Serenity and more

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Well, after a year and a half after beginning this blog, I am finally starting to understand how it works. You will note, if you have looked at it before, that the order of entries has changed. This is because I have realised the importance of entering the date when I visited a place rather than the date I wrote about it. It´s now a bit more accurate, for what that´s worth. Before continuing with the journey, I have to write that I hope and trust your Christmas and New Year festivities passed with much joy.

So, as mentioned in the last entry, from Valparaiso on the Pacific coast of Chile, Jane and I took a bus up the coast to La Serena. The vast majority of buses taken in South America would be considered luxury transportation in Europe. Many, especially the ones we take overnight, have seats that recline very far - much further than airline seats. They (the seats) are quite large and very comfortable with not only footrests but rests for the calves too. Meals are served at regular intervals which, admittedly, are frequently not of the quality of airline food but welcome nevertheless.

La Serena is a lovely unpretentious town with a large bay and views to the hills behind. It is surrounded by lush fields of vineyards and vegetables. It is the entry point to the Elqui Valley which is home to three large observatories - one of them the 2nd largest in the world (I believe the largest is further up the Andes near Antofagasta in Chile). Our first night in La Serena we took an evening tour up the valley to the observatory most accessible to visitors (apparently the others are only really accessible to astronomers and even then viewing is by computer, not telescope). From one point of view the night was perfect as the skies were clear, but from the astronomer´s point of view it was far from perfect because the moon was at 65% and bright. Nevertheless, as you will see, we were able to take some impressive pictures of the moon from our own little cameras through a telescope that they had outside on the terrace. Later, we went inside the observatory and looked through the main telescope and many other stars and learned much about them. For example, I never knew that a star that appears red is actually cold and one that appears blue is hot.

After a couple of days in La Serena, we spent three days at a lovely hotel with little cabins in the Elqui Valley itself, famous for its special electromagnetic energy. We decided to return to La Serena for Christmas, though, and stayed this time in a little apart hotel (quite common here - hotels made up of small apartments, where one has a kitchen and usually a living room or bedsit as well as a bedroom. We like these as they afford us more space and frequently don´t cost much more than a normal room.)

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Photos

The moon outside
This was taken when we arrived at the observatory - the moon in the late evening sky.

Observatory
The observatory, showing the surounding mountains as the sun sets.

Moon 1
Our tour guide used each of our cameras in turn, putting it close up to the viewing lens of the telescope.

Christmas Eve
Our beach-side hotel was in an area of few amenities. However, we were lucky to find an excellent restaurant across the street in which to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.