Star gazing in La Serena

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Morning of the 10th June, following breakfast we took our Tur Bus coach from Santiago up the coast to La Serena. Through the bus windows there was still lots of smog and clouds in the air as we drove out of Santiago and finally hit the west coast road and our first view of the Pacific Ocean since landing in South America.

As we neared La Serena the view of desert changed to flat farmsteads and the typical looking cactus trees. As we arrived in La Serena the colonial buildings were everywhere and we watched in amusement as a juggler stood at the red lights in front of the waiting cars spinning and juggling until he would quickly jump back onto the pavement as the lights turned green 😊

As we got off the bus and made our way to the hostel, the local butchers had a resident DJ with desks and mike and headphones....meat and music seemed the normal combination here!

Hostel located, Aji Verde (literally green chile) we settled into a very cold dorm room and headed to the local supermarket for provisions.

Next day we explored the city and went to the local archelogical musuem (bones, fossils and more bones) however a big highlight was they had an original Maui from Rapa Nui (local name of Easter Island) in the exhibits! 😊 The city did have some beautiful buildings however it was also undergoing a massive road and path digging up project so literally all pedestrian paths were blocked off or with gaping holes in! Near the bus station however was a Japanese garden which was like a mini oasis from the madness of the city streets. There was not much Bonsai but the small pond full of Carpe and black and white swans was lovely to meander around for a bit.

Anyhow, the reason for travelling to La Serena is because in the desert there is a working observatory that opens its doors and telescope to tourists for evening tours and star gazing 😊 We were picked up at our hostel around 7pm and took a minibus for about an hour to a place called Vicuna where the bus driver had the obligatory 10 minute cigarette and see his mates break as we were allowed to strecth our legs having given him all our tour money....we did consider he may just say here are the stars and take us back but instead we drove on a very dusty and windy road into the desert. As we peered out the minibus windows (James and Reece two welsh guys from our hostel on the tour with us) doing the same we started to see the stars. At the observatory however once parked up and staring straight up at the sky the view was wicked. You could clearly see the line of the milky way and the southern cross that they use to pinpoint different planets and stars locations. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the "sky at night" because on my camera it all just came out with blackness! Please take it from me though, the stars were awesome 😊 so, English and Spanish tourists divided into groups we were taken into the observatory where a guide talked us through the skyline and set up the telescope and moved the roof of the observatory so we could all see Saturn and its rings. To be honest, looking through the telescope I kind of felt he could have been placing a disk with pictures on it and we would never know but looking up at the sky with naked eyes the scope of stars was brilliant. The tour guide took great delight in his work and provided alot of information on different stars, planets etc. I think I tuned out a few times so please forgive me for not recalling excatly what we saw. He did point out some Zodiac constellations (upside down) and some near and far stars too.

We had a good couple of hours star gazing and then our mini bus arrived to take us back to the hostel. Before leaving however he kindly oured out the Pisco lemon and handed over bags of snacks for the journey back! The Pisco lemon is strongly alcoholic and reminded me of the nasty fire water of Brasil. I think I could still taste it the next day and I only had one glug after trying to foist the remainder of my cup of the men who were all bravado until the thought of drinking more!! A late night by the time we got back but worth it 😊

Next morning, with stars seen we took a bus to Valparaiso! More on that in the next days 😊

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