Pisco Elqui

When we got off the bus in Coquimbo it was still dark. We collected our baggage from the irritated man who had put our bags in the wrong place because he didn't bother to listen to us the night before when we told him where we were going!! We decided to wait until it was light before walking the mile or so to the hostel and while we waited I got some water and two mystery cakes (layers of custard and pastry with chocolate icing I think) from the coffee shop. After getting directions from a couple of taxi drivers we then proceeded to walk to the hostel and arrived about 7:30. When we arrived the lady behind the reception desk informed us that the price we had booked it for on Hostel World was incorrect and tried to charge us $30 each per night!! That's a ridiculous price and when we refused to pay this and phoned HostelWorld they eventually said it was a 'system error' and that they would refund our deposit, which they should however it still left us stranded with nowhere to stay!! The lady running the hostel proved to be far more helpful however and arranged us a campsite in Pisco Elqui for the much more reasonable price of $8 per person. Annoyingly this meant we had to walk back to the bus station and catch a bus which bounced along for about 2 hours though the stunning scenery of the Elqui Valley and eventually dropped us off at the Plaza (O'Higgins of course) in the centre of a small village up in the Andes. We found the Campsite easily and set our tent up after a few false starts(the instructions are in spanish and Portuguese!) and then set off to explore the pretty village which has a central plaza with one of the oldest (although apparently heavily restored) churches in Chile and and about 4 roads. It is obviously a popular tourist destination as it has a restaurant for every 2 inhabitants. Despite this the scenery her is spectacular with the lush valley floor, full of vineyards and pisco distilleries whereas the mountins are arid and desert like almost resembling sand dunes as they are so dry! Due to the isolation it is also one of the most peaceful places we have been on our travels so far and both of us agreed that it was much better than staying in Coquimbo. After our exploration we got a few bits for dinner from a mini market and then went back to the camp-site where we cooked dinner and chatted with a few other guests before bed.