hanging over to the sheer mountain drop below) 18 ks intop an even smaller hamlet, cochinguaz, where we lazed for a couple of hours by a deserted river. the ride there was half the fun, taking in the vineyards defying gravity and clinging to the upper reaches of the mountains, neatly divided into perfect rows, and the lush vegetation in the bottom of the valley where water flowed fed throngs of huge weeping willows. driving along dirt tracks clinging to the edge of sheer drops was fun. pisco elqui has no tourist attractions apart from one small picqo distillerywith tours for 3000, which i decided against as all i wanted to see were the vineyards and the town itself, and those i got for free. The 2 hour bus ride there from la serena was also part of the whole experience, snaking at speed around the mountains, passing a huge lake at vicuna created by a dam, miniscule adobe villages, and tellingly, lots of tiny devotional thingys at the side of the road (i imagined marking where people have died on the road, but maybe they are just to bless the road or something.)
There were tons of dogs (perro) in pisco elqui, not unusual for south america, they rule the streets at night and bark furiously at horses as they pass. on my last night there myself and one of the couples went searching for a cheap place to eat and about five dogs followed us the entire time, breaking into loud barking fits at other passing dogs, which initially was annoying as the place is so quiet and chilled out, but later was actually funny.I had a fantastic time in the valley and I really think it is a paradise. As an interesting aside though, a peek from tourist life to real chilean life, i went nextdoor to gabrielas house to drop the keys off as i left, and shge welcomed me in warmly with a kiss on the cheek and a hug - her house was really simple, as in, no plastering on the walls, a single bed in the front room for her, and no heating and not too much light coming in through the window which had no glass but a thick plastic sheet pinned up. You forget when you stay in such a lovely place that it is so often lovely because the chileans have made it that way for us tourists and our 5000 pesos, one of the cheapest rates in the country, is really needed. Gabriela lives there alone with her young son Christobal who i played shoot outs with on both nights round at the hostal, and i thought about how it is to live in his house, in his world, which probably doesnt involve playstations, msn messenger, new clothes every year and holidays abroad. that said, pisco elqui is a great place to bring up a young kid, safe, friendly, pretty, idyllic - if you have some cash. I appreciated my time there is so many ways.
On my way to the bus back to la serena today I was waiting next to a man i feel sure was an actual real life gaucho, dressed in a very cool navy blue bolero jacket suit, cuban heeled boots, a wide brimmed hat of the sort that those guys wear, and a woven sheet (i dont know the right name) folded and draped across his shoulder in the way that gauchos do. i took some surrepticious photos. I want to meet some more gauchos, maybe in argentina! Its just like in the Steely Dan album Gaucho!!
The valley is also known for its arts, crafts and some new age tarot typestuff, being as the atmopshere there is just muy, muy tranquilo.

**18 April. Did I say that the hostel in Coquimbo had a good atmosphere to it? I think all those completos messed with my instincts. That was the scariest night of my life. I was in a tiny tiny room at the end of a hall on my own with wafer thin walls so i could hear every conversation in the hostel. The bed was confy enough but as I fell asleep the couple in the room next door began a very violent loud, physical fight, screaming (mostly the chick was screaming, the guy was talking in hushed but oddly threatening tones, all in spanish) and kicking the walls and crying. I figured i would just go to sleep and it would all be over soon. but no, it went on and on and got worse. about 2am the girl went for my wall and kicked a huge hole clean through after some very violent trying, leaving chunks of plasterboard sprayed all over my floor and some had even come off the ceiling in the force, I wont lie. I was shitting myself and kept absolutely silent until morning, scarpering from that hellhole as soon as I heard the crazy couple leave. I hope thats not going to be common but then it was the scuzziest place i have ever stayed in and the town was not up to much.

After buying my ticket to san pedro de atacama where i am tonight, and storing my luggage, i got a colectivo (a taxi which does a specific route and takes several people at the same time along that route, kind of a bus but in a car) to bahia inglesa for the day. It is very busy in the new year but deserted the rest of the time, which was nice because i got to roam around the wide white sandy beaches, the volcanic rocks and the little houses for a while, and the sun was out. I met two english guys there who didnt annoy me, as english tend to when i meet them here, and we kicked around in Caldera, the next town, until my bus came to take me back to copiapo for the ride to san pedro.**

Anyway, as I said I am now in san pedro de atacama, population under 3000 and altitude around 4500feet above sea level high up in the andes. bus ride here was spectacular, passing huge ancient volcanoes and beginning-of-time panorama of ancient land. as the sun came up over it there were low lying clouds on the floor which gave everything a sort of feeling that it was a dream. I will go biking to the volcano tomorrow and find a cheap tour to the worlds highest geyser field and the hot springs.

This is the first place on my trip where i was advised to get ready for the effects of altitude. When i got here i did notice that it was a bit harder to breathe and to fill my lungs right up, and the air is so incredibly arid that my eyes sting. I decided against an invitation to sand boarding on some dunes today because i thought that would be a bad idea while adjusting to the thin air. I managed to negotiate a cheaper rate to stay in some place run by hostelling international, my first hostel ever which is part of one of those chains, and it is usually 6500 pesos a night for non members but i got it down to 5000, my budget. quite proud of that. also relieved that you can eat affordably and well here, having had a nice tuna and salad sandwich for 1500, and a melon juice for 1000, though I only realised later that I am supposed to avoid anything with tap water in as water here contains arsenic.... but everyone else had it so.... loving the jugos frutasd here, my favourite is melon and banana.

one more thing of note, the kindness of strangers. twice complete randoms have walked me to a safe hostel and had no ulterior motive, and last night the english guys very kindly paid for my dinner and a cup of tea! i think they took my tales of dodgy as fuck hostels and budgetary concerns to heart!

x

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