Mar 18 Pisco valley and tours

It’s still 34 highs in the day and stinking hot here as we head up the Elqui valley for a couple of days. On the way we deke into the nice little indigenous traditional village of Guayacan, home to the famous brewery, where we stop for a local quaff and stroll around the picturesque plaza and church. Many photo stops later, we arrive in the village of Pisco Elqui and take over our 2 bedroom cabin, (4 beds, 1 bath) with kitchen which we don’t really want or need but is cosy all the same. We wash our undies which dry on our fence outside - too bad if the neighbors object..

  Then it’s off to the most famous place in the area, the Mistral pisqueteria. We take the US$12 (each) tour in Spanish. After the tour of the huge producer, we don’t know much more about its production. The day before we toured a small family run place in Vicuña, also in Spanish. At Mistral, we meet up with Julia, winemaker from Napa valley, and she and Ted test out the famous ultra premium Grand Mistral pisco. Conclusion: nothing like a good single malt Scotch! Now we have another 2 free glasses. Like champagne flutes. Handy to take on our tour...

  Panic - we get back to our cabin and find I have left my purse hanging on the chair at the Mistral restaurant! It’s Sunday night. It is now closed til Tuesday. We rush back down the hill. I bang on the door. Nobody comes. But they are picking and processing grapes so the security guard is at the truck entrance. Ted goes down there and, miracle, he has my purse, all intact. Dodged that bullet today.

  With all the climbing and not drinking enough water (my opinion!!) Ted has cramps most nights. Sounds painful.

  This is a magical p lace and we wake to roosters, then the usual dog chorus. There is a lovely breakfast buffet for the small number of guests here and staff are very helpful and friendly even though they don’t speak English. I loll at the pool in the lovely garden then we retire back to the nice resto we visited first time for more ribs. Amazingly out here way in the boonies, we have good wifi.