Before we headed off to discover the Elqui Valley I was told to keep a lookout for a special donkey- not your run-of-the-mill kind of donkey, mind, but a very famous donkey. His name, I was told, is Ruperto and he appears on the Artesanos Pisco bottles. “EVERYONE who goes to the Elqui has to have the statutory photo of Rupert,” I was advised.

Pisco is the brew that Chileans and Peruvians argue over, much like Kiwis and Aussies argue over who came up with pavlovas and Greeks and Turks over the delicious baklava.  A pisco sour tastes an awful lot like a strong Margarita. A Piscola is a sweeter version of the old rum and coke. Not a bad spirit and incredibly popular down this way.

So, look for Ruperto, we did. And find him, we did, not a few towns over from the one we were staying in. As it turns out Ruperto’s true story made searching him out all the more amusing.

It turns out that Ruperto was originally one of three donkeys whose job it was to fetch and carry stuff around the little vineyard. Where Ruperto differed from the other two lay in his fondness for eating the fermenting grape residue lying around the yard. Of course this would get him drunk as a skunk and he’d stagger around the yard bumping into stuff. The first group of tourists to witness his antics ran back to the office to warn the owners that they thought their donkey was drunk.....after they’d taken half a dozen photos! And so Ruperto’s fame, or should we say- notoriety, spread.

Tourists to the Elqui Valley had to stop off to get a photo of the famous pisco donkey and with them came great stuff for him to eat. Ice creams, chocolate, chips even a change purse which didn’t go down too well. And with his popularity came fame in the form of his photo on the vineyard’s label.  Pretty soon he had a fabulous pen with his name emblazed upon it to lounge around in while he entertained guests. But the second part of the story is a fable you tell your kids when they don’t want to take a bath......

For many years Ruperto enjoyed the attention and the perks but he had one flaw in his otherwise spotless character. Ruperto hated to take a bath. Late one summer Ruperto’s stinky-ness had attracted quite a few flies. It was unfortunately at exactly this time that a meddling woman paid her visit. She took it upon herself to alert the authorities to the “condition” of the donkey (namely- a bit dirty) and they, forced to act upon her complaint, ruled that Ruperto had to be kept in a back paddock out of sight and range of tourists and their delicious offerings- except for us as we were lucky enough to have a guide who took us over to meet him. And there ends our donkey tale. By the way that is flavoured water I’m feeding him, not pisco!