Monte Grande

Having decided the previous day that it wasn't worth attempting to climb the mountain after all. (partly as we coudn't find where the path up started) We slept quite late today and got up at around 12. After a lovely breakfast of ham and tomato sandwiches we set off in the opposite direction from Los Nichos in the direction of a small village called Monte Grande. We admired the wonderfull scenery as we walked about 5km and arrived to find a small plaza containing an old wooden church which was free to visit. It was a rather interesting sight with the inside of the wooden building painted to look like all sorts of things from the night sky on the celling to the 'marble' pillars flanking the door. From a distance it was rather convincing (helped by the lack of lighting) and it was only when you walked close that you realise everything was made of wood. We decided at this point that it was too hot to continue on and instead sat for a while in the shaded plaza which contained more of the giant clay pots which the Spanish seem to have left in all their colonies over here. Mae then asked a policeman for directions and surprisingly for Chile he actually knew the way. We walked a further kilometre to our destination of a small Vineyard called 'Cavas del Valle' which we had read about in the tour book. After waiting for the kind lady behind the desk to finish selling wine to the previous group (her collegue didn't speak any english) we were whisked off on a short but very interesting tour of this tiny organic vineyard which produces only 22,500 bottles per year. They grow mainly Syrah grapes which they mix with a much smaller percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon to produce 4 varieties of red wine and another grape which produced 2 whites, one sweet and one dry!. The lady was extremely informative and very patient with our limited spanish. It turns out that this is the highest vineyard in chille and one of the only one to grow grapes in a semi desert climate. We also learned how they produce both sweet and dry wines using the same grapes by picking them later and stopping the fermentation process before it is complete. At the end of the tour we also got to taste 3 different wines 1 red and 2 whites. (both a dry and sweet one) We couldn't resist buying a bottle and once again found that the tour became free upon purchase. We carried our bottle of wine the 3 or so miles back to Pisco Elqui which was almost entirely uphill so that by the time we arrived we were both hot and exhausted. It seemed therefore the perfect time to try out chile's icecream which comes in all sorts of strange flavours... we decided on 2 scoops each with a combination of 'Sky of the valley' flavour (mainly chosen because it was blue) and pisco sour flavour (which was amazing) while Mae had pineapple and coffee and walnut (she thinks), YUM!!!! We then spent the rest of the evening drinking our wine which we had 1 ½ bottles of left and chatting to the owner of the campsite for a little while eventually turning in about 11.