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