The Elqui Valley is an area located in northern Chile (north of the capital, Santiago) characterized by being a beautiful valley in a mountainous drawer.
It is also known to be an area that since the 70s has attracted those interested in astronomy (it is said that the area has the clearest skies on the planet) and mysticism.
The Valley is known for being a place where many go to connect with nature and even to have mystical experiences. Place known for its artisans and also by a not insignificant hippie community.
It is on one of those trips I made with a group of friends that came this story Couchsurfing travel, one that left us all surprised by the curious imagination that that would be its protagonist. It is precisely this type of people that I love to meet during my travels, makes me see reality with new eyes and know that there are many more ways to face this reality.
PsychoTourism
It was 5 am and I was staying in the same Hostel as ever in Pisco Elqui. A quiet night in the little village of Elqui Valley.
Late at night and after tasting the most delicious Chilean Pisco, the alcoholic grapes delight made near the village, I was in the last conversations of the night around a small fire when a girl arrived into the hostel looking for the owner.
This girl of about 24 years asked us to join our small group of people.
We started with the usual introducing questions, where you are from? what’s your name? what you do? ….and then everything started to get confusing…her answer was unthinkable:
“I work on Psychotourism”
Our reply like a chorus was:
To psycho, What?
We were really intrigued and then we began with a series of questions and speculations around it trying to understand what the girl spoke.
Plus it is needed to say this whole story happens in Spanish, and meaning on the ‘Psycho’ word it is only related to the mind and Psychology, nothing to psychopaths.
One option included sightseeing trips that included psychological therapy trip, another spoke of tourism including hallucinogens, or maybe she was doing some witchie related tours including Tarot readings and contacting ‘other worlds’, etc.
When we started to ask for more details the topic was becoming increasingly complex. We asked what she was doing exactly, and her answers were something like “I do Psycho-tours, then I have a hostel in northern Chile.”
So we finally thought we got it!:
A Hostel? That’s so cool! What’s its name? Can we go and stay there while we are in that area?
And our talk goes like this:
-This Hostel have no name yet, but it has dark green walls with some painting hanging on them and a long corridor leading to the rooms. It has big and luminous windows and a big hall at the entrance with vintage furniture.
-Where is it located?
– There’s no specific location yet…it is a Psyco-hotel. Ah! And I also make some Psycho-Tours and trekking to the near mountain. You wanna come?
– Sure! When we going
– Well.. I still don’t know..it is a Psycho-Tour…do we go now?
This conversation went on for minutes and the conclusion was that, or there are some that are more evolved, or are very creative and are connected to a different dimension which I have not yet managed to enter…maybe they just had a different booze or ‘candy’.
These and other stories are happening often on trips and are the ones that make this a wonderful adventure!
Happy travels!
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