We were the only guests at breakfast a our hostel. The breakfast was typical for Chilean breakfasts: Nescafé powdered coffee, some tasteless rolls (no one int Latin America knows how to bake bread), assorted fresh fruits (we had a fruit called pepino - like a small eggplant - at this breakfast for the first time), some sliced ham and cheese and some fruit spreads for the bread.
We left that morning and rolled our suitcases the few blocks down to the bus station, just off the main square. Before getting on the bus we got some cash from an ATM machine near the station. The ATM fee charged by the Chilean bank was about 8 dollars!
The bus trip to Pisco Elqui only took about 45 minutes. Outside of Vicuña, the valley narrowed - squeezed in on both sides by steeply sloping mountains. Some were topped by a dusting of snow. To me, it looked like it could be a valley deep in the Himalayas except that there were grape vineyards straddling the width the the valley floor - and in some cases, sliding up the mountain sides. It was one of the most picturesque valley I had ever seen.
We arrived in Pisco Elqui shortly after noon. The bus dropped us with a block of the hostel - El Tesoro - where we wanted to stay. The hostel consists on several groups of attached cabins. All set on a mountainside overlooking another mountain side. There was a frigid pool and plenty of gardens on the property. Bordering the hostel was another group of buildings: El Jardin Secreto. It also consisted of several bungalows but also specialized in tarot reading, reiki, massage and meditation classes. We were in the heart of Chile's new age valley.
Pisco Elqui only has about 800 residents, four or five streets and dozens of roaming dogs. The town is home to a Pisco distillery which happened to be closed on Mondays, which was the day we arrived.
The manger of our hostel called another distillery - Los Niches - and found that they were open. She said it was 4 kilometers from Pisco Elqui and could be reached in an hour if we wanted to walk there.
So we ate lunch at Los Jugos restaurant just off the main square. We had only tiny pizza for about 10 dollars and two glasses of a thick fruit juice. The entire meal costs about 20 dollars. And we were still hungry. So we grabbed a couple of empanadas from a small store before we headed off to the distillery.
It did take about an hour to reach it but the walk through the valley was magnificent. The tour and meager tasting - they only gave you a thimble full of two of the piscos to taste - lasted about a half hour. Since the tour was only in Spanish, we understand about the percent and nodded knowingly the rest of the time. When we came back to the hostel, I managed to pick a few oranges from the orange tree in the hostel's garden before settling in on our porch to watch the sunlight fade against the opposite mountain range. Then we ate at the restaurant - a simple meal of soup, veggie burger, a little of wine and a slice of cake - that was the best meal we had in the trip. The meal cost about 40 dollars.
We retuned to our cabana and turned in for the night.
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