Elqui valley was a great trip. We camped at a campground called Los Papillos, which was nestled in the foothills of the grape-growing region with grape vineyards spreading out all the way across the valley. It was interesting (and surprising) to know that none of the grapes that are grown here are sold in Chile - they are all either exported or used to make pisco and wines - because apparently you can get a really good price on them if you´re exporting.
The valley was pleasant but sleeping in it wasn´t quite so. There was a huge campground right next to ours - Refugio del Angel - that was packed to the seams with party people. They started playing music - blasted through amplifiers - some time around 11pm on Friday night and it continued unabated and unmuffled until about 5.30am. I talked with the owner of our campground the day after and he said he only got about 5 hrs of sleep and that this happens every single day of the summer. He said he moved his campground up river from the party campers but it still is really loud. Same thing on Sat. night - except that this time the partying/music started at about 10pm and continued non-stop till 7.30am. We felt sorry for our campground owner..he seemed like a really nice guy. He gave us a tour of his little farm where he was growing corn, grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, onions...
Later on Sunday we took the bus to Montegrande (10 min ride from Pisco) and stopped at a very cool Zen art gallery. It was owned by a Santiago-an who had built it from scratch over 30 years ago. It was a neat little adobe-style hacienda with beautiful fig trees nestled in a very thoughtfully landscaped Zen garden. He made a living selling his paintings and natural essences made right in his home (which was just one little room with a fireplace, mattress and a small kitchen). One interesting trivia that he shared: (almost) all the wood that´s in use in buildings in the nearby town of La Serena is actually Oregon pine trees. Apparently, there used to be a flourishing trade between this region and Oregon - back in the 1500s, they would load ships with gourmet local sea salt and ship it all the way to Oregon and load the boats with pine tree logs on the way back. Who knew!
After the Zen gallery, we walked about 20 minutes on a dirt road that led to the Elqui river bank. This place is supposedly the belly button of the earth (according to hippie folklore) and there´s a lot of healing magnetic energy going around, depending on whom you ask. Healing energy or not, it was fun to take a nice cool dip in the river and enjoy guacamole-peanut-tomato sandwiches (put together on fresh locally baked buns with local avocados and tomatoes) for lunch. We bought the ingredients at a local almacen and it was probably the best meal I´ve had in Pisco!
We took the bus back to La Serena, dumped the mochilas at hostal El Punto (a very pleasant German-owned hostal) and headed out for dinner. That turned out to be one long quest. Surprisingly enough, there was a Chinese restaurant with a huge banquet hall (why do so many Chinese restaurants have large sprawling banquet halls?) and we enjoyed a nice meal with chapsui verduras - basically pasta noodles sauteed with elephant ear mushrooms, baby corn, cabbage, tomatoes and some mild Chinese spices - and deep-fried egg rolls. Yummy! Who would´ve thought there would be a Chinese restaurant in a little beach town in Chile?
Lulu was craving a fish sandwich (reminiscent of the one she had had at the beach in Punta Choros), so we decided to walk further down the avenida lining the beach. We didn´t find a fish sandwich stall but we did run into a sort-of sunday market with stalls selling handicrafts from all around the nation and rides for kids and plenty of roadside food. I never cease to be amazed at how late South Americans stay up. It was 11.30pm and the market was packed - nay, teeming - with families (including kids as young as 6-7 years old), joyously enjoying rides and munching on deep-fried chorizos. I can never imagine this scene in the US...
It´s 6pm and it´s onces time! That wonderful post-lunch/pre-dinner snack (which, in El Naturista, is a slice of cake, a pastry, ice cream, half a sandwich and a glass of juice) is beckoning, so I´ll leave you with these photos. Adios!
No comments:
Post a Comment