2025_26 Oosterdam, Coquimbo, Chile...

Next up, Coquimbo, our first port in Chile!  I was out on the front deck in the very early hours for our sail into Coquimbo…it was extremely overcast and cloudy. We were off the ship first thing to meet our tour guide JP for our first trip to the Elqui Valley. What are the odds that the two persons who joined us on the tour were from Delaware. Leaving the pier in Coquimbo, we drove along the coast to La Serena with its iconic lighthouse and then headed inland to the Elqui Valley. The Elqui Valley is a fertile region in northern Chile, known for its clear skies, pisco production, vineyards, and astronomical observatories. The valley is situated between the Atacama Desert and the Andes Mountains. Our first stop was the Capel Distillery. We toured the facilities, which houses the first pisco museum in Chile, with the history of this noble product from the area. As well as learning about the process of making Chilean pisco brandy. This, of course, was a major highlight for me since I don’t drink alcohol… Next, we stopped in Vicuna and had free time to visit the Catholic Church, the main Square, the Bauer Tower and to buy a couple of magnets. Heading back towards La Serena we stopped at Puclato Reservoir. We walked to the top of the reservoir…this gave me the opportunity to take some photos of the scenic beauty of the reservoir and its surroundings. From here we returned to La Serena stopped at the lighthouse, I climbed up to the top for some shots of La Serena skyline and Coquimbo in the distance and JP dropped us at the ship. Not our best tour but it got us off the ship to explore some new territory. Disappointed that more photo stops couldn’t have been incorporated into the tour to capture the scenic beauty.  We ended it two hours early so there could have been time.