The Aconcagua River valley surrounding Quillota is some of the most productive agricultural land in Chile. The terraced hillsides and irrigated flats grow avocados, cherimoyas (a tropical fruit the size of a grapefruit, with sweet white flesh), papayas, and citrus. In late summer the roadside stalls along the highway sell fresh fruit at prices that make you want to stop every few kilometres.
The valley has been farmed since pre-Columbian times — the Aconcagua pottery culture flourished here before the Spanish arrived — and the landscape today retains a timeless, unhurried feel. Walking or cycling through the farm tracks in the surrounding areas of La Palma, San Isidro, and Pocochay gives a sense of rural Chilean life that has largely vanished from the country's better-known wine valleys to the south.