Coquimbo, Chile

Sorry this is posted so late.  Internet aboard cruise lines is becoming more and more difficult to access.  More and more users are uploading pictures or much worse, using Skype.  This takes tons of bandwidth which the ships just won’t invest in.  I’ve had to resort to getting up before 7:00 a.m. to upload pictures.  Even then, the upload takes almost half an hour and the ship charges per minute rates.  Trying to upload during the daytime is impossible.

Anyway, back to the good times......

Coquimbo is located 30 degrees south, 73 degrees west, just before the start of the Atacama Desert and is our last of three port stops in Chile.  Nearby is the supposedly charming colonial seaside city of La Serena which time did not permit us to visit.  Our time today was spent at an observatory far, far away.

Our ship tour began port side where we caught our tour bus.  First good news was that the bus that was supposed to be lacking air conditioning in fact had air conditioning.  Jeff was very happy on hearing this news.

The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory sits above the Elqui Valley at an altitude of over 7,200 feet above sea level.  It is the sixth largest astronomical observatory in the Southern Hemisphere and receives its funding primarily from NOAO.  Their website is www.ctio.noao.edu but I didn’t spend time on the site so I’ve no idea what the site offers, if anything.

It took almost 2 hours to drive to the observatory over an excellent paved road for the first  hour and a quarter.  The next 45 minutes was on a well maintained but bumpy dirt road that basically went straight up in to the mountains.

The tour of the facility was given by one of the astronomers who was extremely proud to show us the telescopes.  They are currently installing a five ton and 520 megapixel digital camera onto the 4meter telescope named Blanco.  It will be the centerpiece of something called the Dark Energy Survey which studies what is driving the universe to expand at an ever greater rate.  Jeff asked all kinds of intelligent sounding questions (Jeff just yelled to me that not only did they sound intelligent, they were intelligent).  Afterwords, several people came up to him wanting to know if he was a science professor.  Who knew?

After our incredible visit, we had a 45 minute bumpy, dusty ride back down the mountain but were rewarded with a beautiful lunch served at a hosteria in the town of Vicuna.  Lunch was served outdoors, poolside under billowing sailcloth.  There was chicken, steak, rolls, salad and as much wine as you could drink.  I took a walk around the grounds and found a vicuna standing under a shade tree.  I think I read that vicuna wool can no longer be legally sold - not sure if it is because the vicuna is endangered.  Kind of a weird looking animal.

We then were taken to Vicuna’s main plaza where some of us could get a little retail therapy and the rest of us could wander around the typical small town square.  Soon it was time for our bus to race back to the port so that we could begin our two day sail to Lima, Peru.

I would say that this area of Chile was not the most scenic (except it you could get into the observatory).  If you ever visit, you will not need much time to see the main points.

Good night!