March 10 - Around La Serena

Where are all the entries into our 'Identify the Stupid things Greg Picked Up" contest?   I'm going to have to give the prizes to myself (including eating the chocolate, Julie!).  Hints:  Item 1 is something that can be bought (among other places) in bus terminals.  Item 2 is used in the kitchen.

Onto today - we wandered around La Serena during the day.  My usual shot of the Plaza de Armas.











A typical street with the local cathedral behind.  La Serena is Chile's 2nd oldest city, founded in 1544 and then promptly destroyed by an uprising.  After being rebuilt and destroyed a couple more times it finally survived.  

It's downtown architecture is Spanisj Colonial or neo-Colonial.  Outside of downtown it has a combination of modern and older architecture.



Another street picture.  In the downtown area there are no curbs - the streets and sidewalks are all tiled and each flow into the other.  It's nice, but good to have the round lumps that mark the edge of the traffic lanes.









Somebody 'yarn-bombed' this place, too.  I have difficulty believing the trees are cold, given the climate.














As usual, Laura found the local market stalls, inside a courtyard. 

This was in the market - a free street piano.  I've seen at east 3 of these in La Serena - here, the mall and and ? (I forget).

A church with a rather interesting bell tower.  Apparently the church dates back to 1673, although I don't know how much of it is original.

This is the street our hostel (Hostal el Punto) is located on.  The hostel is starts at the sign beside the far tree and continues to the white building beyond.  I believe the owners have German connections as there are predominantly German folks here.

 Inside, the rooms are on the two sides of the property with a courtyard in the middle.

Don't let Kye see this picture - Laura is cuddling the hostel mascot "Canela" (cinnamon).

Chile's north, because of its dry climate, is home to 30% of the world's observatories.  We took an evening trip to Mamalluca, a 'tourist' observatory.  Vicuna, a town up the Elqui River, is home to the southernmost of Chile's observatories.   The larger observatories, where most of the astronomy work is done, cost too much to run to let a bunch of sightseers loose there at night.

We had a very enjoyable and informative tour.  We looked through a 40 cm telescope and were able to see some of the bands on Jupiter (Saturn was below the horizon until later on in the evening).  Outside, we saw the Southern Cross (it is large enough to see with the naked eye) and a very good explanation of how it was used by navigators in the southern hemisphere who can't see Polaris.  Then, we used a small telescope to see the moon's craters, and we all got to use our cameras to take a photo.  There's mine.

Quite an enjoyable tour, although we got back late.  One of the highlights was when the astronomer guide used a FREE piece of web software to view the sky projected on a wall of the observatory.  

I've already downloaded the software and installed it on my computer.
This is a screen shot of the night sky last night, with the constellation lines and art superimposed.  The Southern Cross is near the top, about 1/4 the way in from the left.  It is labeled "Crux."

Send me an e-mail for the link.  It's free software, and not too difficult to use.

Off to dinner now.