The Elqui valley is a 6 hour's drive north of Santiago. Here the landscape turns into semi-desert, rough and yet beautiful. It reminded us a lot of Peru! Thanks to the many Catholic holidays, we could spend a relaxed weekend in Pisco Elqui, between figs, oranges and palm trees. A little anecdote: 150 years ago the village was strategically renamed as "Pisco Elqui", as part of an ongoing dispute between Chile and Peru over the origins of their national brandy pisco. Alas, Peruvian Pisco Sour cocktails taste MUCH better than their Chilean counterparts. Even the proudest Chileans know that. Still, you won't be able to order a Peruvian Pisco Sour in Valle de Elqui.
Further down the road, in Horcón, we came across a mystic handicraft market, full of esoteric stuff. People there are convinced to live at the magnetic/energetic/spiritual center of the world, ...whatever that means. Horcón is a scenic and cool place to visit, but as I am not so much into runes or tarot, we soon continued to Alcohuaz, the very last village of the valley. Out there we met a beekeeper, who produces an amazing honey. It's already my new favourite. A taste of pure tropical sun. What a delicious find at last and a perfect reason to come back soon!
Further down the road, in Horcón, we came across a mystic handicraft market, full of esoteric stuff. People there are convinced to live at the magnetic/energetic/spiritual center of the world, ...whatever that means. Horcón is a scenic and cool place to visit, but as I am not so much into runes or tarot, we soon continued to Alcohuaz, the very last village of the valley. Out there we met a beekeeper, who produces an amazing honey. It's already my new favourite. A taste of pure tropical sun. What a delicious find at last and a perfect reason to come back soon!
Most visitors however come to the Elqui valley for it's brillant star-gazing opportunities. The area is even base of several major international astronomic observatories, because of the unique conditions in the Atacama's Andes: high elevation, unobstructed views, uncontaminated air, no atmospheric humidity, and only minimal light pollution. But we saved the professional observatories for later, and opted instead for a horseback-riding trip by moonlight. Another night we visited a small touristic observatory in Alcohuaz, which was perfectly enough for astronomy-newbies like us. Even so the telescope was able to observe 4 of Jupiters satellites and zoomed us into awesome alien-looking star clusters, thousands of light years distant.
