By Bob Van Leer

  (Coquimbo, Chile, Feb. 10, 2003) - We arrived here this morning after an overnight sail from Valparaiso and Betty and I took a tour up the Elqui Valley. We had never heard of the Elqui before but discovered the valley supplies part of our food supply.

  The table grapes from Chile you find in local markets in Gold Beach are grown here. There are miles of grapevines stretching across the valley. Grapes are grown here for two purposes. One is table grapes for export and the second is muscat grapes used to distill pisco, a type of brandy that is the Chilean national drink.

  We toured the Capel pisco plant and sampled some in the form of a pisco sour. It is mixed 50-50 with lemon juice and a little sugar and served over crushed ice and makes a palatable drink.

   This is dry country. Our guide said the annual rainfall is 70 millimeters, the width of two 35 mm. film strips. The hills above the valley are covered with cacti but the valley is irrigated and grows lush crops. The cacti produce a fruit the locals like, but it has about the taste of a raw lemon.

  We had lunch at the little town of Vicuna, best known as the birthplace of Gabriela Mistral, a Nobel prize-winning poet.