Week 1 : 3 days in a small town in Norte Chico.

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Geo: -35.6751, -71.543

Second stop on my tour : Vicuña. Well, I didn't know that this was going to be my 2d stop when I left Santiago... I new that I wanted to spent 3 days in Chico Norte so I took a bus to La Serena, but it was only during that 6h bus-trip that I decided that I would go to Valle Elki and see La Serena and the Humboldt Pinguin Parc rather on my way back from San Pedro de Atakama to Valparaiso.

First a word about the bus-trip : it was really long, the aircondition was way too strong and cold and the toilets were disgusting. But well, I survived. ;-)

So 10 minutes after arriving in La Serena I took the next bus to Vicuña (reading Lonely Planet I figured that was the best place to start discovering Valle Elki) and 1h later I was finally there. Lonely Planet recommands in Vicuña to stay at Alfa Aldeo which is a small familly-run guesthouse that also works as an observatory. So I took one of those cheap public taxis (great concept BTW : anybody can hop in when there is a free spot and when it's your turn the driver will take you whereever you want for just 1000$ = 1,20 euro) and went to Alfa Aldea. I had no reservation and no clue if they would have a free spot but they fortunately did and it turned out to be the best decision ever to go there!
The house is a bit outside of town, located in thd middle of large hectars of vineyards and with an amazing view at the valley and the mountains around.

The owner, Marco, and his wife were most welcoming and from the first second it feels like you're home.

I explored the city by bike. I visited the Gabriela Mistral museum (it's the city where she was born) which is really nice and then I went to the 7km out of the city Aba Pisquera. There I had a great guide, Jorge, who explained me how they make their pisco in this familly-run business. This was really interesting and their pisco is really good! :-) We also talked about general trends in the country and about much more. He's a great guy and we'll keep in touch. He also told me about the possibility to work with them in January and February as an English guide in exchange for accomodation, food and learning how to make pisco. That sounds great and I consider it for next year (2017). ;-)

When I came back to Marco's place, I had a nice swim in their swimming pool and met the other guests there : a couple from Geneva (Switzerland) (the girl is originally from Santiago but has been living in Geneva for 12 years) and 5 people of my parent's age with whom I would spent the next day : Linda and Doug from Vancouver, Kim and John from Summerland and Luisa from Washington DC travelling together for a month. The next morning they invited me to have breakfast with them and Marco showed us through his specialized telescopes then sun and a movie about the sun. It was really interesting!

Luisa, Kim, John and I decided to go together (in their car) to the Horcón artisanal market in Horcón. It was really nice there, quite alternatif and everything artisanal made with local products (nothing made in China! ;-) ). Luisa bought us a nice bracelet and it's strings are made of material that local shoemaker use because it's so robust and they have a special wax so that it doesn't break so fast. On the artisanal market of Pisco Elki we bought some copper bracelets (mine I lost bynow unfortunately...) and I bought bronze earings with lapislazuli stones. All of it is local and handmade which gives it a great value.
We also had a pisco-tasting at Los Nichos.
When we came "home", I went shopping for food with John, Linda and Doug - them by car, me by bike - and we had dinner together.

In the evening, they went to the Mamalluka observatory but the tour there wasn't so good because the guide was bored and explained nothing.
Me instead, I did the Alfa Aldea Astronomical Tour with the guys from Switzerland. It stared with a glass of good wine, cheese and salami and a movie with a lot of explanations from Enrique about the "Big Bang" and the constitution of the earth. After that we went to the amphitheater outside, had some hot homemade chickensoup from Marco and saw the moon and a lot of stars and constellations through the telescope. It was amazing, soo impressive! Marco offered me to come work with them too next year in January and February to learn everything they know about astronomy and give the tour in English. It would be really cool to do that at night and during the day work on the pisquera. I really consider doing that! :-D

The next day, I went with Luisa, Kim, John, Linda an Doug to the Tololo Observatory which isn't touristic but a place for research. Thanks to Marco we could participate on that exclusive free tour and learned a lot about research in astronomy. We saw two big telescopes, one of them a the strongst camera that has evwr been build and cost 30 million $. It was very impressive! I really had a great time with these 5 people, they were great, so nice and open mindet and I will miss them on my trip.

Since the tour started a bit late and our guide likes to talk almost as much as Marco, we went back a bit late and hurrying to the bus station I forgot my towel and my bikini... I got to the station just in time to get the bus to La Serena where I arrived just 10 minutes before my bus left to San Pedro. I was very happy (and lucky!) that I got this bus. So started my 14h bys-trip to San Pedro de Atakama.

During my time at Alfa Aldea, there was one thing that was really difficult for me : this "Kommst du heut nicht, kommst du morgen" mentality. They have sooo much time here and the clock is not so important. For me who has this big inner stress to do as much as possible in as short a time as possible, this is a huge challenge. One example : in the morning when Marco showed us the sun through his telescopes and the movie, I wanted to do so many things like get infos about some bike-trips and the solar kitchens, the artisanal markets, etc. But Marco took his time to explain everything and to tell us his life story which was quite interesting)... I learned there to be more patient because it's better to do some things well and so do less but enjoy everything more. I believe that's a lesson I will have to learn over and over again because it's really difficult, like against my nature, but at some point I will master it. :-)

Shortly about Marco's lifestory : his wife owned a company that cleaned the streets in Vicuña and he worked in her company but it's very political there and when the new maire was elected he brought in his own people and she had to close her company. They had to pay off their staff and so they lost all their savings. In addition to that their son got really sick and had to stay in a wheelchair and her father's vineyard burned down. So much bad luck seems almost impossible... One day, a friend visited them and showed them for the first time the stars through a telescope and explained them that all that we see in the sky is hundreds and tousands of years past. It made them see things more relative and they felt a deep connection with the universe. That's when suddenly everything got better, more and more people came to their guesthouse, they worked the vineyard of her father and started doing astronomical tours. All guests gave them some advise how their son could get better and now he is well and can walk again. They believe that it's thanks to the sun and their connection to the universe and all sounds like a miracle. I was impressed by they're story, it shows that no matter how deep you fall, it can always get better again if you just believe in it.

Actually I was supposed to go there only on wednesday and to stay until monday in Santiago but Sarah told me to do the 4-day-trip to Bolivia from San Pedro. A lot of other people and Lonely Planet recommand this as well, so I decided to change plans and well that's what I did.

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