Vicuna

Spent a couple of days in the Elqui Valley.

We visited a collection of bugs, butterflies, fossils and spiders. The beetles were particularly gruesome, some bigger than your hand, with giant pincers and feelers. Reassuringly several of these are found in Peru and Ecuador, we shall look forward to that!

We experienced an earthquake which lasted around twenty seconds and made the windows shake, however it was quite mild compared to the one we recently had in England. They have them all the time in Chile and no one batted an eyelid.

The Elqui Valley is home to the oldest Pisco distillery and the largest Pisco co-operative in Chile. We visited one of the plants and tasted their new lines.

In the evening, we visited the observatory at Mamalluca where we got to see close ups of the moon with its seas, craters and even the American flag. We also saw Saturn, its rings and one of its moons as well as Mars and a number of constellations.

http://picasaweb.google.com/trevallion74/Vicuna

written by  billyandsophie on May 17, 2008 from Vicuna, Chile
from the travel blog: South America
Send a Compliment

comment on this...