Coquimbo is a not very interesting port city 460 km to the north of Santiago. The main economic activities are mining (because of its large deposits of magnesium, gold, silver, copper and iron) fisheries and agriculture. It has one of the largest copper mines in the world known as "Los Pelambres" with an estimated reserve of about 2,100 million of tones. A walk in the town showed nothing much of interest to the tourist
The city of Coquimbo has a past history of pirates by its waters. One of the most famous legends refers to a great treasure hidden in La Herradura by the English privateer Francis Drake. The city preserve an ancient architectural style, expressed in the restored buildings of the English neighbourhood.
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Buses were waiting to take us to the Elqui Valley, which was a 2 hours’ drive each way. .It is known for producing table grapes and other fruits, as well as being the principal region for Pisco production.We first drove up along the coastal road and it was surprising to see many destroyed buildings from the powerful earthquake. Our local guide told us that it was an 8.3-magnitude quake, the strongest in the world this year, and that this coastal town was very close to the epicentre, and that waves of 4.7m hit the shore taking out the ground floors of many of the apartment blocks along the coast
We left the coast and went up the valley itself, which was not very impressive, and were deposited at the not very impressive village of Diaguitas, where we were herded into a not very impressive pottery. From there the bus took us a few kilometres to Vicuña, which is best known as the birthplace of Nobel Prize-winning poet Gabriela Mistral, who unfortunately was not there to see us. The town itself was "closed" as the main square was boarded up for repairs and we spent the time walking round the local supermarket as it was the most interesting place in town - not very impressive
I can probably sum up the day's tour as saying it was not very impressive. I think the most interesting thing I saw was an ice cream shop in Vicuna, shut up with an impressive array of no less than 7 heavy padlocks
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After Coquimbo we were on to the final stretch down to Valparaiso, and the delights of a new intake of passengers