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