It's a VERY small world

So all of our trips have turned into really great, odd adventures.  This one was no different.  For Stephen's birthday back in May, I planned a surprise trip for him.  Apparently I am a terrible secret keeper though, and a week before we left - I caved!  It was easier planning all the logistics with his help anyways, so it worked out just fine....

So Friday morning, we took off to a town about 700 km north of Santiago called Pisco Elqui.  The town is in the Elqui Valley which is known for its production of pisco, the national liquor of Chile - hence the name!  The valley is also known for having some of the clearest skies in the world, where you can see stars for miles.

After starting off a little slow - our bus broke down and the new bus overheated - we made it to La Serena.  From La Serena, we had to take 2 more buses to get to the town of Pisco Elqui.  From there, we were so close!  Just 4km in a truck and we were there!  OYE!  14 hours of travel and we were ready for some relaxation.

View from our dome

We stayed at a hotel called Elqui Domos.  Check out the website, it is very cool.  We found this hotel via our friend Wendy, who we met in Santiago and then traveled with in Uruguay.  She has a knack for finding weird, awesome hotels...and this was no different!  Thanks Wendy for the recommendation :)

 Each "room" was actual a dome, with a lofted bed and a roof that you could take off to see the stars from the comfort of your own bed.  Sadly I did not get any pics of the inside of the domes, but here are a view of the outside/view!

Reception at Elqui Domos

After a night of star-gazing, we went to the reception dome for breakfast.  Stephen and I have been playing a game of who will run into someone (who they don't know is going to be there) first.  I have seen so many of your dopplegangers in Santiago, Stephen always thinks I am crazy....BUT, while at breakfast the first morning, I saw a girl that I swear I knew from Catholic University.  Stephen didn't believe me, but this time I was convinced!

I ran outside to the couple and asked if they spoke English (if they didn't, it couldn't be her and I wouldn't embarass myself further).  Once confirmed, I asked her if she went to Catholic.  Turns out it I am not crazy!!!!  Mari Colberg and her husband Alejandro, who are currently living in Santiago, were staying in the same small hotel we were, where there are only 7 rooms, 700km from Santiago....HOLY COW, what a small world!  They were also awesome enough to let us bum a ride back to Santiago and saved us the painful 10-14 hour trip we would have had on the buses (thanks again guys!!!).

Anyways, that Saturday we had alot of activities to get in.  We thought we would have gotten to town early enough on Friday to do a night horseback ride, but with all the stops, we didn't.  So on the agenda for the day was bike riding, a pisco tour, and a night horseback ride!  We lumped them all in together and took advantage of having bikes to ride the 4km into Pisco Elqui.  But 1st, we set off in the opposite direction for what can only be described as the hilliest road ever.  We rode to a little town (if it can even be called that) and decided to turn around and head back into town of Pisco where we knew there were more things to see/do.  Beautiful views along the way though!

We road around the town, which consists of about 5 streets and snapped some photos before deciding to do a tour of the Mistral Distillery. We walked through the Mistral property and learned about the entire process of making pisco from harvesting the grapes til storing the barrels.  The end of the tour had a tasting of 4 different piscos...and shocker, I liked the cheapest one best!  The tour was neat too because they let us touch/play on things around the distillery.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing.  We had lunch, talked to some friendly town folk and then made our way back to the domes to get warmer clothes for the night.  Pisco has to be the friendliest town ever.  Every person we passed on the streets waved and said hello.  It was a nice change of pace from city life.

Now, after putting every layer we had on, we made our way back into town to go night horseback riding.  The night ride is supposed to be great in Pisco because of the clear skies.  Unfortunately, Saturday night was cloudy and we could see only 1 star.   Made for a very dark ride on a big animal...eeks.

The tour was great though and we definitely got our money's worth.  I think all in all, it was over a 5 hour tour!  We rode our horses about an hour to a little clearing where the guide pulled out some pisco sours for all of us.  We built a camp fire and drank our drinks...this is the part where we were supposed to get an astronomy lesson....instead we got a pisco sour making lesson!  Then back on the horses for the hour ride back to the van.  A long, exhausting, amazing day.

That night, it poured.  The receptionist said they get about 3-5 days of rain a year.  I guess that makes us lucky, right?