Stargazing

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Day 191 - Saturday 29 March

I´d had such a great night I cant believe im leaving town. I should strike whilst the irons hot, I would consider abandoning the rest of my trip and staying in Santiago instead. Stupidly though I took the 6 hour bus journey north to La Serena.

The buses are so much better over here, the seats are huge with loads of leg room and the seats recline right back. Not only do you get a foot rest but also a support for the back of your legs. You also get served free food and drink and all for about a fiver for a 6 hour journey. The scenery was also very different to what i´ve seen before. Its all desert with cacti everywhere but it looks really pretty.

Early evening we pulled into town and just like Asia we got accosted by people trying to sell us rooms. After selecting one in the centre of town we went to get dinner and have a small exploration. Its a lot smaller than Santiago and there doesn´t look like theres that much on. As i´m tired from last night i gave going out a miss and had an early night instead.

Day 192 - Sunday 30 March

I thought i´d get up quite late this morning but as it turns out the clocks have gone back an hour so it was relatively early. With it being a small town I went for a morning stroll on my own as I want to go to the beach this afternoon but still wanted to have a look around town beforehand. If I go with Russ and Pa it will take all day as they stop at every single shop or stall.

As i´ve just said were by the coast so this afternoon we´d planned on going to the beach as this is almost the last chance we´ll have until Brazil. Unfortunately on the way Russ´girlfriend kept stopping at every shop and it started to get on my nerves. Its already half 3 and we need to leave the beach by 5 as were visiting an observatory tonight. So I left them too it and walked off on my own. I knew it wasn´t going to work three of us traveling. I´d been told the beach was only 25 mins walk away but after 25 minutes I could still see it in the distance and it still looked about a mile away. With time running out I gave up and headed back to the B&B for a shower.

Chiles supposed to be one of the best places in the world to see the stars. Out in the desert most countries in the world have built an observatory out here so we went to one to have a look for ourselves. A couple of hours out in the desert there certainly were a lot of stars maybe more than i´ve seen before. As we were on a tour we learnt a bit about astronomy and as I seem to have developed a bit of a fascination I found it quite interesting. We also got to view some stars and the planet Saturn through a telescope. With Saturn you could even quite clearly see the rings. It turns out that the T shape of stars I keep seeing and first saw in Thailand with Far is Orion´s belt and one of his feet. Its one of only 2 constellations you can see anywhere in the world. So from now on when I´m back home if I look to the skies i´ll forever remember this trip.

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