Trip to Pisco Elqui - Part 2

We packed up the car and hustled Warren along (Warren loves to piddle and getting him moving is a challenge).  We drove up the highway (a toll road – Chile loves it toll roads) to La Serena, a major city on the coast.  This is a historic city with many colonial buildings.  It is also congested and parking is a big challenge.  We went to the oldest church, San Francisco, the only building in La Serena to survive the sack of the city in 1680 by the English pirate, Bartholomew Sharp.  It is hard to believe that several hundred years ago at this place pirates were roaming.  In any case, the church was closed for the three hour lunch (standard in Chile) so Warren and I viewed it from the outside while Randy stayed with the car on a side street.

The oldest church in La Serena

An amazing history

View of the facade - sadly, we could not enter because it was closed for three hours for lunch

Detail of the bell tower

The carvings on the facade are not ornate but are well done

Alice in front of the church

Detail of a carving

Thence, we headed east on the road through the Elqui Valley.  This is a good two lane road with scenic views on both sides.  We viewed the dam along the way with its outlook.  We stopped in Vicuna, the main town in the valley.  Vicuna is a very nice town with huge, leafy main square and easy parking.  We walked to view the historic German tower, Bauer Tower, and the church, Church of Mary’s Immaculate Conception,  dating from the 1880’s, both from the outside.  I bought some very nice and well-priced jewelry from some ladies on the square while Warren bought sweets. 

Warren at the dam just east of La Serena in the Elqui valley

A panoramic - two wind surfers were doing their thing at the far end of the reservoir

 This artwork makes a pleasant humming noise from the wind on the top of the dam

The church in Vicuna, Mary's Immaculate Conception

Detail of steeple

The Bauer Tower, built by a town mayor of German descent

The tourist office is housed in the ground floor

Warren by the tower

The large town square of Vicuna with its easy parking, a rarity in Chile

Alice was enjoying being back in Vicuna especially with the weather so nice

Hibiscus on the square

Alice bought a lot of jewelry from this nice lady.  Her copper and stone pieces are attractive and well priced.

Warren got a couple of sweets from another lady vendor

The next stop was the village of Diaguitas, home to Guayacan brewery.  We had been there before last September (and to La Serena, Vicuna and Pisco Elqui too).  It is a classy microbrewery in the middle of nowhere.  The beer is very good and there is an outdoor but covered area to drink.  This time we lucked into a tour given by the founder and owner,  Cristóbal Holmgren (I went with two couples from Brazil).  This friendly bilingual Chilean founded the brewery in 2006.  He chose the location (he is from Santiago) because there are many tourists.  They brew five kinds of beer – Golden Ale, Pale Ale, Stout, a one percent beer (Uno), and a high gravity beer.  Most of their output goes to Santiago though some is sold locally.  Guayacan is a local tree and the owner chose it because most breweries in Chile have German names and he wanted a local name.  The brewery has grown over the past five years and is not to be missed if you visit the Elqui Valley.

The place for beer in the Elqui Valley

Where they make the stuff

Beer making in action

The articulate and passionate (about beer) founder and owner, Cristobal Holmgren

Nearly all of the hops come from Chile except for a small portion imported from Belgium

Cristobal explains the process to us

They even bottle it right here - everything is in one big room

Alice asked for a photo of this memorable tour - she regards microbrewery research while traveling a mother's duty to further inform her son, Alexander, in his beer making and beer appreciation efforts

Warren and Randy lounged in the large outdoor cantina and sampled the products

Randy liked the Uno beer while Alice and Warren preferred the ales

Salud!

They did not have any men's T shirts for sale but Alice bought one of the pretty women's shirts

We stopped briefly in Montegrande, a village just north of Pisco Elqui.  This is the burial place of the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (she was born in Vicuna and both cities have museums about her) and she went to school here.  There is a small square and another wooden historic church.  We bought some more jewelry (these are all copper and stone) from two aged hippy types.  This area abounds in new age culture, aged hippies, backpackers of all nationalities and ages, and counter culture types.

The pisco grapes are grown everywhere in the valley including some ridiculously hard places to get to like here on the upper side of a steep mountain

Statue of Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral in the village where she went to school and where she is laid to rest, Montegrande

Randy and Warren get out of the car at the nice town square in Montegrande

The attractive red brick church in Montegrande

In Pisco Elqui we found our lodging, El Tesoro de Elqui.  This compound is located in the central town but has very nice and rustic gardens.  Warren had a picturesque cabana but Randy and I got the misfortune of a room on the street situated over the café.  This was large but sitting on the street, less than quiet and no leafy garden.  But, the place was full so we were stuck there for the night.  After walking around the town (Warren stayed at the accommodations) and enjoying the main square with its historic wooden church, Senora del Rosario, we got Warren and headed to dinner at El Durmiente Elquino restaurant.  Randy and I remembered this place from our trip last September as it has really good pisco sours and a wood fire outside.  We secured a table near the fire and enjoyed pisco sours (Warren drank beer – not a pisco man).  We ate basically on pizza, salad, potatoes but it was a nice experience.  Randy had a few too many pisco sours but I managed to guide him up the stairs to our room where we had a decent night's sleep.  Warren stayed out and enjoyed another drink at the open air restaurant across the street and was amazed at the stars and view of the Milky Way on this way back to his room that night.  A big change from when we were here last September is the cell phone service.  I could rarely get any service in Pisco Elqui last year but the service this year was so good we could use Skype to call home easily.  In fact, all over Chile the cell service seems dramatically upgraded from just two years ago.  Verizon is very happy because I am using lots of data which costs $25 per 100 MB (or something like that).

Our attic room - the two dormers on the right - reached by outdoor steps that wouldn't be legal in the U.S.

View across the garden from outside of our room

The room was not good but the view was - from one of our windows

The pool at El Tesoro de Elqui - Alice put her feet in only but that was refreshing

The nicely situated church of Pisco Elqui - Senora del Rosaria

This church fronts on the main square (above) and our dinner spot right off of the main square (below)

The wood fire brought some warmth and conviviality

Warren perused the English menu

After being DD at Guayacan brewery and only drinking an Uno beer, Randy was ready for the very good (made in the frozen style) pisco sours at Restaurant El Durmiente Elquino

Alice at the fire pit in her new Guayacan brewery T shirt