Thursday, February 16, 2017

La Serena, a quiet Beach Town on the Pacific Coast of Chile

We left San Pedro to Atacama by bus to go to La serena, a beach town on the Pacific ocean. The bus ride was a 17 hr overnight ride :)) Buses in Chile are wonderful, comfortable and safe. We actually did sleep well on the bus thanks to nice reclining seats. This was our longest bus ride.

La Serena is located north of Valparaiso and Santiago. We rented a nice apartment with the hope of resting there for a few days....and we did. The town is quite uninteresting. The beach is nice and long :)), the ocean front is lined by tall concrete buildings :(( It is a popular summer tourist destination.  We experienced it with no tourist.











Got a flower balloon from someone in the street!






Nice sushi dinner!
The apartment....


 with view on the ocean










Lots of unhealthy looking palm trees
 The healthiest of all!

Many life guards but no one in the water?!

This beach looked a little sad. We had to find something to eat that would bring some internal sunshine.















YES!, pizza and "crudites"


Did you know that Northern Chile is one of the best place in the world to observe the constellations, planets, stars, and galaxies at night? It is thanks to the dryness in this part of the world and the lack of pollution. 70% of the world biggest telescopes are set there, particularly near San Pedro and La Serena. 
We wanted to go to the observatory near San Pedro but it was full moon so the observatory was closed for a few days. While staying at La Serena, we decided to join a night tour to go to Mamalluca observatory, located 1 hour outside of town. Boy were we not disappointed! Our astronomer guide showed us millions of little stars congregated around the brightest stars that we could see without the telescope. We were educated on planets, stars and galaxies. It was a great outing.












"Measure what is measurable, 
and make measurable what is not so"

Galileo Galilei



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