La Serena is one of Chile's oldest coast towns. We made Hostal D' Gregoria our base. Our room overlooked the garden and came equipped with Michael the cat. The room had no heat and we stayed warm under a pile of wool blankets. We tried 2 nights to take a night tour to the observatory,but the tour was cancelled due to clouds. We also tried to take a tour out to see penguins, but that tour was also cancelled.
We did take an Elqui Valley tour. Dressed in our fleecys we shed clothes as we moved up the warm valley. This is touted as the earth's magnetic core and it's greatest point of energy. We stopped along the road and treked through underbrush to the convergence of the Turbio and Claro rivers. You will see in the picture that one river is greenish due to the sulphur content and the other river is clear. Where they come together, it is said, the heavy sulphur rich water mixes with the clear water to form a strong magnetism.
We made a stop at Vicuna, famous for the poetess Gabriela Mistral, a famous poetess and Nobel Peace prize winner. Boy, do they love her! We saw where she was born, where she lived and where she was buried.
Pisco Elqui is an eclectic mix of new agers, retired people, artists, and farm workers.
I think the highlight of the tour was lunch at Villaseca's Solar Restaurant. The van left the small main road and we followed a bumpy road that twisted and turned leading us uphill past the small village of Villaseca. This village of 300 residents is the only place in Chile where virtually all residents cook with solar power with over 310 days of sunchine a year.
A group of women created a cooperative and run a solar restaurant. The place looks like a school science project with the orange boxes sitting outside the restaurant. Mmmmmmmm, good food. We started with bread and I had the chicken stew while Dave had his first taste of goat. The meal also included locally grown salad and a tasty dessert.
No comments:
Post a Comment