Today is the last day, as my flight home is this evening.
Tricia, Amy
and Laura and I went to Sky Costanera to catch the view from the top.
There is a lot of smog, trapped by the magnificent Andes. The city of
Santiago is quite large, now that we can see it from this height. We can
also see San Cristobal Hill below us.
Afterwards, Amy and Laura head to
their new hotel, and Tricia and I take an Uber to La Chascona, Pablo
Neruda's house in the city. It's a unique place, designed for his secret
lover at the time (who he eventually married). The house is small and
compact with narrow metal stairs connecting the different levels. The
rooms are covered with art work as he was friends with many renowned
Latin artists. He also collected unique items from different places,
where he was stationed representing Chile in different official capacities. The
neighbourhood where the house is located is Bellavista where we dined at
Como Agua para Chocolate. It's a really cool neighbourhood with lots of
restaurants, bars, small shops. We find a plaza with restaurants where
we have a late lunch which drags on because the waiter screwed up
somehow, which is annoying. To make me feel better, I got myself a
gelato and they have lucuma! It's just as delicious as ice cream as it
was in the cake.
We get back to the hotel for our shuttle to the airport
with a few other people from our group. Anne-Marie and Sheryl are on my
flight but they're in first class.
The flights are smooth and my first experience with Global Entry (in Houston) is great!
It's so good to be home, after a truly unique and memorable vacation.
05 July 2019
03 July 2019
Day after-relaxing winery tour and more stargazing
Today we get a little bit of a later start, although many people bail on
the day due to our long day yesterday.
We are heading to Santa Rita winery this morning south of Santiago. The location is beautiful, right at the foot of the Andes. We have another delicious lunch with wine flights in a gorgeous room. After lunch, we are given a tour of the winery caves, fields and bottling, as well as a little history of the home and founding woman. The tour ends with a tasting and shopping.
In the evening, our group, now with everyone back in the game, takes three small buses to head to Observatorio Astronomico Andino, which is a private tourist observatory up in the mountains on a diet road. We are given drinks and appetizers before getting a little history of observatories in Chile, which has some of the clearest skies on Earth. In addition to the renowned scientific observatories, there are many private ones open to tourists, like the one we are at now.
Before dinner we break up into 3 groups to explore the stars-with the naked eye, with medium telescopes, and with large telescopes. We see Jupiter, Saturn, a couple for clusters and a nebula. The sky is actually not as dark as what we experienced in Rapa Nui, however the scientists are able to give us information about what we are looking at.
Dinner is in a freezing cold room, which makes the slow Chilean meal service a little less enjoyable. The Chilean soccer team is playing in the semi-finals, but lost, so the evening has a certain pall over it from the service staff.
After dinner we take the long winding road back to our hotel.
We are heading to Santa Rita winery this morning south of Santiago. The location is beautiful, right at the foot of the Andes. We have another delicious lunch with wine flights in a gorgeous room. After lunch, we are given a tour of the winery caves, fields and bottling, as well as a little history of the home and founding woman. The tour ends with a tasting and shopping.
In the evening, our group, now with everyone back in the game, takes three small buses to head to Observatorio Astronomico Andino, which is a private tourist observatory up in the mountains on a diet road. We are given drinks and appetizers before getting a little history of observatories in Chile, which has some of the clearest skies on Earth. In addition to the renowned scientific observatories, there are many private ones open to tourists, like the one we are at now.
Before dinner we break up into 3 groups to explore the stars-with the naked eye, with medium telescopes, and with large telescopes. We see Jupiter, Saturn, a couple for clusters and a nebula. The sky is actually not as dark as what we experienced in Rapa Nui, however the scientists are able to give us information about what we are looking at.
Dinner is in a freezing cold room, which makes the slow Chilean meal service a little less enjoyable. The Chilean soccer team is playing in the semi-finals, but lost, so the evening has a certain pall over it from the service staff.
After dinner we take the long winding road back to our hotel.
02 July 2019
Eclipse day!
Today is eclipse day! We have to leave at 2:45a to make sure to get to
La Serena in time, so everyone rolls out groggy in the middle of the
night to the giant bus. Today we have 2 drivers because of how long the
drives will take. We also have a woman on the bus who acts as a server
for food and drink. I slept a good chunk of the way up. We stopped at a
rest stop at about 7:45a for about an hour to give everyone a bathroom
break. We get to La Serena about 10a. After a short drive through town
with Claudio giving us info about it, we stopped at La Recova market.
There are a number of stalls selling the typical trinkets (reminded me
of stuff we saw in Guatemala and Panama City), a Wal-Mart type store and
food stands.
From the market we head to Tololo Beach Club where we will be parked for the duration. We have a private area of the restaurant and an exclusive area of the beach for ourselves. The eclipse starts around 3:30p so first is another meal with pisco sours, appetizers, seafood and dessert. I'm going to have to be rolled out of this country. Shortly before the eclipse, the hard core photographers in the group start staking out this positions for this cameras and tripods. The weather is clear, sunny, beautiful. By the time the eclipse starts, the beach is crowded on all sides of us (but not right in front). There are vultures, pelicans and seabirds all along the beach and in the air. A police helicopter flies back and forth. During the eclipse from first contact, the excitement builds. By about the 3/4 mark, the temperature suddenly drops. When the sun begins to be blotted out, the crowd cheers and when totality hits, there is applause. I started getting emotional. The sun is so beautiful, with the deepest darkest black center and a beautiful glowing ring. The sky is dark but with a beautiful yellow orange glow at the horizon, as if it was sunset but there is no sun on the horizon. Others saw Venus, they saw the birds fly away at totality, they saw the lights across the bay turn on. The duration of totality is around 2 min but it feels like seconds. When the second diamond ring occurs, it is so bright and clear that in my head I felt like there should be a sound effect of a 'ding!'. As the sun returns, the birds all return at once. The crowds disperse quickly. There will be another hour or so before the sun returns completely. And then another hour or so when the sun sets.
We leave around 6:30 for the long drive back. There are massive traffic issues, most of it I slept through. We don't get back to Santiago until 4:30a
From the market we head to Tololo Beach Club where we will be parked for the duration. We have a private area of the restaurant and an exclusive area of the beach for ourselves. The eclipse starts around 3:30p so first is another meal with pisco sours, appetizers, seafood and dessert. I'm going to have to be rolled out of this country. Shortly before the eclipse, the hard core photographers in the group start staking out this positions for this cameras and tripods. The weather is clear, sunny, beautiful. By the time the eclipse starts, the beach is crowded on all sides of us (but not right in front). There are vultures, pelicans and seabirds all along the beach and in the air. A police helicopter flies back and forth. During the eclipse from first contact, the excitement builds. By about the 3/4 mark, the temperature suddenly drops. When the sun begins to be blotted out, the crowd cheers and when totality hits, there is applause. I started getting emotional. The sun is so beautiful, with the deepest darkest black center and a beautiful glowing ring. The sky is dark but with a beautiful yellow orange glow at the horizon, as if it was sunset but there is no sun on the horizon. Others saw Venus, they saw the birds fly away at totality, they saw the lights across the bay turn on. The duration of totality is around 2 min but it feels like seconds. When the second diamond ring occurs, it is so bright and clear that in my head I felt like there should be a sound effect of a 'ding!'. As the sun returns, the birds all return at once. The crowds disperse quickly. There will be another hour or so before the sun returns completely. And then another hour or so when the sun sets.
We leave around 6:30 for the long drive back. There are massive traffic issues, most of it I slept through. We don't get back to Santiago until 4:30a
01 July 2019
Valparaiso, Vina del mar and the down side of large group travel
Today is our excursion to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. It takes a couple
of hours to get there. The flat part of Valparaiso looks like any typical Latin American town (kind of reminds me of the new parts of Panama City), but the hills are quite special. The houses are all
built willy-nilly into the hills with all different building materials
and styles. The street art is what makes this area special. It started
in the 60s and was so popular that it became a status symbol for the
people living here, and was exported to other cities. The bus took us to
the top of a hill and we walked down so we can explore the area in my
detail. Claudio pointed out a few key murals on the way with some
interesting history.
At one point, we were unfortunately delayed by one person in the group who turned out to be less mobile than he realized. Claudio had to take care of him which caused the rest of us to have to wait around for an hour. When he finally returned, we walked to the funicular to get down the hill back to the flats and meet up with the bus. Our next stop is Vina del Mar, which is a resort-y area that has the feeling of Miami, lots of high rise condos overlooking the beach. We drive by the casino and the famous flower clock before heading to Tierra de Fuego restaurant for lunch. This meal started with many delicious tapas appetizers, more pisco sours by the waterfront.
Our evening meal is dinner in the restaurant preceded by a short talk by Dr Krupp. He continues the info regarding the eclipse, which is tomorrow. The meal is fine but we have been eating so much that I just picked at my meal. We have a very early start tomorrow at 2:45a so everyone turns in early.
At one point, we were unfortunately delayed by one person in the group who turned out to be less mobile than he realized. Claudio had to take care of him which caused the rest of us to have to wait around for an hour. When he finally returned, we walked to the funicular to get down the hill back to the flats and meet up with the bus. Our next stop is Vina del Mar, which is a resort-y area that has the feeling of Miami, lots of high rise condos overlooking the beach. We drive by the casino and the famous flower clock before heading to Tierra de Fuego restaurant for lunch. This meal started with many delicious tapas appetizers, more pisco sours by the waterfront.
Our evening meal is dinner in the restaurant preceded by a short talk by Dr Krupp. He continues the info regarding the eclipse, which is tomorrow. The meal is fine but we have been eating so much that I just picked at my meal. We have a very early start tomorrow at 2:45a so everyone turns in early.
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