The beach and in...

Please, sit down. I have a lot to fill you in on!

So last Thursday was a whirl-wind of a day. Instead of class I went to a Hans Christian Anderson exhibit at the National Library. It was pretty bland. Just lots of details about a famous Dane´s life. But we did get a tour of the library and saw some archives, which was all cool. The library is really old, really big, and really pretty.

After a little walking around and having lunch outside of a small café (I insisted on this part and then came to dread the demand as bus after bus flew by us) a few of us headed to the touring exhibit of the World Press Photo competition. It was freaking awesome and I lost myself for hours in some great photography.

Friday
Thursday evening my friend Lisbeth and I caught an overnight bus north to Coquimbo, where my family has another house. We arrived at about 6 in the morning on and were greeted by Dino (the third and final brother). We slept and didn´t meet the rest of the family until we woke up around noon. Dino and his family live south a little ways but joined us at the beach house because we were coming up. The house is a 20 minute walk from the beach and the area is gorgeous.

Lisbeth, Dino, Paula, Daniella (his daughters) and I took a long walk on the beach, which was deserted because it was a Friday in winter. I love the ocean, and now that I know I have full access to a house near it, I think I will be making this trip again. Dino told us about the area´s history, the fishing industry and the way tourism is changing everything.

Daniella on the left, and Paula on the right.



Then after lunch Lisbeth and I took a colectivo (a cab that always runs certain routes and is cheaper than a regular taxi) up to La Serena, the main tourist city in the area which is around the bay from Coquimbo where we arrived. It was a nice city and we spent the day checking out artisans, grabbing coffees here and there, and sight-seeing. We had dinner in a little place where the cook only had goat cheese, which ended up making very good lasagna. We also hung out in La Plaza de Armas for several hours and finished off some pisco while people-watching. It was a great night...but nothing in comparison to the next.

Lisbeth having coffee with our view overlooking the artisans.



And us in La Plaza de Armas.



Saturday
Our early morning start for Saturday´s excursion was ruined by sleep. We again got out of bed around noon and took our time getting out of the house. However, we finally got on the road with grand aspirations.

We made our way into Valle Elqui, which is part of region 4 in Chile (there are a total of 13, going from north to south). It´s supposed to be the best overall region for climate, but I don´t know where that statistic comes from. But we did have great weather and our theme song was U2´s "Beautiful Day." On a side note, I´m really jealous of Lisbeth because she got to see U2 in concert. That´s still on my unaccomplished list of things to do in life.

Anyway, Valle Elqui is the main pisco producing region in the country. I´m sure I´ve mentioned it before, but pisco is the national alcohol. It´s made from grapes, and you can order it in many different ways. And it´s always fun to try it in different ways to better understand the culture!

We first went to Monte Grande, which is where the poet Gabriela Mistral was born and raised. She is pretty much a national hero, just like Pablo Neruda. Her face is on the 5,000 bill. It´s a bad picture, but she´s important. The town was tiny but the museum in her old home and school house was interesting.

From Monte Grande we walked the 6 kms to Pisco Elqui, which is nearing the far east of the valley. It was amazing scenery, even though our beautiful day had turned a little nasty at this point. The mountains seemed to trap some clouds right as we got into Monte Grande.

The entire valley is a vineyard.



So we arrived in Pisco Elqui hoping to get a tour of a pisco manufaturer, but it was closed. And the horses we planned on riding were put up for the evening because we arrived a little late (remember that we didn´t get started until like 2 or something and the bus ride takes several hours and then walking 6 kms, etc.).

So we hopped on another bus and bumped into others from our study abroad group. We hadn´t been wanting to catch up with anyone, but that´s the way it happens. Actually, that´s always the way it happens. I have run into so many gringos it´s unbelievable. We met 4 brits at the café on Friday night, 4 on the bus on Saturday, 3 californians at the observatory on Saturday, 2 at the hostel on Sunday, and 1 alaskan at the pisco plant on Sunday. It´s pretty hard to get away from them.

It ended not being too bad seeing the others from our group because we decided to head to El Observatorio Mamalluco with them, just outside of Vicuña, the main city in the valley. It was amazing. It was two hours of great information, fantastic sights, and freezing weather. Wherever we were up on some hill was horribly cold. We started with the telescope and saw a variety of things from galaxies to nebulas to bipolars to things I don´t remember. And there are certain constellations that can only be seen from the southern hemisphere, namely the Southern Cross, which is the smallest of all 88 constellations. Similarly, the big and little dippers (Ursa minor and major) can only be seen in the northern hemisphere. Chile is apparently one of the best areas in the world to stargaze. There are several observatories in the area, and what will be the world´s largest telescope is currently being built a little further to the north from where we were.

I need to get a tripod. Those are lights from Vicuña where we stayed Saturday night.



We got back from the observatory around 11:30, knowing that we couldn´t make the trip back to La Serena. So we found a Residencia Mistral, where the little lady answered the door, let us in, and locked it behind us. So not having eaten for a long time, we asked if we could go get something. She said we had to make it quick. What better than a whole chicken, fries and wine? I seriously wonder if anyone can come up with anything. And we only had like 20 minutes. So Lisbeth and I returned to the room to gorge ourselves. It was a whole, whole lot of food.



Oh, it was tasty. And now I don´t think I´ll be able to look at a chicken ever again. Notice in the next picture the completely devoured corpse in the foreground! We ate everything. And then watched some movies.



Sunday
We somehow drug ourselves out of bed, me vowing to never eat again. We met up with the others from our group and walk to Planta Capel. Capel has a monopoly on pisco in Chile - and it seems every town in Valle Elqui is sponsored by the company.

Barrels for some part of the pisco process. I´m pretty sure it was the long fermentation stage.



The facility was very different from what I expected: a lot of open-air areas and very simple machinery. The last tour I went on was Anheuser Busch, so you can understand the problem in comparing the two. But most importantly, the factory still spits out thousands of bottles of pisco every day. And the tasting was good as well. In addition to pisco, Capel makes a variety of desert wines and other beverages. Pisco comes in many different strengths and styles as well.

Finally we grabbed a bus back to La Serena and the house. We had a late lunch, packed some sandwiches, and went to the bus station. Dino had said that there were buses to Santiago at 5 and 6, so we weren´t worrying at all. Damn him!!! The last bus left at 4:30 and we just missed it or it was full. Regardless, there were no more buses until midnight. Actually we got the 11 o´clock one the lady told us about just to realize that she drastically rounds down. The bus left at 11:49. I wonder at what point she would have caved and admitted in was midnight...maybe 11:53?

So Lisbeth and I got to know Coquimbo. It´s a pleasant little town with a massive 200 foot cross sprawled across the main hill. The thing is ridiculous and has observation stations in the wings of the cross. We didn´t indulge. Instead, we went to the beach for several hours. Oh, and there was a funeral procession in which everyone walked along the hearse. If you think regular funeral processions are slow, wait ´til you see this. The line behind them was huge! I played on the beach (literally ran and took photos and splashed in the water), Lisbeth wrote some letters and then we still had about 5 more hours to wait. So we slowly went around Coquimbo, finding things we didn´t need to do, like waste time in a store looking for t-shirts.

The boat graveyard and birthplace...apparently the same location from what I could tell.



I don´t know how, but midnight finally arrived. And then our bus was late. So we got back to Santiago about 6 in the morning. Lisbeth woke me up to get out of her way as she ran to the bathroom to relieve her motion sickness. She then threw up again outside the bus, and I was afraid for the magic number three to come flying out on the subway. Luckily she didn´t.

I got home about 7:30 on Monday. It just happened that classes were cancelled! My friend Millie Munshi always said that and it took me a long time to realize that she was just skipping. So Monday I took it easy and slept...it was only the first time I had skipped classes, and it was gonna happen eventually.