Tag Archives: Elqui Valley

A map of Elqui Valley

You’ll notice from the above map that to get to Pisco Elqui we first passed through the town of Monte Grande.  Monte Grande is considerably larger than Pisco Elqui, but still a small town.  It is also a great place to take photos.  Here’s one of the church in Monte Grande:

Monte Grande Church

And just beyond Pisco Elqui?  That would be Fundo Los Nichos distillery.  Fundo Los Nichos are far from being the biggest pisco distillery, but they are one of the oldest.  As such, they distill pisco here the traditional ways, adhering strictly to time-honored methods rather than succumbing to the siren call of mass distribution.

Fundo Los Nichos distillery

It’s a truly charming little family-owned operation.  Los Nichos even display old-time equipment in their courtyard:

Fundo Los Nichos distillery

And then there’s that classic old B-series International Harvester truck we stumbled across.  What a beauty she is:

Old International Harvester truck

Even some of the old, now abandoned structures remain preserved in the Atacama Desert dryness.  Here an old adobe structure sits in the distance (we’ll take a closer look at that in next week’s Fun Photo Friday):

Fundo Los Nichos distillery

On Fun Photo Friday I’ll present to you some more of my favorite shots from this portion of our cruise.  Until then here’s one last look at some of the buildings making up Fundo Los Nichos Distillery with high desert mountains in the backdrop (we’ll go inside Los Nichos for a taste of pisco next week):

Fundo Los Nichos distillery