Hot Springs

If you have an area of intense volcanic activity, it is quite natural to think about hot springs. Pucón is not different, having the Villarrica volcano as the most active in South America. The region has an endless number of hot springs and they are one of Pucón's main attractions. I decided to give it a try and do it in the end of my stay, after all the exhausting activities. This turned out to be a good decision, as the weather got worse in the last days. I tried two different hot springs. Los Pozones are the most popular (cheap as well), where we went at night. It has a lot of people and it is a party place, with four thermal pools, at around 40ºC. It was excellent to relax and the place looked nice, but...

The next day it was cloudy and I heard about these other springs, called Termas Geométricas. The description was "a dream place in a forest" and since the weather was bad, I decided to go. It took us almost two hours to get there, it was a nice tour of the region, as we passed by two other towns in the way. The place was in fact out of this world. It was built by a chilean architect and won a prize for best ecologic project. It has 17 pools, distributed along a wooden pathway bridge, that goes up a beautiful gorge with a small river and waterfalls, between a humid green forest. There was less people as these springs were more expensive and less accessible. As soon as we got there, it started to rain. If the scenery was already amazing, the rain gave it an etherial touch, as the temperature difference created a thin mist above the pools. We spent the whole day there, moving from one pool to another, feeling the comfort of the 40ºC water on our body and the cold rain on our heads. "Trust me, it's paradise..."

Going Extreme

My stay in Pucón was dedicated to adventure sports and extreme sensations. Apart from my first rafting experience, there was also the volcano. From Pucón, the main attraction is to climb the Villarrica Volcano, up to the crater! The volcano is active, permanently smoking, and is the most active in South America! It is said to be a 6-hour accessible-to-all climb, not very technical, but physically demanding. The height is of around 2900m, not very different from my 2600m workplace, where I do sports every day. This gave me enough confidence to not even question my physical condition and, as soon as I got to Pucón, to go directly to a tour agency to book it.

The climb is done with guides, in my group there were 3 guides, for around 18 people. The idea is to have different groups walking at different speeds, so that everyone can do the climb at its own pace. The climb starts at 1200m, in dust and rocky terrain until 1800m. At this point, snow starts and conditions change. It gets steeper and more dangerous as you can easily slip, fall and slide downhill. Soon the whole group started to divide itself into three different speeds. I was second almost all the way up, right behind the first guide, at a good pace. At a certain point of the climb you see the top, but as soon as you get there, you realize that it is a fake top, the actual crater is 500m more. This was the toughest part, because you are already tired from the constant and steep climb, your motivation drops considerably as you see the final goal quite far and the lack of oxigen from altitude becomes noticeable. At this point, I realized that my physical condition was not as good as I expected and it was damn tough to move forward. We finally stopped at 15 minutes from the crater to rest and eat something and from there only around six people actually went with the first guide. I went as well, my motivation was recovered as I saw the final objective pretty close, but lost my second position. Nevertheless, I managed to drag myself all the way up with them. We reached the 2847m in 4 hours and 15 minutes, quite far from the regular 6 hours! We passed two groups along the way, which had started the climb ahead of us. In the end, I realized that it was not my physical condition that was bad, it was the condition of the rest of the first group that was just too good!

Reaching the crater is a dream come true, not just for rewarding the climbing effort, but also for the amazing view over the surroundings and the thrilling sensation of looking into the crater of an active volcano. From up there you can see Pucón and Villarrica towns, three lakes and a lot of other snowed-top volcanoes! Unbelievable! Then you turn back and you have right in front of you this huge crater, expelling smoke with a strong sulfur smell and roaring from deep inside. There had been recent activity in the nearby volcanoes, which made the magma levels to be lower than usual, otherwise we would have been able to see lava inside the crater!

We spent around one hour on top, having lunch and getting ready for coming down. Around 80% of the equipment we carried was for the descent and this was definitely the most fun part of the day. We put on a lot of protective equipment (trousers, jacket, gloves, helmet) and they gave us a small plastic thing to sit on. The idea was pretty clear: slide downhill!! There were small "half-pipes" with a certain length, where we would sit and slide at a very interesting speed. At the end of each path we would walk to another one and do the same. After 7 or 8 different slides, we would be back at the snow start point! I didn't get the braking technique very well, which caused me shortcutting some turns, spinning, rolling, sliding again, running over other people and sometimes losing the track! We did the way down in half an hour, with bruises and snow all over, but it was excellent, the perfect end to a perfect day. Up there in the crater you feel how insignificant you are, face to face with one of the most powerful forces of Nature, hearing the deepest roars of Earth that could just turn you into ash in a blink of an eye. It can be frightening, but it also gives you an extraordinary inner peace, an ambiguous sense of protection...

Villarrica Volcano Photo Album

Pucón

Pucón comes in the books as a chilean touristic summer place, but also as a neverending source of pleasure, experiences and natural beauty. It is a sort of San Pedro de Atacama of the south, a small cosy town with wooden houses and a lot of tour agencies and trendy shops, located in the chilean lake region, right before Patagonia starts. Its main landmarks are the lake and volcano Villarica, the most active in south america and a constant presence throughout the town. I got myself a very nice and cheap hostel, École, with a vegetarian restaurant and from which some tours could be arranged easily.

The main attraction here is the volcano, but this will have a post of its own soon. However, there are activities for all tastes and all weather conditions. In the day I arrived I went to do rafting for the first time. All equipment was provided and we did it in a six-people (plus the instructor) boat in Rio Trancura, in level IV rapids. Instructions came during the ride, as we would need to perform a specific maneouvre to the boat. It was the most fun, with some falls into the water and 4m cliff dives. In the end, we had beer and cookies and that night we all went out together. Great spirit.

On another day I went trekking to Huerqueue National Park, a beautiful mix of basaltic cliffs, native forest and blue lakes. It was an 8 km trek with a nice 500m height difference along the way. The park hosts the peculiar Araucaria tree, the chilean national symbol. Even though there were quite some people there for trekking, I could manage to do it most of the times alone, enjoying the peacefulness coming from the Nature contact.

In my last day, I went around Pucón. It has a private peninsula and a volcanic sand beach by the lake, a casino and a big park, where local wooden craftworks are sold. I then moved to Villarica, a town half an hour away from Pucón, which gives the name to the lake and the volcano. It is also touristy but nothing compared to its neighbour. The view by the lake with the volcano as background is the most remarkable thing about it, together with two main streets. This is not however all I have to tell about my trip to Pucón, more to come in the next posts.

Pucón Photo Album

Pool life

Santiago has one major problem: it is far from the sea. Ok, maybe there are more major problems, but this one is really annoying for someone who was used to live by the coast. To compensate for that, we have only one alternative: swimming pool! The metropolitan park, close to the center, is a large park that covers a few steep hills, which provide the best views of Santiago and the cordillera behind it. It holds two swimming pools and one of them, the most exclusive and hard to reach, lies just on the top of one of those hills, allowing for a spectacular 360-degree view of the surroundings, including Santiago.

To get there it took us around one hour walking a steep road. It was the suffering we had to go through, in the end rewarded with the outstanding pool and view. A big caribbean blue pool with not many people, allowing for comfortable and relaxed swimming. We spent the whole afternoon there, between tanning and swimming. The pool is apparently known by being the election of many gay couples, but we only knew that afterwards... Anyway, it stood for its reputation! We noticed quite some different couples in tight swimming shorts, but we also saw brasilian tourists and normal families. And the view, have I mentioned the view? What a view...

Gala Dinner

Yesterday was the ESO annual dinner, at one of the most expensive hotels in Santiago. Invitations were just for staff members, so I wasn't invited. This was a story itself, after some polite arguing, since the decision of who would get an invitation was all but coherent. Anyway, as a good uninvited portuguese, I went anyway! After dinner, there was a short performance of a famous chilean TV singer and after that a couple of colleagues from Paranal presented their salsa band. Party lasted until around 3 in the morning, with open bar and a lot of dancing.

The dinner was the most remarkable event in this rest shift. It was weird, because I had a longer 11-day rest, but still didn't travel. A portuguese astronomer friend was here last weekend and I spent the whole week in Santiago, enjoying the sun, my garden and the dolce fare niente. In a couple of days I get back to Paranal and soon I will get back to travelling.

Politics

Forget it if you think Paranal is just engineering and state of the art science. Like in every situation, from million-dollar business to daily life, it is also about politics, in fact, it is a lot about politics. Yesterday, ESO invited the member state ambassadors in Chile and the chilean external relations vice-minister to visit Paranal. The whole day, at the Paranal entrance, the flags of the visiting ambassadors' countries were up and waving, Portugal included.

In the middle of the afternoon I was called by radio. They were looking for a portuguese to add to the commission. That's how I, in the end of the afternoon, met the portuguese ambassador and his wife, as well as some other influent ESO people I hadn't met before. The Ambassador was actually the only person I was missing to meet at the Embassy and he showed himself very friendly and a great benfiquista. We went to see the opening of one of the telescopes and had a cocktail and dinner afterwards. It was really weird to have dinner at the Paranal cantine following the protocol. Afterwards, they took us to the control room, where science happens at night. Outside, under the most magnificent moonless sky, we saw the mediatic ex libris of Paranal: the 90km range laser, pointing out of Yepun, the forth telescope, a yellow ray crossing the entire darkness of the star-dotted sky, creating artificial stars to aid astronomers in correcting the atmosphere turbulence. Indescribable view! Paranal is getting more interesting everyday and I keep loving to meet people, whoever people...

© by Gerhard Hudepohl (aka my boss!)

The day of the stars

Yesterday we had the Paranal day! Almost everyone (the observatory never stops...) goes down to Antofagasta and we have a full recreation day in one of the most (and the only) exclusive clubs of the city. It is nothing astonishing, but it is a chance to do something different for a change. People are allowed to adjust their shifts to meet the event and to bring their families as well. It is a social event and it works, because it is a day off!

We had volleyball and football games, we had a private beach and we had popular team games, from chair dance to rope competition. Again, nothing absolutely remarkable, but it does bring the people together. I had my first full beach experience in Chile, with my first swim in the pacific ocean. It was memorable, specially because when I came out of the water I had my hand and my feet covered with spikes from sea urshins. They seem to be in every chilean beach, from north to south. When back to Paranal I spent more than one hour with the paramedic, to remove the spikes. Another lesson learned in Chile... At night we had an "event" somewhere, an unofficial birthday party. I love Paranal!

Paranal Bond at last...

It is finally out! After 7 months, the final result of that exciting shooting week at Paranal is out. I'm not a Bond fan, maybe I am now more of a Olga fan (see James Bond post), but we followed the staff, the preparations, the scenes, the shootings, the actors. In some way we felt part of that movie, I felt part of that movie. Therefore, there was some anxiety to see the final result, to see Paranal residence in the movie.

Yesterday, I went in the afternoon to see the movie. I'm not going to make any review here, as I don't want to spoil it in case you want to go and see it. However, it was really exciting to see that gorgeous Bond girl next to whom I once sat, the final outcome of the scenes shot at Paranal and the Paranal hotel, that familiar place, which is my home here in Chile, featured on the big screen. In the end, it's not about it being a good or a bad movie. "It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something..."

(Note 1: Once you see the movie, I can tell you exactly which scenes were shot at Paranal, just post a comment and I'll answer back.)

(Note 2: For all those who at that time didn't believe my tale, I now publish my picture with Olga Kurylenko, the Bond girl.)

Constitución

For the weekend in Talca, my santiaguina friend, Violeta, came to meet me. Since the hikes were limited by the snow, we went to the coast, by train, on the last branch line of all Chile. The trip took 3 hours at a very slow pace, side by side with river Maule, offering great views of the valley and the river. People would wait for the train just about anywhere by the side of the line, there were no visible stations sometimes.

As we got to Constitución, we kept following the river to the sea, by foot, and we walked quite a lot. We circled the town until we got to the beaches, dark volcanic sand meeting the ocean. We followed the coastline and superb rock formations started to appear, some of them were clearly home of seagulls, pelicans or sea lions. It was cold and cloudy, but it was still a great walk. On our way back, we tried one of the seafood restaurants and the food was, again, excellent. There we met Rafa(el), a local fisherman, who sat next to us and told the story of his life, around a couple of liters of beer. He had a typical strong chilean accent, getting worse and worse with the beer, I got around 10% of what he said. We left to the center, which didn't have much to see, and then took a bus back to Talca, taking one hour less than the train. We spent the sunday mostly at the hotel, enjoying the people, the calm and the sun. In the end, it was one of the most complete trips I did: city, countryside, mountain, snow, and sea! Lovely first experience in the south...

Constitución Photo Album

La Casa Chueca

Around three hours south from Santiago, lies Talca, one of the most important cities of Chile, in the past. It was here where Chile's independency treat was signed, back in 1818. It was also home of several european aristocrats, who settled here and made Talca an important social and cultural point. Nowadays, it still holds a certain class, though its relevance has decreased significantly. In the region there are inumerous vineyards and some of the best chilean wine is made there.

I wanted to do some trekking on the andean mountains and, at this latitude, there are some excellent trails. In my chilean woodchuck book, I found this hotel, a bit outside Talca, called La Casa Chueca. Apart from being highly recommended, it was connected with a trekking agency. I went for it and I'm glad I did it, because I found another go-back-place in Chile. It is a place to relax, away from the city and by the shores of river Lircay, peaceful, cosy and with all commodities you wouldn't even think of, like a pool, jacuzzi or a gym.

There I met Nicole and Dorina, two german interns working at the hotel, the most helpful, friendly and smily hosts I've met in Chile. We went together to do a one-day trek in the park, up to the top of Cerro Peine, but we were told, at the entrance, that there was still snow near the top. We went until snow stopped us, and the view from up there was simply breathtaking. Looking up, we had this basaltic snow-covered peak, while looking down over the valley we could see this green carpet extending to infinite. In the end, we had time to drink something near the park entrance, while waiting for the bus. I met the friendly Tito, a trek guide, to whom I promised to send a decent portuguese flag (he already had a very tiny one decorating the place). It was my first trip south from Santiago...

Talca Photo Album

Off-Road Adventures

The day after coming from Pan de Azucar, following the Antofagasta coast about one hour north, we reached Mejillones, a fishing town, with great seafood and nice beaches, a sort of Antofagasta summer resort for locals. We went there after hearing a rumour that there were turtles and loberias (sea lion colonies) in the shore. After lunch we drove our 4x2 truck up the hills, following a paved road, which ended on top, next to military facilities. From there, the dusty path goes down, smoothly down, until we saw a sign warning about a big slope, but when we noticed how big the slope was, we couldn't go back. Braking the vehicle didn't prevent it to keep slowly sliding downhill! As soon as we got down we knew that we wouldn't be able to go up again, without a 4x4 vehicle and a lot of experience, which we didn't have...

We kept going until we reached the end. A gorgeous breathtaking view, really amazing, the deep blue endless sea in front of us and the dusty white sand rocks behind. A blue/white contrast full of simplicity, the same I mentioned before in Pan de Azucar, and we were right there, in the junction of two opposite worlds. We then took another path to go see the sea lions, cursing our bad luck and thinking how the hell would we go back. No signs of human life along the way, until we met some fishermen close to the loberias and asked if there was another way. Saved!! There was, but it took us one hour instead of five minutes to get to the paved road again. The trip was still tough, but the slopes were softer and with less sand. It was a damn adventure between huge cliffs and deep gorges, the path was not clear, we had to go back a couple of times, and it was getting dark. We could only rest when we reached the paved road, but it still took us a couple of hours to lower the adrenaline levels back to normal. On our way back, we saw the sunset at La Portada, a natural rock monument near Antofagasta. Lesson learned: always rent a 4x4 and check the slopes before you enter them... Geez!

Mejillones Photo Album

Mad Max 4 - Atacama Warriors

Last turno, me and Guillaume, a colleague from Paranal, decided that we should stay in the north for a few days and visit part of its coastline, around Antofagasta. The reasons behind it are arguable, but we did it, rented a nice 4x2 pick-up (cheaper than a 4x4) and drove across the desert. Destination for the first two days: Pan de Azucar national park, 5 hours south from Antofagasta. We drove near 3 hours with just pure desert and mountains as a landscape, very Mad Maxean, until we arrived to the coast, near Paposo and Taltal.

There is something magical when sea and desert mix. Maybe it is in the paradox water/desert, but the beauty of the landscape is very special. It's all very simple but very very respectful at the same time, which defies you to take the most out of it. We did the rest of the way along the coast, as much as possible, until we reached Pan de Azucar, with its characteristic mist camanchaca, gorgeous rocky beaches and geometric topography. There were little people around, standing out the wildness of the park. We arrived late so we headed almost directly to Chañaral to sleep. We had a peculiar episode with the police and it was not easy to find a place to sleep...

The next day we went back to the park, did a 4-hour trek into a gorge and saw a group of guanacos, similar to the llamas, but wild. During the trek we saw many different kinds of cacti lied around the dry landscape. The most amazing thing is that some flowers manage to grow in such harsh environment. In fact, the seed can wait for tens of years until it gets a few drops of rain, making it possible to flourish. If it rains all across the desert, a very rare phenomenon occurs, called flourishing desert. Flowers sprout all over, different colours, turning the dusty brown desert into a rainbow burst of colours. This year it's just a few flowers, but still life can exist even under the most difficult and unlikely conditions. That's when you stop, you stare and you think, you do think, about your life...

Pan de Azucar Photo Album

Kusturica

Last sunday, I went to see a concert. It was not my first concert in Chile, but it was the first with a true concert atmosphere. The host was Emir Kusturica and its No Smoking Orchestra, quite popular in Chile, taking into account the distance. It was scheduled to 6 in the afternoon, but they postponed it til 9 in the evening. This wouldn't be worth notice if the reason wasn't... football. Chile was playing for the world cup qualifiers at the same time, so they showed the match inside the theatre and right after it, the concert.

I'd never seen Kusturica live before, the band is indeed amazing. It was a frenetic gipsy ska concert, gipsy opera, as they called themselves. Chileans are not different from portuguese in the concert attitude. They dance, they sing, they jump, they mosh, they violently mosh! Incredible was the fact that some people actually knew the lyrics, even the ones sung in serbian... Respect para los chilenos.

Murphy's Law

Here is a first post about the project I'm developing here during this year. I do help with other things but this is my assignment for the year. I have to redesign an electronic control board, because we are running out of spares, the original manufacturer no longer exists and some components used 10 years ago are obsolete and hard to find. The approach is to divide the board in different functional blocks and make prototypes of each block, to be tested alone.

After waiting more than 5 months for the components to arrive (some still haven't...) and after sending the prototype boards to manufacture in China (took less than a month and with some error correction in between), I started assembling, soldering and testing the first prototype board. As usual, it didn't work... After one day of despair and several blown fuses, I realized I had swapped two pins of one component. Result: I had to perform a destructive change in the board, scraping copper lines to eliminate the contacts and bridging them with wires. Yeah, way to go, problem solved! NOT! One other component was not generating the proper voltage. I had to remove it from the board to test it alone. A nightmare. 8 pins to desolder... After more than one hour and several 320ºC heatings, the component came out, together with the copper pads, the tracks and the tinned holes. I tested it alone and not working. Checked again and... Damn, I had swapped the pins again! That's my boy!! To put it back I had to add wires again, since the board had been locally destroyed. My beautiful board, manufactured by cute little 5-year old chinese children, is now a mess. But the board is finally working. Sometimes I think I should have taken another career...

La Casa

Seven months have passed and I realized I hadn't presented you all where I live, the house I share in Santiago, "La Casa", my new home. It is located near the center, close to everything! We have supermarket, metro, restaurants and bars, everything at walking distance. However, it somehow remains a quiet area, both during the day and night. The house itself is dated from the 1930's, old and cold, but we like it nevertheless. It has two floors, six rooms and a small garden, which is excellent in summer for the parties!

I share this house with six more people right now, but there is a lot of rotation around here. They are mostly students working at ESO, but some come for a few months only, others for a couple of years. Right now we have Pedro, portuguese astronomer from Porto; his wife Bene, italian; Benoit, french astronomer leaving next week; Michel, a swiss engineer working at La Silla; Svante, finnish photographer; and Johannes, german engineer who will stay for a few months. We also had here Francesca, for three months, with whom I shared a trip to San Pedro de Atacama. Multicultural environment, all twenty-ish, student atmosphere, a family.

The spirit is something unique around here. We always help each other, we cook together, we go out and we invite people to the house. The house itself boosts the social life a lot, since we have a lot of space, inside and outside, it is fairly easy to give a party or bring some friends to dinner. Violeta, Thomas and Olivia are the closest. And we are crazy, we are all crazy, sometimes I wonder how the house is still standing...

From left to right, top to bottom: Me, Francesca, Benoit, Pedro, Violeta, Bene.

Fiestas Patrias

On the 18th September, Chile celebrates its national day. The day after is also holiday, which normally means that people take the whole week of vacation, students don't have classes and celebration starts early! All across Chile, the day is celebrated with lots of flags in every house and car (in fact, the flag is mandatory, otherwise you get a fine!!), chicha (a chilean drink), asados and empanadas and folk music with the national cueca on top of all.

I was working on that day, up here in the desert. Many people were on holiday, so the observatory is kind of empty. Nevertheless, the chilean day is celebrated here with some notorious events. Every year a folklore group is invited, from the University of Antofagasta, who come and perform the traditional dances and singings. We leave work sooner and have our own asado (barbecue), dancings and some traditional games. The folk group performed the traditional cueca and a special show from Easter Island, which made me dream, in every possible way. A couple of videos are below, showing these two traditional chilean dances. I am already making arrangements to go to the Island, which will probably be the most remarkable trip I will do, this year, in Chile.

Chilean Cueca


Easter Island Tambure

9 / 11

Today is 11th September, an unforgettable date for the whole world, but here in Chile it is reminded for different reasons, for "another terrorist attack", as I was told. On 11th September 1973, Pinochet took over the country and the military dictatorship started. Salvador Allende, president at that time, was killed along with several students and artists (see the post from Victor Jara) who were against the regime. Nowadays, the date is celebrated with fear, riots and violence. Organized rebel and student groups block roads and start conflicts with the police, as a protest. The result is that every place in Santiago closes at early night, students don't go to school and workers leave earlier.

After all I have been told, I was curious to see what happens and decided to leave home at nightfall to take a look. I was at several different places and saw nothing. Everything was in fact closed, little people on the streets. A dead Santiago! The only sign of this happening was a lot of flowers put under Allende's statue near the presidential palace and more police patrolling the streets. I saw no violence, no barricades, no shooting. Back home, I heard helicopters and I was told that blasts were heard in other parts of the city. Normally, trouble happens in the most problematic areas, in the suburbs. Maybe I looked in the wrong places...

The eternal spring cities

First rest period after Portugal (AP), all life switching issues solved, time to explore Chile again. This time I went North, even upper North than before. Destination: Iquique and Arica, two coastal towns, 6 and 10 hours from Antofagasta, respectively, known by their beaches, good weather, surfing and paragliding. Just like the other northern coastal cities, most houses are made of wood, colonial style. This area was not always chilean territory, it was split between Peru and Bolivia, until the Pacific war, where Chile conquered the area to both countries. Therefore, some architecture here differs from other regions of Chile.

I started with Iquique. The weather was warm, though a bit cloudy. Seafood and fish are excellent and in general it is cheap to eat here. I had an amazing 3-course lunch menu for less than 2 Euros. Unfortunately, it is low season and I met very few people. I shared a 6-bed dorm with myself for three days. This was also a problem to find tours. I wanted to visit a volcano national park near the cordillera but there was not enough people to do it. Instead, I visited old abandoned mining towns, the village of Pica, where they grow the limes used to do the famous pisco sour, and La Tirana, a small village where everyone goes to in July for religious festivities. Photo album at the end of the post, this time with captions!!

I then moved to Arica, the so called "eternal spring city", really close to the peruvian border. The landscapes from Iquique to Arica are remarkable. The road is pure desert, but crosses many mountains, gorges, canyons and fertile valleys. The city itself has a different atmosphere, slightly more bohemian than the rest of Chile. There's people on the streets until later, more leisure places and street animation. The weather here was really good, I went to the beach on one day and, though it wasn't crowded, there were quite some people sunbathing.

On my last day, I decided to cross the border into Peru, to Tacna, the closest city to the border. There is a train service, with only one wagon, that goes across the desert, bouncing all the way and with a diesel smell coming through the windows. My first train experience in Chile and it was fun! Tacna itself is not impressive, not much to see, but it is an incredibly active business town and inexpensive as well. I bought two books for less than 2 euros each. The food is also excellent, as expected. I went back the same day to Arica, with a few more stamps in my passport, and in the very same night I took a night bus to Antofagasta. I didn't meet many people this time, but I got back with the idea that one can fairly easily avoid winter in Chile!

Iquique and Arica Photo Album

There and back again...

After 5 months away, I went back home for holidays. The result: a hurricane of feelings, slapping my face during two weeks and more. A complete mess, that I could only realize when coming back to Chile.

Weirdness when arriving home, speaking portuguese again or entering my old room as a tourist. Nostalgy when meeting old faces. Due to specific circumstances, I had the chance to see friends that I hadn't seen in several years. Tenderness through the family and the good friends. I have seen almost everyone I really wanted to see, but always with less time than I wished. I was made feel home again. Thank you! Adrenalin of great music, great concerts, wonderful beaches and festival camping life. Love... I felt love...

But... there is always a but...

Pain! A whole lot of pain. Not sadness, pain. Pain when coming back, when realizing that some bonds were so tight that they did hurt when stretched 11000 kms. Tighter than I thought, caught by surprise. I arrived in a mess, the hurricane devastating my inner peace.

Things are now getting back to normal, I'm back working, back to this other life. Switching lifes is painful, being an immigrant is far from being easy, but the life experience goes on, happily!

Arena Paranal

Paranal is not just the best observatory in the world. Hidden behind the advanced technology and the thrilling discoveries and below the most beautiful clear sky, a lot happens around the site. In fact, a lot more than one could imagine. For example, there's a music room, fully loaded with instruments, where anyone can play.

In Chile, there are so many people playing instruments that it doesn't surprise that some of them work at Paranal. Some play just for fun, others do have bands playing in Santiago. Working in shifts makes it hard to have all musicians together at one time, but recently it happened and Paranal had the honour of being given a concert, a tribute concert to The Police.

Elqui Valley

...And I went back to La Serena. When Svenja was in Santiago we agreed that we should see the Elqui valley, but without a tour. So, I went back, rented a car (taking advantage of a nice 40% discount for working at the Observatory) and we went to see the valley on one day. This green fertile valley lies east from La Serena, towards the cordillera and is guarded by huge snow-topped mountains. The weather was, as usual, excellent, with an average temperature above 25ºC all day (it's winter here!). The valley has sun around 320 days a year and therefore is one of the most important agriculture places in Chile. Potatoes have 3 harvests a year, all types of fruits are grown, from strawberry and guavas to avocados and the famous pisco grapes. It is a real paradise!

We crossed the whole valley (where there was still road), had time to visit two homemade pisco distilleries, this lovely hostal perfect for resting, tasted a fresh fruit juice on the road and had lunch in a peculiar solar restaurant, where all food was cooked with solar energy. We got a nice tan and came back all smilies. Wonderful place!

Next day I went to see Fray Jorge national park, south from la Serena with a strange southern-type vegetation and a lot of cactus, and the mysterious Valle del Encanto, an archaeological site with rock drawings from the Molle culture, one of the indigenous people of Chile, a few thousand years ago. The trip was excellent as well, but the week was Elqui's to win!

Elqui Valley Photo Album

La Serena

Tired of Santiago temperatures, I had to keep myself on the move. Since it is rainy season in the south, I keep focusing up north and went three days to La Serena, a cozy coastal city six hours from Santiago. The region hosts several international observatories, including Paranal's older brother, La Silla. The city itself doesn't have much to see, a central square, some pedestrian streets, a couple of parks and a beach, with a lighthouse. A few kilometres away lies Coquimbo, a fishing town, where one can eat excellent and cheap fish and seafood. I didn't eat any meat during these days!

The most remarkable thing to see in this region is a natural park, north from La Serena, called Pinguino de Humboldt. It consists of a few islands not far from shore, home of sea lions, albatrosses, dolphins, birds and, most important, the endangered Humboldt pinguin. I took a one day tour, including a two and half hour boat ride around the islands and a one hour trek on one of the islands. The contact with the sea and the dolphins swimming and playing so close was incredible, not even spoiled by the constant gringo shouts coming from the boat back seats!

As usual, I met people, and it was great! I took a night bus on my way there and at 6:00, while drinking a comforting coffee at the bus station, I met my companion for those days, Ronan, an american student taking one month off in Chile. We were staying at the same hostel, El Punto, the cheapest and best hostel I have stayed so far! There we met Svenja and Katja, who worked at the hostel. We had great fun, specially on one saturday night, featuring one very special karaoke bar and one weird electronic party. The next day I had booked another tour but didn't wake up. Shit happens, but it was worth it anyhow! One week after, both Ronan and Svenja came to Santiago and stayed at my place. It's the spirit and I'm loving it!

La Serena Photo Album

Aerial Adventures

Another Tuesday... I finished my shift and as always, took a bus to Antofagasta and from there a plane to Santiago. The plane was late, half an hour late, due to bad weather conditions somewhere in Chile. As always, we (the group sharing the same shift) all sat together in the airport restaurant, this time watching Uruguay defeating Peru by an impressive 6-0. The plane finally arrived, I sat on my place and started reading the final chapters of my book. I completely lost the notion of space and time (the plot was really thrilling) until I finished the book. By then, I started to wonder why the plane kept losing altitude, but never landed. The answer came through the voice of the captain:

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, captain speaking, unfortunately due to a very low and thick fog, we will not be able to land in Santiago and we will go to the nearest airport, which is... Mendoza, Argentina!"

It was late evening already and we were going towards Argentina. We (the group) crossed looks throughout the whole plane (we are normally about a quarter of the passengers), with spontaneous smiles all over: one night in Mendoza! We arrived at the airport and waited for long time, imagining the parrilla and the wine waiting for us, until the captain sounded again:

"Ladies and gentlemen, your captain again, we are still waiting for the Immigration to come and we still have one plane ahead of us, so you are not allowed to leave the plane yet. You have to fill out the immigration paperwork to enter the country."

We filled the papers and waited long time again. At this point we realized that the food and wine idea was not going to happen. Moreover, some despair arose across the plane. There were people with connection flights to Europe on the next day, from Santiago...

"You have now to pass the Immigration control. People on land will give you instructions concerning the hotels where you are staying. The atmospheric conditions in Santiago will not change until tomorrow at 9:00 am, so you'll get information again at this time, through the hotel."

An endless queue, a lot of time spent to pass the control. Some people didn't have any ID with them... Therefore, not allowed to enter the country! In the end, with some diplomacy, they let them in. For the first time, I saw some people crossing borders without any identification. South american relaxed latin style...

We left the airport at 2:30 am, in a bus, to the center, everything closed, hunger spreading fast. There was a 24h fast food open. Not the famous parrilla, nor a drop of wine. Next morning, everyone up before 9:00 to have breakfast and wait for news to come. We only reached the airport at around noon... and we had to keep waiting! We started to wonder if the plane would leave before lunch time, considering the possibility of going back to the center and eat the desired parrilla, but nobody would tell us when we would depart. One and a half hours before, after passing through the Immigration again, the announcement came:

"Due to respecting the crew rest period, the plane will depart at 14:50."

Disappointment! No time to go back and still too long to wait. I can still bet the crew was shopping in Mendoza! We were given a voucher for lunch at the airport restaurant where we saw a steak on the menu. Hope renewed!! It didn't last long, though. The voucher was for the thinnest sandwich I'd ever seen, one slice of cheese, one of ham and two slices (same size as ham and cheese) of bread. Suicide crossed some minds... At last we boarded, heading to Santiago. As we arrive, desperate to get out of the plane, a short announcement, the cherry on top:

"Dear passengers, we have just arrived at Santiago's INTERNATIONAL airport. This means you will have to fill in the paperwork for the Immigration and the Customs to be allowed in the country!"

Everyone started complaining, and we were still inside the plane. It couldn't be, a neverending nightmare. As we got out, we filled the paperwork and, just when we were ready, a security staff member came and told us that we didn't need anything else, just go through, no paperwork, no control, no nothing. Homicide crossed some minds... Looking back now, we had a very good time. We spent a nice social night, I got to know my colleagues a bit more and in the airport we did a lot of crazy pictures under the theme "Lost in Mendoza".