South America, 2014: Coquimbo, Chili

21 March 2014

Coquimbo and its neighboring town of La Serena are about 300 miles north of Santiago and its beaches are popular resort destinations for the city dwellers. La Serena is Chili’s second oldest city; it was established in 1544. It is one of the fastest-growing areas in Chili and it is very nicely taken care of. Chilean’s are very proud of this city and, especially one of its citizens, Gabriela Mistral, who won a Nobel Prize in poetry.

Our tour took us along the coast for a short while on the Panamerican highway, then inland to the foothills of the Andes and a visit to the Tololo Observatory. It was about a 90 minute ride, about 45 minutes on a nicely paved road and then 45 minutes on a gravel road leading up to the observatory. We went from sea level to an altitude of over 7,000 feet. I swear that 4,000 feet of that elevation climb was in the last 4 miles of the trip – that road looked like it went straight up! I was very grateful for the skills of the bus driver.

The weather started out cool and a bit foggy, then, as we steadily climbed on our inland trip, the coastal fog disappeared and we had beautiful clear skies. The road heading inland took us through the Elqui valley which has been an agricultural center since before the Incas conquered the local natives pre-1400. It reminded me somewhat of the Imperial Valley, where you see complete desert until you get to a farm, then you see vibrant green where water has been applied. Here, they get their water through a reservoir system that holds water coming from melting Andes snow. In modern times, there are three such reservoirs. The one we saw, the closest one to the coast was virtually empty. The guide explained that they have been in a drought for several years and the farmers in this area are suffering because of the empty reservoir. But I wonder if the farmers/officials in the area of the other two reservoirs are hoarding their water because she said that there were no water problems in those areas.

Cotton, corn, papaya and grapes seem to be the primary crops. This valley grows the Pisco grape which is used to make the Pisco brandy (I have had a few Pisco sours and they are pretty tasty.) The crops looked very healthy to me. The farms are small and they use a lot of manual labor.

The observatory is only open to the public on Saturdays, but they made an exception for us and we got a special tour. I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with traffic on that gravel road; it was exciting enough with just us. Part way up, we encountered a grader doing some road work. The bus got around the grader just fine, but the problem was the grader had left behind a ridge of dirt and rocks making the part that the bus could drive on very narrow and close to the edge of the road with the steep drop-off. At one point, it was too narrow and when the bus tried to drive up on the ridge of dirt, it just slid. Not good when you see a several hundred foot drop-off on your side of the bus. The bus driver backed down a bit and then got out, and along with the guide, moved several large rocks off the ridge, creating an opening for the bus to use. The rest of the drive up to the observatory was slow and smooth, though very steep.

The observatory is part of a partnership of universities. I thought I recognized the name and realized that we had seen reference to it when we visited the observatory at Kitt Peak near Tucson, Arizona several years ago. We saw two of the telescopes at the observatory. The first one was a 1.5 meter telescope. The second telescope, the 4 meter Blanco telescope, is the sixth largest in South America. The work that was done with it to discover the acceleration of the universe won the researchers a Nobel Prize in 2011. Ten years ago, it was the largest but since then some other consortiums, including a European one have put in larger lenses. One of the rather unique features of this telescope was the addition of a digital lens, similar to the concepts of our digital cameras, which allowed much more granularity than would have been otherwise observed. There are plans by a European consortium to build a 40 meter telescope on a mountain peak in the Andes.

The observatory guide was really good, giving just enough technical detail that we had a sense of what they did, but not so much we all got lost. They actually opened the doors of the smaller observatory and moved the telescope, showing us how the system works to position itself.

In the bigger Blanco observatory, they didn’t move the telescope but they did open some of the massive doors so we could get a beautiful panoramic view of the Andes in the distance. Then they took us to the control room which was full of electronics and computers. There was a big sign on one of the keyboards telling everyone to not touch the telescope controls. I was proud of everyone; nobody was tempted to just give them a jiggle. We had a few minutes outside on the grounds to admire the views, and then it was down, down, down to the main road.

For lunch, we stopped in a lovely little town named Vicuna. This is where our tour guide lives and she is quite proud of it. I thought it was very charming and reminded me a little of the pueblo towns of New Mexico, with the single story adobe homes. The plaza was quite pleasant with lots of shade which we enjoyed as the day had become a bit warm. Lunch was rice, beans, beef, and an empanada with olives, onions and rice, papaya for dessert and, of course, Pisco sours. We sat with two couples from the states who were quite funny to visit with (at least I thought they were quite funny after my first Pisco sour.) We had a short time to walk around the plaza, then, it was back on the bus for the trip back to the ship. We didn’t tour the port town of Coquimbo since there really wasn’t much to tour. But I have to say this area seems more affluent then the Valparaiso area. There were some nice malls and the housing looked to be in good shape.

Once we got back to the ship, we had a little time before the ship left so we walked along the harbor to a place where there were a number of shopping stalls and a fish market. We saw a bunch of elephant sea lions hanging out by the fish market begging for scraps from the customers. Boy, those guys are big and stinky! Right then and there, I decided that Russ was going to cancel his scheduled tour in Puerto Vallarta – a swim with sea lions. They have giant, ugly teeth and, frankly, didn’t look too friendly. I realize that the ones in Mexico won’t be this large, but still….too gross!

We will be two days at sea before our next port. We are finally leaving Chili – it has taken us seven days to make the transit from the southern tip to the northern border.

On the Panamerican highway headed north to our turnoff for the Enqui Valley.

One of the many vineyards we saw in the valley.

A fruit orchard.

A view out towards the coast – you can see the coastal fog that is gathered in the low hills.

On the gravel road that leads to the observatory.

This is the SOAR observatory on the mountain ridge next to Tulolo.

Up, up, up we climb.

This is the only ranch we saw on the gravel road to the observatory. It did not look very prosperous.

Our first view of Tololo.

And we keep climbing.

Almost there.

This observatory is part of a consortium, including the observatory we visited near Tucson, Arizona.

Some of the smaller observatories.

This is the smaller 1.5 meter telescope we toured.

The controls for the larger telescope, the 4 meter Blanco. DO NOT TOUCH!

The control room and data processing center. Notice that the clocks are set for Chili and Arizona.

This is the second, larger telescope.

This gives you an idea of the size of the telescope.

Russ inside the second larger observatory building.

The guide is opening the windows for a view of the surroundings.

The snow-covered peak is part of the Andes.

A view of the Andes foothills, and in the distance, the Andes.

You can see part of the gravel road we took.

Users of the telescope can stay here during their visit. Employees live in the valley and are bussed up to the observatory. Not sure I would enjoy taking this road every day.

A view of the countryside on our way down from the observatory.

Down, down, down!

There was a second bus that was part of the cruise tour. They were behind us on the way up and, apparently, ate our dust. So their tour guide was exhorting them to hurry and get into the bus so they could be the first ones to head down. Our driver just stayed a bit away and we didn’t suffer from any of their dust.

There was a distinct zone where these cacti were blooming. This is one of the more pristine Chilean desert ecosystems in the country.

A typical fruit stand at the intersection of the valley road with the gravel road to the observatory.

A nice church in Vicuna.

A nice little mosaic in the plaza.

Don’t know what kind of tree this is, but it sure had a lot of burls.

We had a very nice lunch in this restaurant.

One of the previous mayors of Vicuna in the 1800s grew up in Germany. He had this German tower built because he missed his childhood home.

The trees on the hillside are where the government relocated a local native village when the reservoir was built, because their village was going to be flooded.

A nearly empty reservoir.

Coquimbo claims that their status of Jesus is taller than the one in Rio. The actual statue might be taller, but it is not on a very high hill, unlike Christ the Redeemer.