Pisco Elqui: Sun, Stars, Moon and Mountains

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Hi all,

This is my last day in Pisco Elqui, a beautiful little town in the mountains which I have completely fallen in love with. I´ve spent about 5 days here so I´ll just give you the highlights. On the bus from La Serena I met a guy from Italy who has been here 5 times in his life as he loves it that much (so that might give an idea of how enchanting this place is!) We spent most of the day just taking in the views of the plaza and the mountains, and went to a little restaurant to have some empanadas - so yummy!

The following day I bumped into some guys from Argentina and we went to a pisco distillery in the town. The entire tour was in Spanish but luckily they translated so I got an idea of the distillery process. We were than allowed to sample some of the pisco and I have to be honest and say that I have no intention of trying it again! It turns out they all play instruments and share my love for The Beatles so in the evening we sat by the pool and they played some songs on their guitars and bongo. So, when I´m a little old lady I fully intend to tell my grandchildren about the time I went to Chile and watched the full moon rising over the mountains with some musicians from Argentina!

As I mentioned in my last post it is very hot here, so the next day I mostly spent lounging around in the garden of the hostel which is very pretty. I met a couple of girls at the hostel, one of whom is from Finland and speaks English, and the other of whom is from Chile and speaks no English at all. So I acted as (a very poor!) translator and we made a drink where you cut open a melon and mix in wine and sugar. Extremely yummy and definately something I will be drinking again when I get home!

Yesterday I went to a really lovely little artisan village called Horcon with a guy from Chile who I met at the hostel. He had his car so after driving to Horcon we drove in the other direction to a place called Cochiquaz and sat by a river named the ´Magic River´. In the evening myself and the girl from Finland went to an observatory called Cielo Sur which is high up in the mountains and so we had some fantastic views of the stars.

Today I am leaving for San Pedro de Atacama. Originally the plan was to go to Iquique but after talking to a lot of travellers and Chileans I´ve decided to change my plans because San Pedro sounds amazing! It is a slightly shorter bus journey but unfortunately I´m still going to be spending about 18 hours on buses in total... let´s hope it´s worth it!

Besos,

Laura

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