Day 7 - Pisco Elqui

You wake up and go outside and it's a beautiful day. You find the little old lady that runs the place and tell her your ready for breakfast. She then brings you out bread, some amazing home-made marmalade, avacado, meat, and cheese. As your good friend and you are eating, the girl from Holland comes out of the bedroom looking thoroughly distraught. Here comes your second lecture of the trip. She looks right at you and your friend and says, "You two! I can't believe how loud you were getting up this morning. How many times do you have to unzip, and zip your bags. Zip up, zip down, zip up, zip down, etc... It's really only necessary to unzip something one time, and you were just SO loud. And you both have a ton of plastic bags that you just keep rustling and rustling, and their just SO loud. And I know you were trying to be quiet because you weren't talking, but you were just SO loud. And it was driving me crazy, and I know that we'll be getting up at the same time tomorrow so you can't do anything about it, but just for future reference, don't do that ever again, or the people staying with you will want to kill you, I just thought I should tell you, so you won't do that to anyone else...... I just had to get that off my chest....Yadayadaya and the lecture continues. She finishes and one of the crazy danes says, "Good morning Susan." With a tone as if to say, whoa - settle down.

After the lecture, you and your friend take a walk into town, laughing the whole way about what just happened. And really your both in complete amazement about the whole thing because she got home around 2 in the morning and was anything but quiet, and also, your in a hostal, you can't be nit-picky about little things like plastic bags and zippers. And seriously, you were only in the room getting ready for 5 minutes total that morning, and neither of you said one word. Between the two of you, you only opened your zipper bags 5 times, so she definitely could have just gone back to sleep, at least that's what you do every morning when they get home. Eventually, you pick up some empanadas for dinner and head back to the hostal.

Today you take a little drive up the valley to the town of Pisco Elqui. The first stop is at the Capel Pisco Distillery, where you take a little tour, and get really sick because of the sheer strength of the smell of the alcohol here. It's unbelievably strong. You continue on your way, to the town center where you have lunch in the plaza and look through some small markets. You also have an interesting conversation with the tour guide in training about his beliefs. You find out that he is a vegetarian, but if he's offered meat, he'll eat it. That he believes marijuana is not a drug, and that it was put on this earth to be smoked. That he follows the Mayan calendar, and that he has dreads, not for a fashion statement, but because that is just how is hair goes and it is natural. Interesting. It's now time for your scheduled horseback riding trip with the rest of the group. You go up to the ranch, and you are given a horse named 'Tinto.' For the next hour and a half you ride up to a point that overlooks the city, and then back down again. You have tons of fun and love every minute of it!

Cute little statue in the town Plaza that reads - A los corazones de todas las pocas (To the hearts of all young)

On the way back to the hostal you stop in another little town and watch a parade that they are having. They start at one church, and end up at their other church where you are. It is in tribute to Saint Carmen.