Travel to Elqui Valley

The Elqui Valley exists at the edge of possibility. Carved by the Elqui River as it descends from the Andes toward the Pacific, this narrow corridor of green sustains vineyards, orchards, and villages in the shadow of the planet’s driest desert. The Puclaro Reservoir, completed in the late 1990s, transformed the valley’s agriculture by capturing Andean snowmelt, and today the contrast between its turquoise waters and the surrounding barren slopes is one of the most striking sights in northern Chile.

Long before the reservoir, the valley sustained the Molle, Diaguita, and Inca peoples, whose petroglyphs still mark boulders along ancient trade routes. The Diaguita, a culture unique to this region of Chile and northwest Argentina, developed sophisticated ceramic art and astronomical knowledge that modern researchers are only beginning to appreciate. Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, drawn by silver and fertile land, and established the grape cultivation that would eventually produce Chile’s national spirit.