AJCU

This trip report is a work in progress, after some showed interest in it from my RTW TR of Poland and skiing in Japan. Bear with me while I type it up, and as always, any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Back in September, 2013, I came home from work and checked The Flight Deal before I headed to bed. I found a ticket on Aeromexico to Santiago, Chile for the following summer for $280 from Dallas. The ticket was available from other destinations, but it was more expensive, and I thought that I could reposition to Dallas, from Denver, fairly easily with Avios or something.

The deal was too good to pass up, and the dates worked with my already booked Africa trip, so I bought a ticket for my dad and I. He always wanted to go to Chile, and I figured that this would be an excellent birthday present for him. I had been to Chile once before, and knew a good friend down there from when I graduated high school early to ski for the semester. I could go to see my friend and ski some more places, since last time I was there for a mere 9 days.

The ticket from Dallas to Santiago was booked, and for $560, both of us were South America bound. To reposition for the flights from Dallas, I used Southwest points, transferred from UR. Because it was Southwest, I checked back frequently to see if cheaper tickets were available. They were, so I canceled my flights and rebooked them for a total of 4,200 Rapid Rewards each, one way. We chose Southwest instead of Avios because of the 2 free checked bags.

For the return, I found a decent priced United ticket for $120 each. At this point, I would be a Silver with United, so I would have free checked bags, and the possibility to upgrade to Economy Plus. I didn’t even know about FC upgrades until I checked in for our flight from the Santiago airport, where we were upgraded via online check in. This was excellent, because, we were going to bring two bags each. One ski bag and one clothing bag each. This meant we did not have to pay any extra fees for our final segment. This, is also the reason why we flew Southwest to get to Dallas, instead of American.


Our flights, all said in done.

After our flights were in place, I started to figure out the smaller stuff. We were going to fly into Dallas the day before our Aeromexico flight, so we would need to stay at a hotel or something for the night. After looking all over Dallas, I decided on the Hyatt Regency DFW on Cash + Points for 4,000 points and $55. I thought it was a pretty good deal, and I had never stayed at a Hyatt before.

With that, the only thing left to plan was our trip. Dad and I both agreed that we would not like to plan our trip too much, and instead leave it open in the event of no or little snow. We planned on staying with my friend Santi for a few days, then heading up to Portillo for one of their ski weeks. Portillo is one of the places that I have wanted to go ever since I learned that snow fell on the Southern Hemisphere. Their ski weeks are pretty affordable if you go for the Inca Lodge package. The Inca is a secondary building where all of the “ski bums” live. Meaning it is shared accommodations. The package cost $1,200 each and included a weeks of accommodation, 4 meals a day, 8 days of lift tickets and full access to all of the amenities of the hotel. It is not the greatest deal in the world, but it is pretty darn good.

Beyond this initial part of the trip, we had no plans. We did, however, hope to make it down south to ski some of the volcanos that Chile had to offer. I have heard of people skiing volcanos, but never really read anything about it aside from a few blogs that I found on a simple Google search. That sounded pretty cool, so we were intrigued. Aside from volcanos, we heard about a big desert in the north, and some other ski places in Argentina, as well as the Mendoza region. Argentina was a bit far fetched though, mainly because my dad did not see the point in paying the reciprocity fee (I have two passports, one of which exempts me from paying the fee). A month really isn’t that long, as dad would soon find out (he thought it was a really long time. At the end of the trip he said it was like nothing, and now he is going to sail to Europe for 6 weeks...I tell him that is a long time, and he responds “not really” ).

With that, this was our plan. Not too much aside from seeing where the winds take us and trying to do it on a budget...which we successfully did.

AJCU

We left in mid July for winter

The feeling of packing your ski equipment while it is 100 degrees outside was one of the most psychologically confusing moments of my year. What does it feel like to be cold? What kind of cold am I going to be able to deal with? Packing this time of the year is pretty simple: you have been hanging out shirtless with shorts and flip flops for the past two months, pack all the damn warm stuff you have and hope for the best.

Packing in other words was a cinch. I can pack for a ski trip in my sleep these days. For this trip, we were bringing the works: all the warmth we could muster, avalanche gear, touring gear, medical kits and more. We opted against the 4 season tent simply because we thought we would run out of time. That is something to bring for Patagonia, which, will happen, someday in the future. Ski trips are like baby steps. Work up to the big stuff, the gnarly stuff, and make sure you have some idea of what you are doing.

On July 16th, we left for the Denver Airport to catch our Southwest flights to Dallas, routing through beautiful Tulsa, OK. Honestly, I have flown about 40k miles since this flight, so it is a bit of a non-memory. I am going to go with it all turned out well, and the fact that it was non-memorable is a pretty good thing. I do remember, however, going to Admirals club in Denver, and eating a Quiznos sandwich in Tulsa.



The Admirals Club in Denver is one of my favorites. It is dark toned, quiet, and is never really busy. If you want to see a pic or two, check out my other TR from my RTW trip, I am not huge on snapping pictures of lounges and such, so my apologies.

Upon arrival at Love Field, we caught an Uber to DFW. I had a $35 credit with Uber, so the trip turned out to be free, as it cost us only $31 or so. The driver dropped us off right at the Hyatt Regency, where we checked in and got a nice high room looking over the E terminal. The outside of the hotel looks a tad tired and outdated, but, the rooms and interior are pretty nice. Everything you could ask for at an airport hotel.


View from our room.


[IMG]Appologies for not taking photos before we slept![/IMG]



For dinner, we went to the restaurant downstairs, after spending a good 2 hours walking around the airport trying to find some place to eat. The restaurant at the hotel was nice though, so it all works out in the end.

After a pleasant nights sleep, we headed to Terminal D to check in for our flight and drop the bags. After clearing security, we went to the Centurion Lounge for the first time. The lounge was impressive, especially for dad since he was not really used to the lounge life, in other words, the better life! We feasted and had a few beers before heading to gate D6 for our flight to Mexico City. I would write more about the Centurion, but pretty much everyone has already written about the good and bad of it. It is a great lounge.

Our flight to Mexico City was aboard an Embraer. We had bulkhead seats next to each other, but the row directly across from us was empty, so, we spread out. The FAs passed out a small bag that consisted of some snacks and a sandwich. I thought the offer was pretty darn good, especially accompanied by a bit of tequila.

The remainder of the flight was uneventful, except landing into MEX. Both dad and I were surprised on how pretty it was. I did not expect MEX to have so much nice tropical looking terrain around it. Now, I want to go to Mexico City. It has officially made the list. If only flights weren’t so expensive to get there for the length of distance it is from Denver.

It was raining in MEX, which meant the inside of the terminal was especially dreary in it’s Soviet style design. We had to clear immigration, then drop our bags. The ski bags had to go outside of security, so we got a nice little tour of the airport, which was pretty underwhelming, not that I had high expectations or anything.

Once the bags were dropped, we went back through security. My Spanish is alright, but not great. Let’s call it travel Spanish. While going through security, my ski boots got pulled off to the side for closer examination. I am used to this while flying, especially in places like SA where people don’t see plastic shoes with metal clips on them very often.

The item in question today? The screws that were holding the bottoms of the foot plates onto the boot. They were apparently, possibly, too long. After about 5 officers deciding that it was not too long, I was able to pass through the rest of the checkpoint. My dads boots cleared no problem, because he is a Tele skier and does not have replaceable foot plates.

Our layovers in MEX were long, about 5-7 hours. We went to the Centurion Lounge here and waited. The lounge, is, well, not very Centuriony based off of what we just experienced. But, if you get one of the booths on the right side of the lounge, which are reserved for Platinum card members, it is nice and quiet. Aside from that, food is purchasable except for light snacks, and drinks are free. We spent a few hours here. The MEX airport is wearing after a while, as in you just start to feel out of it when waiting in the dim lighting and loud echo chamber building.

Before our flight, we walked around and sampled the tequila prices, which we found to all be a rip off. Dad enjoys tequila, a lot, and knows his prices, so when the salesman starts to say there is no better price anywhere, we pull out our phone and show him that there is. He was amazed that we can “apparently” buy tequila cheaper than he can.

We cruised around and eventually made it to our gate, where a very worn 767 was sitting, waiting to take us to Santiago. (It was still painted in the silver livery!). Boarding was a cinch, and the plane was half empty. We had a bulkhead on the way down, as well. I considered asking for a paid upgrade to Business, mainly for dad, but never followed through. The plane was old, scummy, and an overall slightly miserable experience. The food, it was sketchy, so I avoided it. Not very often do I avoid food, but man, those eggs did not really taste, smell, or look like any form of huevos, no matter what you call eggs.


A view of Vina on the approach into Santiago

Descending into Santiago was smooth. We flew down the coast and then banked left. While turning, we got a view of the Valpo area and Viņa del Mar. Somewhere that I was sure we would end up eventually over the next month.

Santiago, my friend, picked us up after a quick immigration experience. he was especially excited since we brought goodies (new bindings, goggles and other stuff...it is about 2x the price for high quality ski goods in Chile). After a 30 minute drive past downtown, I was back in the familiar house that I remembered so well from my last trip.

AJCU

Santiago. The capital of Chile. This city, like most others, has many wonders. My dad and I are not huge city people, so we only took one day to see the city before we headed to the mountains. During this one day, we walked around with Santiago in Santiago, get it?


Palm Trees and Snow Capped Peaks

We started our visit by going to the stock exchange (not open to the public), then strolling around downtown to places like Palacio de La Moneda, Cerro Santa Lucia and the fish market, where we got some ceviche.


The stock exchange.


The post office, a great place to cruise around and see all of the old stamps.


Moneda








View from Santa Lucia

Honestly, walking around downtown is pretty generic, aside from the large canine population, so we will fast forward to the things that I don’t see on FT often. Don’t get me wrong, Santiago is great, we are just not huge on the city front.

Next Up: A Week Skiing Portillo

AJCU

We departed my friends house early in the morning to take a shuttle to Portillo. We used Ski Total, which was significantly cheaper than booking through thee Portillo Hotel, like $200 cheaper. We just told the driver that we were going one way.


The Portillo Hotel



Portillo is a place of history. It is located about 2 hours North East towards the Argentine border. As a matter of fact, you can see the border crossing from the ski area. The drive is scenic through vineyards, then begins to climb a 30 something turn hairpin section to the hotel. Once at the hotel, there is nothing else there. It is a popular destination for many people from Brazil and Argentina, and the ski teams of pretty much every nation in the world for training in late August. The tradition is what get’s you at Portillo. Walking past posters of all the best alpine skiers in the world, then countless big mountain skiers and other famous people makes you realize how special it truly is. One fun fact about Portillo is it was owned by the Rockefellers for some time. More info on the history can be found here.


The road up to Portillo


Argentine border.

Upon arrival, we attempted to check in, but we were a tad too early. Saturday is a hectic day because you have everyone from the previous week leaving, and everyone for the week ahead trying to move into the hotel. With that, we were told that we would need to wait for our dorm to be ready. We were issued our meal cards and lift tickets though, so we could go get some lunch or go skiing. We opted to go skiing after storing our bags downstairs.


Portillo sunrise

Maybe I jumped ahead a bit. Portillo is a holiday destination. The best deal by far is to sign up for their ski week. They offer weeks for various prices depending on where you stay. We opted for the Inca Lodge, a 4 person shared dorm since it was cheap, and it would be dad’s first time experiencing a hostel like atmosphere. For 8 days of skiing, Saturday to Saturday accommodation, 3 meals a day plus tea time and unlimited access to the facilities, we paid $1200 USD each. It is not cheap, but it is not too expensive either if you run the numbers, and if you come during low season it is a great deal. I suppose it would have been cheaper to crash at my buddies place in El Colorado, but I already went there once, so maybe next time. For more info on prices/packages, click here.


A terrible photo of the "hall of fame."

The Inca Lodge is the plebes building. It is separated from the main hotel in it’s own location. The people that are pretty darn down to earth, and the ones that are more of the ski bum crowd. With that, we had two roommates, Nick and Cam, who were also from the states. The rooms are really small, and feel similar to a closet. That is fine, since it is mainly a place to stay, in my opinion. With that, it smells pretty ripe when you have 4 sweaty/stinky dudes in there with all their stuff hanging up. The closets create a constant game of human tetris, trying to figure out where you should stand and such. It helps that there is a ski check, where you can keep your skis next to the slope instead of at your room. That saved some space.


The Inca Lodge

The walls are pretty thin, so the hallway echos. Earplugs are a must, but you do get used to it. The toilets/ showers are down the hall, and are meticulously cleaned. The showers were actually awesome, with enough pressure to knock you over, and always hot.


Our 4 bed room.

Some people may think that the Inca sounds like a mini version of hell, but in reality, it is a place to crash so that you can ski all day long. You come in after last chair at 16:45, strip down to street clothes, then go inside the hotel for dinner. After dinner roll down to the hot tub, which has arguably the best view a hot tub could ever have, and go pass out. Rinse and repeat for 7 days and you learn that you do not need much more in life. Afterall, we were on snow while my friends back home were dealing with the heat of summer.




View from the deck of the pool/hot tub.


The living room inside the hotel.

We skied every day we were at Portillo, which came out to 9 days total. In that time, we met some cool people who we would end up spending majority of our week with. One of the guys was running a telemark camp, and was from Aspen, CO. We ended up just tagging along with his group of 2, which dwindled to 1 (mainly because one of the people was rather undesirable to be around and ended up getting kicked out of the hotel by the end of the week). The beauty of Portillo is there aren’t really many people. It is safe to assume that you will see everyone from the hotel skiing sometime that week, and usually you can assume that the better skiers are from North America. in other words, it is darn easy to find your ski partners for the week.

While we were in Portillo, the snow was not the greatest. The tide was running pretty low in Portillo, which has been the case for the past 7 years, according to conversations around the hotel. That did not matter too much to us, since we were just breaking our legs back in from the 3 month lapse of productive outdoor activities.


My legs felt like the resident St. Bernard, who perused the hotel at his leisure.

For the first couple days, we played it mellow and stuck to the marked runs of the resort. The snow was pretty chalky, and trying some new lifts like the “come and go,” was a fun way to get reacclimated to the Chilean ski life. During this time, we were meeting new people and eventually had a decent little ski group to go with. Ironically, I was the only downhiller of the group, everyone else was a teleier. I was the minority skier, while we were the minority group of skiers on the hill. Good times.


The only place with the come and go chair.




Mountains around Portillo.


Looking across at Lake Run



We found the best snow to be in the shadows of the cliffs on the far left of the mountain, and in the afternoon until 5 on El Condor, which by the way had an awesome lift operator who follows the snow every year, moving to Andorra in the Chilean summers to run lifts. It’s the things like that which make Portillo feel like a well cultured ski area.


Dad enjoying his time in Portillo



After a few days, the group was feeling pretty good, so we were in search of some more challenging skiing. We decided on doing the fairly famous (or well known) Super C coulier. The route was to ride the Roca Jack lift, then setting a boot pack straight up from the top of the lift. The hike is about 2 hours to a point where you have to cross some exposure. After the first two in our group went across, it got pretty gnarly, and a lot of the rock grips had slipped away. I wasn’t feeling it, partially for my dad’s sake too, so we turned back. That is not a bad decision though since we got about 2,500-3,000 feet of vertical with some decent pow on the way down, with an amazing view of the hotel and lake. Overall, it was a great experience, and was a highly recommended mini adventure that would get you back in time for lunch.

Just for reference, you need to let the ski patrol at the bottom of the Roca Jack chair know that you are heading up there, then tell them when you get back to the hotel. You don’t need any technical gear, and really not much else beyond regular avvy gear.




Looking down the bootpack


From the hike we could see Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas.




Looking down, from the top.


Dad having a good time on the way down, even though our goals weren't met!


Looking back up at our bootpack.

After a Super C attempt, we were feeling a tad ambitious and looking for more. At this point, we started looking into taking the heli across the lake. Usually, you can skin across the lake, but this year it was not frozen, so no lake walk for us. By the time we made our decision, the snow conditions deteriorated a bit and made it seem not worthwhile. The price was billed by the Hobbs hour, and would run us about $800. $200 a person to get out and back. Next time it might be worthwhile, we shall see. I think it would be great to pitch a tent out there on the other side of the lake (it is about 1.5 miles away from the hotel), then ski touring from there for a few days. I can only imagine the view looking back at the hotel with the lake in the foreground.

For the rest of the week, we took it easy, hanging out with our new friends. The great thing about Portillo is everyone talks to everyone. You are sitting in the hotel living room and people will just start a conversation. I love it.


The lake never gets old



Towards the end of the week, we need to start to figure out where we were going the next week. Leslie, one of the people that we skied with all week, was from Concon, just north of Vina on the coast. We hit it off with him pretty well, so he ended up giving us a ride to his house on the coast where we would spend the next few days. It is incredible to be skiing on snow, right next to the Argentine border, then driving 2.5 hours and literally sitting on a tropicalish beach. Only in Chile.

I know I did not go into too much detail about the skiing and such, mainly because it is hard to recount the day to day activities. Overall, the experience was very worthwhile, and I would definitely go back, mainly because of the skiing potential and natural beauty, but also the culture. Maybe next year. I'll try and sort through some more photos and add them in!

Next Up: Vina del Mar, Valparaiso, Concon and Zapallar

mike&co

The view from the pool deck / hot tub looks absolutely amazing. I had a view of Mont Blanc from a hot tub in Chamonix in France but it doesn't compare to this. Looking forward to the rest of the TR

Zeeb

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the rest!

farbster

As I've said before and I'll say again, ski trip reports are the best. I enjoyed reading about your Japan trip.

Thanks!

connorc

Awesome experience, this is where I plan on going with my best friends for a big ski trip. What kind of skis did you use....powder, big mountain...?

DanielW

Cool TR, AJCU, looking forward to the rest.

mad_atta

Great stuff so far. Stunning photos from your hike up the mountain!

offerendum

Really a great trip - one day I will visit Chile but not on a bike

AJCU

The view has to be one of the top ones that you can get from a hot tub. Definitely recommend!

Thanks for the compliments!

Ski ones sure are the best aren't they! Good news is that I bought my ticket to Japan for this winter last week, so another one of those might be on the way!

I used to be a competitive big mountain skier, so I have always been on the stiffer/bigger end of the spectrum. I took my Dynastar Cham 107's that are 190 cm. For my touring skis, I took a pair of Black Diamond Amperages, 115cm. I would probably take something big mountain like because they are versatile in all snow conditions, especially the harder snow. I have since sold those touring skis and would take my Dynafits instead so we could do some more over night based stuff.

Hope that helps! Portillo is an excellent place to spend a week in the summer, and I plan to go back next summer. If you have any other questions, lemme know!

Thanks! I have to say I have been a long time lurker of yours, and have always wanted to learn how you get those pictures, in particular the ones of people. It's a work in progress!

That Aconcagua peak is absolutely incredible. Thanks for the compliments!

We only rented bikes for the day, but ran into quite a few people who were biking the Pan-American. One guy even started in Alaska! Regardless, Chile is a great country, and can easily burn a month!

AJCU

After skiing until about 1 PM, we hopped into Leslie’s car and were coastal bound. The drive to Concon, where Leslie lived with his family, was through some 8 climatic regions. Starting in the mountains, we descended the windy road to the valley floor, where we were greeted by vineyards. This continued for a bit until we reached another mountain range. Over the Coastal Mountain (I believe that was the name) and we were in the avocado growing region of Chile. Chileans love their avocados, and judging by the number of trees that we saw, that is easily justifiable.

Pulling into Concon, we were pleasantly surprised how nice the area was. After settling in and meeting Leslie’s family, we retired for the evening after dinner.

The next day, we were invited to head up to Zapallar, a small coastal town about 30 minutes north of Concon. Apparently, the family always spends time there. It was a very nice, slightly Caribbean feeling place. We walked around on the beach for a bit, then settled into lunch with the whole family, from grandpas to brothers to grandchildren. It was pretty darn fun, and the wine was flowing freely so everything was on the table. We had fish, since that is something we don’t usually get in Colorado very easily/freshly.


Beach at Zapallar



Lunch was quite nice. We did not snap any photos of the plates, but it was well worthwhile with the ambiance of the ocean and such. Also, the fact that we were skiing the day before was pretty darn sweet.



After lunch, we walked around Zapallar a bit more, then went back to the house. We started to plan out what we were going to do next in the evening, and looking at the snow forecasts, we did not have the greatest odds of finding fresh snow. We had endless options, but decided that the Atacama sounded best, mainly because it was different. I was pulling for this one because I was in Namibia about 2 months prior, and I had so much fun there that I thought the Atacama might be similar. We settled on the desert, and planned out the next week. I’ll cover where we went more in the next post.

The following day, we caught a ride with Leslie to go into Valparaiso. Our first order of business was riding the electrified bus to the central bus station so we could buy our tickets from Vina del Mar to La Serena, where we decided we would spend our first night heading north. The bus ticket cost 10,000 CLP for both of us, coming in at $35.53 USD. We found it best to buy our tickets a day or two ahead of time in Chile, so we continued that trend through the rest of the trip.

After buying the bus tickets, we met up with one of our roommates from Portillo and went back to central Valparaiso to catch one of the “free walking tours.” The tour was pretty cool, and took us to all of the different hills in town. I would list them out, but I think some cool graffiti pictures get the point across better. Our tour was through Tours 4 Tips. It was not a bad way to get a history of the area for a pretty decent price. Of course, everyones price is different, so tip according to the quality of the tour.


The UNESCO protected electric bus from the 50'2 in Valpo.


Valpo Port.


Graffiti of the bus that we rode earlier in the day.


One of the lifts that can give you are ride up some of the steeper hills in Valpo. There is something like 15 of these guys if I recall correctly. This one was painted in a Chilean flag manner.

The tour ended in a small house, where we sampled some cider like beverage (I don't remember the name). After the tour, we migrated back to downtown and got some lunch in a side cafe, which was good. We then walked back up into the hills to stroll around and look at graffiti art again. It is pretty cool to compare the places and the art that was there the last time I was in Chile.

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http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...psunyzqln8.jpg






If memory recalls, this was the palace of Valpo, but I could be wrong.


A hostel.


Your average streets while in the hills.




This guy was pretty incredible, it appeared to be painted then had finer elements added with a sharpie or something.



Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of one of the more classic pieces, the "We are happies, not hippies" mural. I'll look back at my old pictures and see if there is one in there.

At the end of the day, we said goodbye to our friend and called Leslie to head back to his house (I had a sim card for Chile for phone calls and texts, a worthwhile investment for about $10, including airtime). We had another pleasant night with Leslie’s family, where they helped with some useful suggestions.

In the morning, we were taken to the Vina bus station where we bid farewell for now to Jennifer (Leslie’s wife). We would be seeing everyone later on in your trip since we left our ski bags and all the ski gear at their house. Skis were not going to be a necessity in the desert, so a lighter load saved us a bit of weight.


My personal favorite of the Valpo excursion was this guy. The smoke eventually turned into a gecko!

Next Up: Journey to the Atacama via La Serena and the Elqui Valley

AJCU

We left from the Viņa bus station bound for La Serena, where we would spend our first night heading north. Our first bus ride was about 7 hours, and was during the day so we could (a) see something, and (b) get dad used to our life for the next few weeks on buses. If you have never been on the buses in South America, then you probably think this trip sounds like a living hell. Truth be told, the buses in Chile/Argentina are great. The seats recline some 150 degrees and have ample leg room. It feels similar to flying domestic first class in the states. There are of course, some other options for classes, but we stuck to the cheaper ones, mainly because the differences in service seemed very marginal to us.

I thought watching the world pass by at 100 km/hr was a great way to see a lot of the country. There were some really scenic patches along the coast, and to think that we were on the Panamerican all the time. The highway that goes from my house to the middle South of Chile. Incredible.

View along the way to La Serena.

We didn’t spend much time in La Serena, mainly because we wanted to get out of the city. With that, we went to the local Jumbo (a supermarket/everything store chain in Chile), grabbed some things to cook up, and then went to our hostel, which was exceptional.

This hostal, El Arbol, felt very “homey,” and was very welcoming. It was set in a home close to the bus station. It had an ample kitchen where we all danced around cooking together. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the hostel, but it truly was a little gem, and i would definitely go back. Some of the people that we went there ended up being people that we would run into in San Pedro, a little further down our journey.


After waking up in the morning, we were going to head into the Elqui Valley for a night. We caught a bus into the valley from the bus station, and stayed about half way up in the valley. The bus was pretty easy, you just need to keep track of the road signs and walk to the front of the bus when you are close to where you want to get off. There are no bus stops, so to say. The bus ride took about 45 minutes and cost about $6 USD each. We got off and found our home for the night at Hostal Luz del Valle. Not too many people were around at the hostal, so we decided to hitchhike up to Pisco Elqui, which was about another 30 minutes down the road. Along the way was the grape vines and some nice arid landscapes.

For those of you that don’t know, Pisco is a drink similar to tequila sold in the southern hemisphere. It is made from fermented grapes, similar to wine, but distilled into a hard liquor. There is a rivalry between Chile and Peru on who has the best pisco, and Chile named a small town up in the mountains after it, while Peru also named some town after it. The history is pretty cool, and worth a decent little investigation. Anyways, pisco is only allowed to be grown in this one area of Chile, so this is where you need to come if you want to check it out. We were there in winter, so none of the leaves on the vines were out.


Bridge right next to our B&B. yes we did cross it to check out the other side.

With that, we went to Pisco Elqui. The transport up and down the valley is by bus that runs about every hour or two. You simply wave them down and they stop. Pay when you get off, which seemed to be a standard 500 CLP per 10 km, or about $1 per 6 miles. We hitchhiked halfway up, then caught a bus that came by for the other half of the way. Hitching in Chile is still very safe, and totally worthwhile. Last time I was there, we got an hour and half ride for free and met some cool people along the way. I digress.


Enroute to Pisco Elqui.

The town of Pisco Elqui was pretty quiet this time of the year. We just walked around, took some pictures and enjoyed the mellow little desert like town. It is a great visit, especially in the off season. I can imagine that the summer must be pretty crazy, but it would be pretty cool to see the arid valley full with green leafed vines.






Mosaics everywhere.


Pisco Elqui Church.






Grape vines with wind protection- the white sheets hanging up.


Looking down valley.

After walking around a bit, we headed back to the hostel, where we cooked up some dinner and hung out with the owner of the hostel, a really nice guy who split a bottle or two of wine with us as we enjoyed his dogs (both were German Shepherds, the type of dog that we had at home at the time). He was a colorful man, and was really cool to talk to. They were originally from Belgium, and moved here to get away from the people. He had a great quote:

“I do nothing all day, I don’t want to do anything all day, so I do nothing all day.”-The wise words of a retired man.

It was a fun night, and I would definitely recommend spending the night there, between the stars, company, and overall accommodation, it was great. The breakfast was also really nice, all for about $30 USD for the both of us.


Phone photo of the sunset.


The Hostal from the outside, which was a bit more B&B like.


Backyard


View from the backyard.


Dogs

In the morning, we got a ride from the hosts to the nearby town Diaguas where we walked around a bit more, and he showed us some of his friends places.




Diaguas

In the afternoon, we took a bus to La Serena, where we stopped at the nearby shopping mall and spent some time eating food, waiting for our bus to Calama that night. Our next bus ride was 17 hours, and would traverse about 1100 kms. We slept pretty good, and woke up to the views of desert outside. Welcome to the Atacama.


A blurry photo of the top deck of the buses in Chile.


What we woke up to outside.

We only spent about 6 hours in Calama, mainly because that was the amount of time between our buses. the area is famous for its copper, and it a great place to invest in some copper pots if you are looking for it. We didn’t really do too much, since it was drastically warmer than we were used to. We walked around a bit, sat under some trees and watched people, then stumbled upon a Chinese restaurant near the bus terminal that we were departing from. I have pictures, but, ya know.

My dad was fixed on going to this Chinese restaurant, mainly because he saw a bunch of people go into it. Once we walked in, we were greeted by some cool air conditioning, and to our surprise, the Victoria Secret Fashion show being broadcasted on the televisions. We sat down, and had some pretty decent food while watching the Victoria Secret show and Super Bowl Halftime Shows. That, was an interesting experience, which was very unsuspected!

After lunch, it was off to the bus terminal, where we caught the hour and a half bus to San Pedro de Atacama. We watched a beautiful sunset from the bus, and arrived into San Pedro when it was dark, and that proved to be a bit of a trouble with our not so excellent directions. After walking around for a while, a guy that we asked was driving through and gave us a quick ride to Aji Verde, our home for the next few nights.

Next Up: Exploring the Atacama

Eastbay1K

Nice to see someone else here that has been far down the Valle de Elqui. I've been out there several times, and have spent the night in Cochiguaz 3 times. Too bad you didn't make it out there for a night because it has the clearest skies on earth. (It is not too far past Pisco Elqui on a gravel road.) Pisco Elqui is not crowded in the summer, either. The chilenos are great marketing folks, having changed the name of the town from La Union.

Were you able to stop @ Vicuņa to see the Mistral museum, or otherwise walk around? It reminds me of the Sonoma town square.

Enjoying your TR so far. If you have never read this book, you might appreciate it after spending so much time in Chile (outside of the big city). http://www.isabelallende.com/en/book/invented/summary