La Serena & the Elqui valley: a nice change in scenery
3 Days in La Serena
After a couple of days in San Pedro de Atacama, we head south to the city of La Serena, on the Pacific coast.
The 16 hour bus ride from San Pedro was smooth. We slept well and arrived at 10:30 am in La Serena.
La Serena, because of its location on the Pacific coast, is a very touristic destination in summertime for the Chileans. With its large avenues and huge palm trees it feels almost like LA.
But at this time of year there is nobody, not a single tourist. And it looks like we are the only gringos in town. Which feels great after San Pedro…
Our stay in La Serena will be dedicated to rest. We rented an awesome Airbnb, right in front of the ocean, for 3 nights.
The first day we had a great blue sky. After doing some grocery shopping for the 4 days, and eating a delicious home made salad, we went for a nice long walk along the beach.
The sea air is so nice !
The weather was fantastic but there was a really cold wind. So no swimming for us today (only a few seagulls and a courageous surfer are in the water). But let’s not forget that it is winter here…
A glass of Chilean wine that we enjoy in the couch. We love it! It is really pleasant to have our own space for a few days.
For our second day, the weather turned gray (which is typical this time of year), and reminded us a little of Lima. We take the opportunity to sleep in late, get a nice breakfast and simply do nothing. Yes you read that right, today we do nothing except reading in the couch and getting up for some more tea!
In the afternoon we decide to go check out the city center, we couldn’t just spend the day doing nothing… But today is Sunday and almost everything is closed and nobody is in the streets. Not too big of a deal, we simply visit a cute little Japanese garden and walk back to our apartment and grab some more wine.
The next morning we get woken up by our first earthquake in Chili. Indeed, at 6 am, we are still in bed asleep, when everything around us ( including our bed) starts shaking. Matt had already felt an earthquake before but it was Maider’s first time. Pretty impressive. But we know that in Chile these are pretty common, so we think it might not be our last one.
Today we go to Punta Choros, 2 hours north of La Serena to take a boat ride around the islands of Damas and Choros, that are part of the Humboldt penguins national reserve.
But what we didn’t expect is that the weather would be pretty bad. Indeed, once we get to Punta Choros, it is cold, gray and rainy and we can’t see past 100 yards. We really wonder what the hell we are doing here, and even if there is going to be a boat ride at all given the weather.
Apparently yes. We aren’t the only lunatics who came all the way out here. There are a few Chilean tourists and a group of foreigners who came using a travel agency from La Serena. Given the prices these agency offer we are glad to have taken the public transportation and done everything ourselves!
So the boat tour will take place but we won’t be able to go on the Damas Island. Indeed on Mondays and Tuesdays the CONAF closes the island to do some restoration work. The CONAF is the Chilean entity in charge of protecting the nature and wildlife.
We put our life jackets on and board all together on the boat. It’s freezing cold already and we haven’t left the port yet… we can’t imagine having to stay on this thing for 2 hours!
We go towards the Island of Damas that we will only see from afar but looks like it is amazing in good weather.
The turquoise blue water just by the island.
From the very beginning we can see plenty of birds, like these big pelicans.
We continue to navigate within the reserve and see our first penguins.
In the end we only see very few penguins, since they live a little higher in the island. Indeed, the otters, who eat their eggs, represent a dangerous predator for them. That is why the penguins have to nest up in the island, as far as possible from the sea.
We continue our ride around the islands and see a few sea lions.
But what we see the most and by far are birds, and plenty of different ones:
We also went through pretty nice small caves.
We finally go back to the port after a couple of hours at sea. And see some more sea lions.
Our last evening in La Serena will be spent in the warmth of our apartment, drinking some local craft beer and enjoying the sunset from our balcony, all accompanied by a great meal of course.
The next day, we leave for Pisco Elqui, 2 hours away from La Serena, known for its pisco production. We haven’t had pisco since we left Peru and are craving for some 😉 . We had to make a stop in Pisco Elqui and at a distillery!
3 Days in the Elqui Valley
A second earthquake wakes us up, around 2 am this time. A little more violent and longer than the previous one. We fall back asleep and wake up a little later for our last breakfast at our Airbnb before leaving for the bus terminal. From there we take a bus to Pisco Elqui, located at 30 miles from La Serena, in the Elqui Valley. The valley is known for its pisco production and its very clear sky.
We leave La Serena under a gray sky but after an hour drive the weather changes completely and the sky is completely blue. Incredible! The landscape until we reach Pisco Elqui becomes amazing.
Between desert area and green vegetation.
We see plenty of vineyards.
And cross multiple little towns. Fantastic! And a real change of scene.
We arrive in Pisco Elqui late in the morning and go find a camping… that is opened… Indeed at this time of year a lot of things are closed, including some campings. But we find one, pretty cheap and just by the river! We find a great spot right by a few chickens. We are all alone in this huge camping, awesome!
After putting up the tent, we picnic by the river before walking around town.
There is a little main Plaza with a cute church.
The place is really quiet. Not a single tourist in sight. The village is tiny but full of charm.
We walk by plenty of little shops that offer massages, yoga, reflexology, aromatherapy, etc… The village is a little hippy and the people are very nice.
We go to the Fundo de los Nichos distillery after that. It is a family-owned distillery, well known for its excellent pisco. A little 2.5 miles hike is needed to get there. And again we are able to admire the incredible landscape of the valley.
We stop a lot on the way to take pictures and take a look at the beautiful flowers.
At the distillery we have a 30 minute tour to explain us how they proceed. We have visited other distilleries in Peru so we are pretty aware of how things work, except here the entire bottling process is manual.
We end the tour with a small sampling of two different piscos. One is a 35% that aged for 10 months, and the second one is a 40% that aged for 3 years. Both are really good, the first one a little more fruity is best for making Pisco Sours, the second one is a little more smooth.
To go back to the village we have to walk the same path, but this time we try to hitchhike for the first time. And a very nice guy picks us up and drives us back to Pisco Elqui !
Once in the village, we decide we didn’t drink enough so we sat down in a little patio. Maider ordered a Pisco Sour and Matt tried a craft beer from the area. Nice and relaxing little moment. We feel great in Pisco Elqui!
After hanging out at the camping (very important to note that past 7 pm, Maider was still only wearing a tee-shirt! Rare enough for us to mention),
we went to eat in a small restaurant in town, where once again we were all alone. During the day Pisco Elqui is little busy thanks to the day tours from La Serena, but at night the town is completely dead. To end this great day, we stop to watch the stars on our way back to the camping. There is no moon tonight, so we can see all the stars very very well. We can even easily see the milky way. It is the first time we see a sky so clear and beautiful. We are absolutely captivated by the scenery. We stay a moment, silently just looking up. The sky is absolutely gorgeous, we have never seen something like it. And we secretly hope to see a few aliens…
After a great night of sleep, without being cold at all, we have some oats for breakfast! It’s been a while!!! And it tasted very good. Probably because we hadn’t had any in a while.
This morning we go hiking in the heights of the village. And at 10:30 am the sun is already hitting pretty hard. The views as we climb are gorgeous.
The trail is pretty steep, but it feels great to hike a little. It feels like we haven’t done some serious hike in a while.
It takes us about an hour to climb up, and we have a nice view on the village and the surrounding mountains.
Early afternoon we aren’t sure if we want to visit another distillery in Pisco Elqui before heading to the city of Vicuña, where we will spend the night. But we read on a few blogs that near Vicuña there was a craft brewery where we could do some tastings. Pisco is OK, but we would much rather have beer! So we decide to leave Pisco Elqui earlier than expected to go to Vicuña, an hour away. We arrive in Vicuña and again start looking for a camping spot, and end up in an old couple’s back yard. They actually have a small hostel and let people camp in the yard. Indeed they have a few little rooms, but to common areas are basically the common areas of their house. There is even an old lady knitting in the sofa in the living room. The host shows us where we can put our tent and it is perfect for us. We are really close to the bus terminal and to the supermarket. Awesome!
After putting together the tent, we go to the Guyacan brewery, and when we get there the tour already started. To be honest we kind of know how beer is made, and really we are more interested in drinking it than learn about the process, so we don’t hesitate and sit down and order some samples.
Of course we have to taste ALL the beers, and Matt doesn’t wanted to share so we each order a flight. We sit down in the beer garden and start tasting all six of their beers.
We had a great time sitting there and enjoying the delicious beers.
We even buy a bottle to enjoy once we are back in our camping.
We spend a great evening drinking the beer we bought with a nice little meal.
Unfortunately the night won’t be as nice. Maider decided to sleep without her earplugs thinking the area is quiet, and what a rookie mistake! The dogs around didn’t stop barking all night, and the roosters started singing at 3 am. So as you can expect we didn’t sleep too much… Thankfully the next day we have an 8 hour bus ride from La Serena to Valparaiso, so we will be able to catch some sleep.
These few days in the Coquimbo region were great, with 3 days in La Serena and 3 days in the Elqui Valley. Very relaxing and with a nice change in scenery. Far from the people and the urban pollution! A great breath of fresh air.