Wonderful Day in Elqui Valley - I had a wonderful day on this shore excursion. It began with our ship arriving one hour late and I was very thankful that Camilla (guide) and Claudio (driver) were waiting for me. It was about an hour drive to the first stop at the Puciaro Dam on the River Elqui that runs throughout the Elgui Valley. I may appreciate this more than most, as I'm a Civil Engr. We visited several small, picturesque village with beautiful squares and sculptures. I learned about Gabriella Mistral from this area, who earned the Nobel Prize for literature in 1945. Lunch was in a quaint restaurant featuring delicious food slow cooked in pots purely by solar energy. We also stopped and sampled Pisco alcohol at both new and old (1921) distilleries. I bought a bottle at each. Camilla was amazing and very attentive to my may questions. We stopped several times for scenic pictures of the valley which is full of vineyards. She showed me many interesting things and we all seemed to have an enjoyable time. It was a full day, and I am so thankful that it wasn't canceled since others had selected other tours. I'm on a 32-day cruise and thus excursion was one of the best.

Great Experience - One of the best tours i've ever made! I recommend the local guide, don Hector Vega, that really knew a lot about the history of the place and had a gret sense of humor, making the tour more enjoyable.The valley is astonishing, the Puclaro Dam is a very amazing sight, the pisco factory was very nice and the lunch with the solar cokking was amazing.

The tour was great but... - The tour was great but the driver was most knowledgeable and he had translator then to talk with us in English so fluency of interpreter was difficult.

This was by far the worst tour, not worth the money. I wouldn't trust this operator, nor recommend to anyone. - The Elqui Valley tour was not interesting and not well planned. Our tour guide didn't speak good english and did not provide much info. The Sprinter van was dirty and smelled bad. Dirty windows with water stains (despite the fact that it didn't rain there for weeks or months) didn't help taking photos. The first stop to see the water dam was a total waste of time as there was nothing interesting to see. The lunch was low quality and we didn't enjoy it. Instead of touring the brewery we were taken to the beer garden to taste 6 different locally produced beers. Unfortunately they ran out of glasses for our party of 4, so one person received only 4 out of 6 beer samples and was instructed to come back for the rest after emptying 2 glasses. By the way, besides our small group, the place was totally empty, so it's hard to comprehend that brewery advertising beer tasting didn't have 24 glasses. Our 30 minute stop in town was also pointless, as there was nothing interesting to see. Highlight of the tour was our visit to Pisco Capel, one of Chile's biggest producers of pisco and opportunity to see their cellars. Our guide was of no help to keep us entertained and informed. When our tour started, we discussed our return time and we clearly told our guide that our ship departs 3:30 so we have to be back at 3:00 at the latest! Calculating the distance and time should be no brainer. Unfortunately the only memorable thing about this tour was arriving back to the port at 3:45PM, 15 minutes past the ship's scheduled departure time and almost missing the boat. This was by far the worst tour, not worth the money. I wouldn't trust this operator, nor recommend to anyone.