Vicuña

Vicuña needs 2 days: touring the hometown of Gabriela Mistral, Latin America's first Literature Nobel laureate, and her dedicated museum, on one, and a night of stargazing at the Cerro Mamalluca Observatory, on the other. April-November brings the clearest skies of the year for stargazing. It's inexpensive, among the cheapest towns in the Elqui Valley. Its Elqui Valley, besides having one of the clearest skies on the planet -why it hosts professional observatories from several countries-, is the birthplace of Chilean pisco, with distilleries open to visitors just minutes from downtown.