Valle de Elqui

So, going on a recommendation from a Chilean kid we met in a campground in San Pedro, we stopped in La Serena and caught a bus up the Elqui Valley - ground zero for the production of Pisco, a popular South American liquor. The bus ride was about an hour and a half to get to a little town called Pisco Elqui, where we camped for the night.

The scenery was impressive; all the way up, the valley was blanketed in thick fields of grapevines, most flanking the river but some planted into steep hillsides. The bus followed this lush green swathe, winding up between arid crags reminiscent of a Wyoming range. The campground we found was up a hill near the top of the town and offered rows of shady sites, a homemade lagoon with a dock to dive from, and a massive bonfire pit. It was full to the brim - we had our choice of two tent sites among perhaps a hundred - with students on their summer break and young bohemians taking two weeks off from work.

We were quickly befriended by our neighbor Rodrigo, who had been camping there since New Year´s in a big tent with an air mattress. He was a jovial soul who seemed to know everyone at the campground, probably because he had at one time or another invited all of them into his tent to share some of the fine local pisco or a joint - he kept trying to get us to smoke with him, right up to our goodbyes the next day.

Before we left Rodrigo took us away from the touristy ¨centro¨ to a cheap, fixed-price lunch spot he liked. As he helped us order he explained to the girl behind the counter that our gringo stomachs were having some trouble adapting to Chilean microbes (we haven´t been seriously ill so far, but at the time we both had been brewing some gastrointestinal funkiness for a day or two), so the girl went into the back and, after a few minutes, out came the abuelita (little grandmother) with a secret potion to settle our systems. It was something on the order of cornstarch and sugar stirred into little cups of water, and whatever it was, it seemed to work.

On our way out of Pisco Elqui, we tried hacer debos (hitchhiking) for about an hour, enjoying the exercise of walking with our packs. We got as far as the next town, about 4km down the road, but with the sun beating down and everyone´s cars packed full of people, coolers, and beach towels (for swimming in the river there, which we never made it down to), with no room for us, we went to plan B and hopped a bus back to La Serena.

That doesn´t actually catch us up to now, but we´re on our way out the door to the bus station yet again. Next up for us: our first couch surfing experience, in Santiago. From there we´ll tell you about Valparaiso, where we´re saying goodbye to our hostelling pals right now.