4-30
I slept through the earthquake aftershocks and headed out in the morning to Pisco Elqui via bus. The bus ride of course was gorgeous as it wound up a valley with dry desert mountains on both sides with a contrast of bright green in the valley filled with pisco grapes (the famous grape used for making Chile´s national alcoholic drink, Pisco, which is used in Pisco sours and Piscoke), avocados, and papayas. Up ahead in the distance were snow covered peaks. At the tiny village of Pisco Elqui, full of brightly colored adobe houses, pisco vineyards, and blooming flowers, I hiked a bit up the road for some nice views of the fertile valleys set below the dry mountains. Today was the hottest I have been in forever and I was sweating a lot and enjoyed some icecream and fresh fruit juice from fruit in the valley. I then did a quick tour of the Mistral Pisco distillery where I spent some money buying 2 bottles each (a creme pisco and a regular pisco) as thank you gifts for the people I would be staying with in the near future...Carola in Santiago and Colin and Andrea in Mendoza. After that, I hiked down to Monte Grande, birthplace of one of Chile´s pride and joys, Gabriela Mistral. a noble prize winning poet (and humanitarian). From there I took a bus to Vicuna where I hiked up Cerro de La Virgen to watch the sunset. From that little hill, I was afforded nice 360 views of the Elqui valley. I could also see some of the astronomical observatories on the mountains. The Elqui valley is also famous for its astronomical research because of it´s clear skies. In fact, a couple of the observatories are run in part by the University of Arizona. The Elqui valley also sits on one of the meridians, which means it is supposed to have special magnetic and cosmic energy; thus, lots of hippies and new age people hang out here. It´s also famous for being one of the places with the most UFO sightings (could it be all the pisco?)
Back in La Serena, I took a late night walk to the beach and lighthouse (el faro) with a french brother and sister. It was an entertaining walk bc the girl knew just a bit more english than I know spanish, was pretty fluent in spanish, and the guy only knew french and a small bit of spanish. So as we walked in talked, me and her conversed in a mix of spanish and english, using the other language when we didn´t know the word we wanted in spanish and then she translating the whole conversation to french. Had to have been funny to listen to.
Before our walk, the man who runs the hostel showed us how he makes these artisan shoes and sandals out of leather and then decorates them by stamping them and dying the leather.. I didnt feel like I needed any new sandals, so instead I made a leather bracelet.
5-1 Today was a national holiday equivalent to Labor Day. The government mandated that basically everything be closed including supermarkets and mcdonalds (but amazingly not bus companies). Because of this the city was like a ghost town and deserted. I spent the morning walking a bit around the city and visiting the plaza de armas and walking down to the beach and lighthouse to see it in the daytime. I was lucky that I had heard wind of this holiday before and had booked my bus ticket well in advance bc even booking in advance I had to go to at least 5 bus companies before I found a bus with 1 seat left. I took an afternoon bus to Santiago where after a short subway ride and walk, I arrived at Carola´s apartment. Carola is a friend I met in Ghorepani, Nepal while trekking. In fact, she was the gal that introduced me to jumping Polly from Idaho who hooked me up with Ildi who helped me land the job in Antarctica.
Carola is recently home from the UK. She has been studying for a masters in London and is back now to carry out her research on the Island of Chiloe (near puerto montt). She is studying something to do with indigenous cultures (the mapuche) and sustainability and tourism. She has been living with her parents on the outskirts of santiago, but her sister and her sister´s boyfriend are taking a holiday to Bolivia, so she is house sitting their flat (complete with rooftop garden and compost worm farm) in downtown Santiago. When I arrived, she welcomed me with some herbal tea and then cooked a traditional chilean dinner for me. Her sister and sister´s boyfriend´s flat is on the top floor and they have a garden on the roof, so we went up there and had some wine and watched the lights of Santiago. They have a great view from their roof, and I can´t wait to see it in the day; however, her friend Panchi called, and we made a quick 12am decision to drive to Panchi´s house in Valparaiso a couple hours away on the coast. So we quick packed up and were picked up by Panchi and we headed out.
I slept through the earthquake aftershocks and headed out in the morning to Pisco Elqui via bus. The bus ride of course was gorgeous as it wound up a valley with dry desert mountains on both sides with a contrast of bright green in the valley filled with pisco grapes (the famous grape used for making Chile´s national alcoholic drink, Pisco, which is used in Pisco sours and Piscoke), avocados, and papayas. Up ahead in the distance were snow covered peaks. At the tiny village of Pisco Elqui, full of brightly colored adobe houses, pisco vineyards, and blooming flowers, I hiked a bit up the road for some nice views of the fertile valleys set below the dry mountains. Today was the hottest I have been in forever and I was sweating a lot and enjoyed some icecream and fresh fruit juice from fruit in the valley. I then did a quick tour of the Mistral Pisco distillery where I spent some money buying 2 bottles each (a creme pisco and a regular pisco) as thank you gifts for the people I would be staying with in the near future...Carola in Santiago and Colin and Andrea in Mendoza. After that, I hiked down to Monte Grande, birthplace of one of Chile´s pride and joys, Gabriela Mistral. a noble prize winning poet (and humanitarian). From there I took a bus to Vicuna where I hiked up Cerro de La Virgen to watch the sunset. From that little hill, I was afforded nice 360 views of the Elqui valley. I could also see some of the astronomical observatories on the mountains. The Elqui valley is also famous for its astronomical research because of it´s clear skies. In fact, a couple of the observatories are run in part by the University of Arizona. The Elqui valley also sits on one of the meridians, which means it is supposed to have special magnetic and cosmic energy; thus, lots of hippies and new age people hang out here. It´s also famous for being one of the places with the most UFO sightings (could it be all the pisco?)
Back in La Serena, I took a late night walk to the beach and lighthouse (el faro) with a french brother and sister. It was an entertaining walk bc the girl knew just a bit more english than I know spanish, was pretty fluent in spanish, and the guy only knew french and a small bit of spanish. So as we walked in talked, me and her conversed in a mix of spanish and english, using the other language when we didn´t know the word we wanted in spanish and then she translating the whole conversation to french. Had to have been funny to listen to.
Before our walk, the man who runs the hostel showed us how he makes these artisan shoes and sandals out of leather and then decorates them by stamping them and dying the leather.. I didnt feel like I needed any new sandals, so instead I made a leather bracelet.
5-1 Today was a national holiday equivalent to Labor Day. The government mandated that basically everything be closed including supermarkets and mcdonalds (but amazingly not bus companies). Because of this the city was like a ghost town and deserted. I spent the morning walking a bit around the city and visiting the plaza de armas and walking down to the beach and lighthouse to see it in the daytime. I was lucky that I had heard wind of this holiday before and had booked my bus ticket well in advance bc even booking in advance I had to go to at least 5 bus companies before I found a bus with 1 seat left. I took an afternoon bus to Santiago where after a short subway ride and walk, I arrived at Carola´s apartment. Carola is a friend I met in Ghorepani, Nepal while trekking. In fact, she was the gal that introduced me to jumping Polly from Idaho who hooked me up with Ildi who helped me land the job in Antarctica.
Carola is recently home from the UK. She has been studying for a masters in London and is back now to carry out her research on the Island of Chiloe (near puerto montt). She is studying something to do with indigenous cultures (the mapuche) and sustainability and tourism. She has been living with her parents on the outskirts of santiago, but her sister and her sister´s boyfriend are taking a holiday to Bolivia, so she is house sitting their flat (complete with rooftop garden and compost worm farm) in downtown Santiago. When I arrived, she welcomed me with some herbal tea and then cooked a traditional chilean dinner for me. Her sister and sister´s boyfriend´s flat is on the top floor and they have a garden on the roof, so we went up there and had some wine and watched the lights of Santiago. They have a great view from their roof, and I can´t wait to see it in the day; however, her friend Panchi called, and we made a quick 12am decision to drive to Panchi´s house in Valparaiso a couple hours away on the coast. So we quick packed up and were picked up by Panchi and we headed out.
No comments:
Post a Comment