More desert and star gazing

We welcomed our descent to Chile - well paved roads and lower altitude. Even the bus ride to the Chilean border was smooth and slow at what seemed like 40 kph. Perhaps it was because this long stretch of dead straight road is punctuated with wreckage of cars/vehicles whose hasty drivers ignored the warning sign to slow down.

It was the middle of the day and being next to the desert, the sun was very high and blistering above us, quite a sudden change from the freezing mountains and lagoons from the last 3 days.

San Pedro de Atacama is at the frontier between Chile and Bolivia, but what a contrast to Peru & Bolivia in these aspects; the Chileans' openness and engaging nature was refreshing and the western standard likewise was a nice change. The neighbouring landscape is not too dissimilar from southern Bolivia which attracts hordes of tourists to this area. There are more tourists than the local inhabitants of mixed Spanish-indigenous race. Being at the edge of the Atacama the atmosphere is clear and very hot during the day, while the evenings are slightly cold and fresh.

During the earlier part of the next day, we hired bikes and visited some dusty moonlike lanscape and ruins. The middle of the days were spent reading or having a siesta. At night we made the most of the clear skies and went stargazing.

Alain, a French astronomer has established himself comfortably in the area: in his garden 5 large telescopes were used to welcome tourists to introduce us to the basic secrets of the cosmos. We saw Jupiter and its moons, Alpha Centauri and the Delta Quadrant. Just kidding, but can you believe the man is actually not a trekkie!!? We saw gas nebulae, the milky way obviously, various constellations and a great close-up of the moon. Useless fact of the day: did you know that, due to the angle of observation, antipodeans don't see a little man in the moon but instead the outline of a rabbit? Seriously, this was a great evening activity! It gave us a glimpse of the knowledge needed to "read" and interpret the galactic map spread out above us every night. If only i had more time and a big telescope in my garden...

After 3 days (on Mon 9 October), we headed for Calama to catch our flight to Buenos Aires. Calama is a regional centre which serves the many mining communities at the edges of the Atacama desert. So in other words (and for my fellow Melburnians) it made Dandenong look like a centre of high culture and fashion. To Europeans the equivalent would be what Kyrghystan or a small Vladivostok is in warm weather. The drama was that this being a public holiday (Chilean celebration of Columbus day), all bars were shut! The entire male population was loitering outside in the streets and parks.. surrounded by no beer!! Needless to say we were in bed by 9pm that evening and were at the airport doors the next morning, before it even opened!!

Irene & Bruno

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