This small town in Chile's Elqui Valley is a center for pisco production and stargazing, with clear skies year-round and several astronomical observatories nearby.
Vicuña sits in Chile's Elqui Valley, where grapevines cover sunbaked hills and white observatory domes rise above the mountains. This town of 25,000 people holds redwood towers from the 1900s, distilleries producing clear brandy from local grapes, and murals made with dirt from nearby riverbeds. Look up after dark to see the Milky Way without light pollution. Walk past the Bauer Tower’s bright red planks, imported from Germany in 1905, or step into the Immaculate Conception Church to see walls colored with iron-rich clay. From here, you can drive to villages where telescopes let you study star clusters or hike trails leading past avocado orchards.
Pisco Distilleries and Grappa Tasting Routes
CAPEL, Chile’s largest pisco producer, runs a distillery in Vicuña where you can watch workers ferment grapes in open tanks and distill the liquid in copper pots. Five smaller family-owned distilleries line the roads outside town, including Ruta Norte and Tres Erres, where staff explain how aging in oak barrels changes the brandy’s flavor. Muscat and Pedro Jiménez grapes grow here alongside lemon trees and olive groves, their roots drawing minerals from the valley’s dry soil. Irrigation channels cut through fields, creating straight lines of green against brown slopes. Most distilleries let you sample pisco for free, though some charge 2,000 Chilean pesos ($2.50) for guided tastings.
Stargazing at Mamalluca Observatory
Book an evening tour at Mamalluca Observatory, nine kilometers north of Vicuña, to peer through telescopes larger than those available to the public. Guides point out Jupiter’s moons and the Andromeda Galaxy using green laser pointers, with explanations in Spanish or English. Daytime visits to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, 50 kilometers southeast, show scientists adjusting mirrors in telescopes designed for research. Clear skies occur 300 nights a year here, making the valley one of the driest places on Earth. Reserve Mamalluca tickets early during December-February, when tours sell out within hours.
Gabriela Mistral Museum and Cultural Sites
The Gabriela Mistral Museum displays the desk where the poet wrote letters to Pablo Neruda and the original manuscript of her Nobel Prize-winning work “Desolación.” Bronze statues of Mistral stand in the plaza renamed after her, one showing her reading to a child. A 45-minute walk from town leads to the adobe house where she lived as a girl, now preserved with wooden furniture and woven straw mats. Every July, Vicuña holds a poetry festival with readings in the church courtyard and debates about Mistral’s role in Chilean education reform.
Historic Buildings and Walking Trails
Vicuña’s center mixes early 1900s adobe houses with European-style structures like the Immaculate Conception Church, whose twin towers were built using techniques from French architectural manuals. Climb the spiral staircase inside the Bauer Tower for views over rooftops painted yellow and blue. A 30-minute hike up Virgen Hill takes you past prickly pear cactuses to a white statue overlooking the Elqui River. Check the Historical Museum’s collection of Diaguita pottery, including jars once used to store chicha beer made from fermented corn.
January Festivals and Local Dishes
During January’s Elquino Carnival, dancers in sequined costumes parade down Vicuña’s main street accompanied by accordion players and drummers. Try empanadas stuffed with ground beef, hard-boiled eggs, and olives from street stalls near the plaza. For lunch, order a set menu at Restaurant Tito’s to taste goat stew served with peeled potatoes and cilantro sauce. Bars mix pisco with lemon juice and powdered sugar for sours, but some shops also sell herbal teas brewed from leaves grown in backyard gardens.
Transportation and Where to Stay
Take a bus from La Serena’s main terminal—the 90-minute ride costs 3,800 pesos ($4.75) and winds through valleys where farmers dry alfalfa in roadside piles. Once in Vicuña, most hotels sit within four blocks of the plaza, including Hostal La Elquina with its shaded campsites and shared kitchen. Rent a bicycle to reach Pisco Elqui village, 40 kilometers east, or join a van tour to Cochiguaz Valley’s meditation centers. From December to March, swim in the La Laguna reservoir’s turquoise waters, warmed by daytime temperatures reaching 30°C (86°F).
