Last weekend we took a trip up the valley to visit Pisco Elqui, a famous city where Chile makes its drink called Pisco. According to Wikipedia,
Pisco Elqui is a Chilean village (pueblo) in the commune of Paihuano, Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region. It is located in the Elqui Valley, 107 km east from La Serena, at about 1,300 metres above sea level.
This was the area where pisco was distilled in the early history of Chile. The original name of the town was Las Gredas. It was later changed to La Unión. In 1936, the Law Decree 5,798 changed its name to Pisco Elqui to reinforce Chile's claim to have rights over the alcoholic drink, pisco.
We knew that along the way we were going to make a lot of stops to have the full experience of the valley. Our first stop was to this roadside stand. The kids love uvas (grapes) and at 3 kilos por luca, we couldn't pass it up.
After getting some grapes, we pulled over to take a picture of some missionaries from Vicuna. This was such a classic scene with missionaries walking down a country road.
Right there across from where the missionaries were walking was a field for drying grapes for rasins. They bring the grapes here and dump them on tarps where they are raked flat and left to dry for a couple of weeks.
When the grapes are dry, they are bagged up and trucked away for processing and shipment.
The valley is very beautiful. They have taken advantage of the flat, dry river bed to grow table grapes and some grapes for Pisco, Chile's famous alcohalic drink which has been described to us as an unfinished brandy.
They really take adantage of the terrain and are not afraid to extend the crops up the hillside.
For our next stop, we visited a cemetery. They two older kids were less than excited to be here to say the least, but Dave and I thought that it was interesting how they arranged their cemetary here.
All of the graves were above ground, which I suppose means they are not called graves anymore. This particular wall was especially large. Family members are buried together. If you have a lot of money, you buy a mausoleum with a gated entrance.
Like everything here in Chile, even the graves are behind bars.
We supposed that these graves are the more humble ones that could not afford to be burried in one of the structures.
This Senora lived to be 105 years old. Amazing!
Across from the cemetary was a juice bar with a nice outdoor lounge and a beautiful view of the valley.
BJ especially liked these hand crafted wooden tables.
Another quick stop to pick some figs from the side of the road.
More on the way to Pisco Elqui to come.
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