Unexpected Trip to Northern Chile

Easter weekend I went on a last minute trip up North to La Serana, Vicuna, and El Valle de Elqui (The Elqui Valley) with Amy and Hillary. We booked our tickets last minute, and since it was a holiday weekend, the only buses we could get on were one that was in the middle of the day (heading out of Chile) and the other one was super early in the morning (heading back to Chile). However, in the end it didn’t really mess with our weekend. We still ended up having an awesome time! We arrived in La Serana around 8:00ish at night, and when we got to our hostel there was no reservation. We were a little worried because of the holiday weekend (with everyone traveling), but thankfully we were able to find another hostel to stay at. The new hostel ended up being really great! It was family owned, and had a really pretty courtyard.

That night we walked around the town looking for a restaurant to eat dinner at. Unfortunately, almost every place was closed because it was Good Friday (apparently an even bigger holiday than Easter itself), but we were able to find a place to eat. After dinner we went back to the hostel and planned the rest of our weekend. Saturday morning we went out to breakfast and walked around the town for a little bit before we caught a bus to Valle de Elqui. La Serana is a cute town, I wouldn’t mind going back there and exploring it some more.

In Elqui we took a tour of the pisco factory (which was pretty small).

Pisco is made the same way that wine is made, except the grapes are boiled rather than cooled, and that makes it into a brandy-like liquor.

There was a woman on our tour who brought her dog with her…only in Chile.

The tour was ok, but the best part was the dinner we ate afterwards! We got a complimentary piscosour, which was the best picosour I have had so far in Chile (and the only one I have actually liked). And for dinner we all split a salad that had a yogurt dressing (I was really nervous about the dressing because I’ve never had that before, but it was actually really yummy!), really tasty, fried empanadas, and baby goat meat. I have never had goat meat before, and this meat was sooooooo delicious!

After dinner we took a bus to Vicuna to check into our hostel. This hostel was AMAZING! Not only was it pretty nice, but the couple that ran it, in particular the woman, Lucia, treated us like we were her grandchildren. She was this awesome old woman who helped us out in so many ways! That night we had booked a tour of the observatory, and the only time they had available was at 2:30 in the morning. We were a little bummed about how late it was (because we are grandmas and like to go to bed early), but we were just excited that we were able to get in a tour. We had told Lucia that our tour was at 2:30, and she was just like, “That is way too late! I’ll be right back.” About 5 minutes later she came prancing/dancing into our room and told us she got us into an earlier tour at 10:30. We were so amazed and asked how she was able to do that, and she replied with, “I have friends everywhere.” Ha she was so funny. We were sooo thankful that we got an earlier tour! On our way out she gave each of us shawls to wear so we wouldn’t get too cold (how cute of her!). Vicuna apparently has the clearest/best view of the stars through telescopes in the world, so that’s why we went to the observatory. Unfortunately for us, it was the night after a full moon, so we weren’t able to see as many of the stars that you usually can see because the moon was so bright. We were still able to see some really neat things though! Here's what the telescope looked like (first telescope I have ever looked through).

We saw a group of stars that is called the jewelry box. It’s called this because it’s a cluster of stars that are different colors (red, blue, and bright ha). The different colors all indicate a rough age of the star (dying, new, middle aged). So I thought that that was really interesting to see. We also got to see Saturn! That was really cool! And the highlight of the night was getting this picture with my camera through the telescope:

How cool is that?!?! I LOVE the moon, so I’m really excited that I got a picture of it, so in the end it was totally worth going while the moon was full. The next morning we woke up to the best hostel breakfast I have ever had. There was a basket of fresh bread, with a plate of freshly sliced fruit (melon, kiwi, and huge grapes), and another plate with sliced cheese, delicious ham, and avocado. It sounds like a really simply breakfast, but usually at hostels they just have bread with jam and manjar (dulce de leche aka caramel) to spread on it. So this was just a nice little treat! Yet again, Lucia came through for us! After breakfast she called one of her friends and set up horseback riding for us. The drive up to where we were going to ride horses was beautiful.

We went horseback riding for about two hours, and it was soooo much fun (and really cheap…only $10)! The horses galloped while we were riding them! I’ve only just leisurely walked while on a horse, so this was my first time galloping. It was a little scary at first, but really great! This was my third time riding a horse, and it felt so natural! I was really comfortable with the horse and could control it pretty easily, so that was nice. I really want a horse now! Too bad I’m really allergic (I for sure paid for it after we finished riding – I was sneezing up a storm, my eyes were puffy and red and would not stop watering). Pero vale la pena por cierto (but it was worth it for sure!). I learned that phrase from Amy that weekend. Its literal translation is ‘it’s worth the pain,’ but is used just like how we use ‘it’s worth it.’ I’ll have to look into riding trips back home. Hopefully they won’t be too expensive, but if they are, maybe it will be something I will do only every now and then.

Me and my sweet cowboy hat!

The horse I rode. This weekend was sooo much fun! We did A LOT of really fun things. I can’t wait for the next adventure! Until Next Time, Liz