Vicuña

Chileans are so friendly. I don't know if that's because it's exciting to talk to a foreigner or if they're this friendly to everyone. I'm going to write about the adventures of this past Sunday. But to explain how my Sunday was, I should first elaborate upon the preceding Monday. Jeanette, my host mother, had her friend Sandra over at the house. I introduced myself and we had a short conversation. Pretty quickly, Sandra asked me if I had been to Valle del Elqui (sorry, there's no English version), which is about an hour away. Will and I had been talking about doing a Saturday day trip there sometime soon, but we hadn't planned anything yet. Then, Sandra asked me if I would like to join her family going to Valle that Sunday. I had known her for less than five minutes and she offered to take me to Valle del Elqui to have lunch at her parents house and show me around Vicuña (the main town in Valle). She also invited Will, never having met him. (Actually the nicest.) She said if it panned out she would communicate with me via Jeanette, and sure enough, a few days later Jeanette told me I should be ready at 10:30am on Sunday.

So Sunday morning we hopped into Sandra's car, accompanied by one of Sandra's daughters, Javiera. Sandra has a fair amount of experience with international folks, and so she was incredibly good about speaking slowly and relatively simply - also reminding her family to use words we would understand. Although "slowly" is a bit misleading - slowly for Chileans, which is a normal pace for Americans. We drove to Sandra's parents house in Vicuña. They live right next to their viña and huerta (vineyard and vegetable garden). The grapes are not for wine, however - they sell them commercially to make pisco, a common Chilean drink. There were also a number of other fruits and vegetables, some of which were new to me. The chirimoya, for example:

However, it is winter here, so a lot of things weren't in season - there were no grapes (or even leaves, for that matter) in the vineyard.

Sandra and her father gave Will and I a tour of the vineyard and garden, educating us about the different types of grapes, how they do irrigation, and more. After, we ate a delicious lunch - un asado (barbecue). Sandra's parents were incredibly welcoming. They were eager to show us around and make sure we were enjoying ourselves. And they loved introducing us to new things, whether words or foods!

After the tour and lunch at Sandra's parents' house, Sandra took Will and I to Vicuña, where we wandered around the main plaza and some artisan shops. Then, we went for a guided tour of Pisco Capel, where most of Chile's pisco is made. It was Interesting and fun - and at the end we got to try many of the different varieties sold, from pisco coladas to pisco sour :).

A sample of pictures from the tour: