LAND OF PISCO AND STARS

Monday, February 15, 2010

Fresh grapefruit juice, what a treat! In a country where fruit is available at all times, that’s what you would expect. But this is the first time in all these months we have been in Chile, that fresh juice is being served in a hotel.
Ramiro brings a glass of my favorite fruit to our room and while I enjoy some time by myself he has breakfast in the lounge area.

I like Vicuña, it’s cozy, clean and not too over commercialized. With the many tourist attraction in a 50 km radius it has been able to maintain it’s own character. There is a good variety of simple hotels, hostels and bed and breakfasts with excellent service.

For our morning exercise we hike up to  Cerro de la Virgen, where we are treated to a fantastic view of the valley and of the city of Vicuña.

The climate in the Valley or Paihuano Country is dry, which is typical of the foothills region. Humidity ranges from 15-30% at 1000 to 2000 above sea level, with an average temperature of 24 degrees and 100 mm rainfall per year.
The perfect climate for the grapes that produces Pisco.

We are not too much into musea and such, but a trip to the Capel Pisco Distillery in Villaseca is an absolute must.
Capel stands for Cooperativo Agricula Pisco Elqui Ltd. It was established in 1938 and is owned by the grape farmers of the area.
We get the full tour, from the moment where the Muscatel grapes enter the plant until the packaging of the Pisco bottles. Unfortunately the plant is undergoing a maintenance shut down. So the only people we see in action are the maintenance crew, who clean and maintain all the equipment and machines.

The process is very much like that of Tequila. Grapes are ground, stems separated for compost. Pulp, and juice go into the fermenter, and after a filtering process into to the distiller.
Some of the Pisco gets bottled right away. Other sit in barrels for as long as six years.
There are many varieties of Pisco but we only get to try one.

After our tour we continue up the hill to a restaurant which uses solar heating. Small boxes containing a mosaic of mirrors provide heat to boil water, to bake  bread or cook other dishes.


I am amazed by the way business is done here.
You can basically buy your stuff from a truck or someone's backpack. Especially in the country, there is alwasy something to buy.

Being in an  area with the clearest sky in the world, star gazing is at its best and a must for every visitor. We have tickets for the Mamalluca Observatory. A van takes us up the mountain approximately 10 kilometers above the city.
It is still light as we arrive at the observatory and not many stars can be seen yet. I had hoped for a midnight tour where the sky is at its best, but then we would not have seen the spectacular sunset.

As it gets darker more and more stars are appearing and before we know it we can see an entire constellation of stars. With the naked eye we have a very clear view of the Milky Way. (unfortunately the camera does not records this very well) We see the planet Mars, and the Orion Stars are pointed out to us with a laser beam. With the large telescope we can see clusters of millions of stars. The air is wonderful, calm, dry and warm enough to enjoy the fresh air. What a perfect way to complete our visit to Elqui Valley.