Mystical Valle del Elqui, staying with Maria José, discovering Gabriela Mistral poetry
I've decided to change my travel plans a bit and add a part in my journey in Chile to go up north to the desert. It would be a shame to be in Chile but stay only in the central region and not see the northern desert. The real reason is that I want to see lamas and vicunas! Apparently they are everywhere around San Pedro de Atacama which is also a must-go place for visitors. Also I've been told about a mystical valley with a special energy: the Valle del Elqui. So here I am heading up north!
Looking for a Workaway host in Valle del Elqui, I came across Maria Jose's description, looking for help translating her trekking tours on ancestral paths in the Valley. On the phone she talked to me directly as a friend 'Look, I know that many Workaway hosts take advantage of volunteers and make them work a lot. So what I offer is a safe space for women travelers to rest, enjoy and share my home with my 2 daughters. I don't have any tours planned right now, so there there is isn't much help I need, just come and hang out!' Waow, I thought, this is perfect! and indeed it was. They live in Vicuña, which is a little town at the entrance of the valley, very easy to get to then 5 minutes walking from the bus to her house and the central plaza, very chilled and relaxed town with creative colorful yet also mystical murals showing ancestral and indigenous scenes. As soon as I arrived in Maria Jose's house, her 6-year old super cute daughter was playing with me and we were making paper hens. They have a little backyard with trees, very quiet and fresh. It is all very messy as she received the house in even worst condition and it takes a lot to get it tidy, but there is so much love in this place that it doesn't matter! I even got a room to myself and felt very comfortable.
So I spent 5 days with Maria Jose and her daughters, hanging out, cooking and eating together, it was just really nice spending time together, talking and sharing a lot about our different worlds. We really connected on some commons values about environmental conservation and I loved to see her efforts to share ancestral knowledge of the valley through her tours and her engagement in social justice. She was going to all the protests and marches organized in the town! They did something quite incredible which was to walk as a group of about 100 people from Vicuña and the valley all the way to La Serena, 65 kilometers. It took them 17 hours! Leaving at 20h and arriving the next day 13h for the big march in La Serena. See article here. An amazing woman! I loved being with her and keep her as a dear friend. Thank you so much Maria Jose!
I also went to hang out in a cute café and borrowed their books to read poems of Gabriela Mistral. This Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist became the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945, "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world". Some central themes in her poems are nature, betrayal, love, a mother's love, sorrow and recovery, travel, and Latin American identity as formed from a mixture of Native American and European influences. Her portrait also appears on the 5,000 Chilean peso bank note. Source Wikipedia. She was born here in Vicuña and her influence, poetry and essence is everywhere.
With Maria Jose and her daughters
Sunset on Mamalluca and surrounding mountains
Murals conveying the influence of indigenous and ancestral wisdom
Gabriela Mistral words on the walls
Me voy, montaña adelante, por donde van mis arrieros, aunque espinos y algarrobos
me atajan con llamamientos, aguzando las espinas o atravesándome el leño.
Lo que el alma hace por su cuerpo, es lo que el artista hace por su pueblo - Gabriela Mistral
What the soul does for the body, is what the artist does for his people
Plaza Gabriela Mistral, Vicuña
Flowers in the city streets
Hanging out with Maria Jose and their new pool
The tails of Mamalluca on the left and Peralillo on the right: the gate to the valley
More murals in Pisco Elqui
The valley and Gabriel Mistral poetry
Pende sobre el Valle, que arde,
una laguna de ensueño
que lo bautiza y refresca
de un eterno refrigerio
cuando el río de Elqui merma
blanqueando el ijar sediento.
Gabriela Mistral - full poem here.
Gabriel Mistral, 1945
Pisco Elqui, home to 'pisquerías' distilling the famous brandy that goes in Pisco Sour cocktails
On the way up the valley in the bus to Pisco Elqui with all the grape vines to make the famous Pisco liquor
Cactus flowering everywhere
Monteverde, the tiny village up in the valley where Gabriela Mistral lived as a child with her sister and mother teaching in a tiny school.
Dame la mano y danzaremos como una flor seremos
Dame la mano y me amaras como una flor un nada más
'Give me your hand and we will dance, like a flower we will be
Give me your hand and you will love me, like a flower and nothing else'
Give me your hand and you will love me, like a flower and nothing else'
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