With Rachel & Ryan (Aus), Tyson (US), Marco (Lux) and Jasmine (Sw) on board we made our way to the coastal town of La Serena. Although our accommodation was more of a building site than a hostel (evidently upgrading from a hostel to a hotel is quite a project) it was comfortable enough and it turned out me and Tom had scored the best room in the place - result! After a wander and bite to eat we stocked up on booze at the supermarket and plonked ourselves down on the rubble free roof terrace of the hostel for a get to know you session under the crystal clear night sky. The next day myself, Rachel, Ryan and Jasmine opted for a tour of the Elqi valley. Our guide was a cracking Chilean chap called Hector who took us to a papaya plantation, then the Puclaro dam where he encouraged us to try a cactus fruit called Copau which was a bit of a revelation and would work a treat in a cocktail (coming to a trendy bar near you if they export them - mark my word). We ploughed on through the valley and stopped off for a tour of one of Chiles biggest Pisco manufacturers before having lunch in a solar restaurant. Being very remote, not having a gas supply and being spanking hot all the time (don't think it'll catch on back in blighty) they cook in specially designed cases that have reflective panels around the top producing a cooking temp of around 80C. After 4 to 5 hours a rather tasty slow cooked goat stew on a par with those of the Notting hill carnival is the result. Post lunch we went to a smaller Pisco producer where the 67% gear we were offered was greeted with a certain amount of apprehension by us and rightly so sharing similar subtleties of flavour and characteristics to that of paint stripper. Having been dropped off in a small town by Hector and a few bev's in the evening sun later the rest of the crew joined us and we hopped in a minibus and weaved our way up to one of the many space observatories located in the area for an evening of amazing star gazing. The area is internationally regarded as one of the finest locations in the world for astrological observations due to its unique micro climate caused by the mountain formations leading to 300 clear night sky's a year. The chap guiding us through the constellations pointed us in the direction of a great piece of software currently available gratis online at www.Stellarium.org which was mightily impressive so if your reading this and are a bit of a Paddy Moore wanna be check it out! To top it all off I caught a glimpse of a shooting star, made a wish and headed home with my head in the stars!