Day 116 - A priceless moment - Superstars for 10 minutes

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We thought we'd head further up the valley today on a day trip, so we caught a little bus to a village called Pisco Elqui. The hour long journey passed loads of vineyards growing some grapes for wine but mostly the grapes that are used to make pisco. The town, well village, itself is a pleasant little place with not a lot going on. We went for a walk and found an amazing restaurant on a hillside with an incredible view. They even had a telescope which we used to try and find the flag which the owner assured us was flying atop one of the mountains opposite. We could pretty much count the spikes on a cactus over there but couldn't find this flag - at the village fete people race up the mountain, the winner planting his family flag. Maybe one of the losers stole it.

Over lunch we met a Danish couple in their early-sixties who were on a half business half holiday trip to Chile. They are both chemical engineers and their business is based around a patented process they have invented for mixing liquids more efficiently. It sounds unspectacular at first, but as they spoke about it and the work they do with their impressive list of blue-chip clients we decided they must be seriously minted. All their 3 children are chemical engineers too, and when Ed pointed out that Christmas dinners must be a barrel of laughs in their household they thought it was hilarious. Minted and a sense of humour - what a combination.

Anyway, back to Vicuña we prepared ourselves for the day's big event. Chilean football (that's soccer, not gridiron, naturally) team 'Colo Colo' were on TV in the second-leg of the quarter-finals of Latin America's equivalent of the Champions league. They were playing Gimnasia of Argentina, and the talking point of the first-leg was when Chilean fans chucked a lump of concrete onto the pitch and hit an Argentinian player. It was going to be a big game with the whole of town watching on telly, so we thought we'd join in the fun by getting ourselves kitted out in 'Colo Colo' shirts. We returned to the scene of Gemma's domino domination last night and it was heaving. 100ish people, all men and all glued to the screen showing the centre circle before the game (complete with cartoon graphics advertising this and that, for example digging up the centre circle and replacing it with a bottle of engine oil!). It was also frezzing cold, so we had our jackets on over our 'Colo Colo' tops.

It was a very dirty game, which we won 2-0. In the bar there was a huge cheer when the first goal went in, but that was nothing. As the noise was fading Mario, Gemma's (cheating) domino partner from the previous evening and the person who begins all the chanting, came over to us. We revealed our 'Colo Colo' tops, Mario shouted something in Spanish to everyone, and the place just erupted with cheering, as he held our arms aloft. We had to have our pictures taken with loads of people, had to sign 'Colo Colo' flags and even had to go through a grown man's 'Colo Colo' sticker collection. It's the sort of moment that you can never hope to make happen, it just does. And it was amazing.

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