Elqui valley

Just north of Santiago in El Norte Chico is the Elqui Valley - home to Chile´s pisco distilleries. The runoff from snowmelt in the Andes is sufficient to support agriculture year-round in the valley, producing a green valley floor against bare mountains. The valley boasts more than 300 days of sunshine a year - good for growing grapes for pisco, and good for tourists who are moving north from the chilly south! Since the valley is located at the start of the Atacama desert (driest desert in the world don´t you know), the climate is also perfect for astronomical observatories. In deference to my brief dabble in astrophysics, we spent a night star-spotting like experts.

The Elqui valley hemmed in by the Andes.

The Atacama desert begins with a cactus or two.

On the coast in this region of Chile is the Humboldt Penguin National Reserve - here the cold Humboldt current from Antartica meets a warm current from offshore creating the perfect habitat for Humboldt penguins and many other marine species. The meeting of warm and cold also creates a permanent cover of clouds - a stark contrast to our days in the Elqui valley. We saw dolphins, humboldt penguins, seals, birds, otters, and a stray female elephant seal that had swum up from Antartica on the Humboldt marine highway. Far from seeming distressed by tourist presence, the dolphins instead swam with our little boat, taking it in turns to surf just in front of the bow - from which position they would watch the tourists watching back. Cruising along eye to eye with a dolphin was a pretty amazing experience...

Seal and friends.

The dolphins had hours of fun playing around our boat.

One of the islands we visited in the reserve - complete with atmospheric clouds.