Blog | La Serena | sAlexander

September 23, 2008

La Serena

written by Spencer Alexander on September 23, 2008 at 04:09PM in Traveling

This last week(Sept 15-19), Nicole found out that she only had class on Monday and Tuesday, leaving us with a modest five days to explore wherever we wanted to. We considered many options: Iguazu, which was too far, minimum 35 hours each way; Patagonia, also too far, and too cold; Valparaíso, which was a bit too familiar, although it would’ve been very nice to visit all of our friends from the last summer; and finally, La Serena, which was … perfect!

La Serena is located about eight hours north of Santiago, and is quietly situated along the coast of Chile. It boasts a thriving population of around 300 thousand Chileans, and has a much more Spanish feel than the central Chilean cities, like Valparaíso and Santiago.

Arriving on September 18th in the early afternoon, the streets were completely empty and a majority of the hostels were completely full; unknown to us (embarrassingly so), September 18th is the Chilean independence day, the equivalent of our 4th of July. Businesses across the nation are closed, and the Chileans are either enjoying themselves with family, or traveling to places for a great time. As great as it was to arrive on one of the most important Chilean holidays, it was also a bit difficult; we were unable to see the city as it actually is 360 days of the year, and purchasing things was quite difficult.

None the less, we managed to have a great time. We filled three days full of fun; we arrived late Thursday, September 18th, and spent most of the night resting after our 20 hour journey from Mendoza; Friday, we explored the region known as valle Elqui, and went to a nighttime observatory viewing; Saturday, we spend time on the large streches of beach in the La Serena area.

The Observatory

Without a doubt, the observatory was my favorite part of the La Serena trip. The best word that I’ve found to describe my experience at the observatory is majestic. It really was quite magical looking out upon the Chilean landscape with in the early night while the stars slowly come out to play.

And boy did they come out to play; I have never seen the stars with such clarity. After viewing Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Mars, along with a young, open star cluster, we got a full lecture about the birth, life, and death of stars and star clusters. Although I have a decent understanding of Astrophysics, I have never taken a class on Astronomy, which I regret very much now, and the entire lecture was very informative.

It was also quite cool to learn about the construction of the largest telescopes. Because of the dry air, clear skies, high altitude, and relatively safe area, La Serena is one of the best locations for telescopes. It currently boasts the largest telescope in the world, named the VLT, which stands for the Very Large Telescope. The VLT consists of four 8.4 meter telescopes that work together as one telescope, with a relative diameter of over 16 meters! Wow! A 100 meter telescope was being designed, named the OWL, or Overwhelmingly Large telescope, but it was canceled due to vibration problems caused by wind. In it’s place, the EELT, or European Extreemly Large Telescope, is being built, with a diameter of around 42 meters and a cost of €800 million. Not too shabby.

The Beach

The beaches in La Serena were quite incredible. Filled with happy Chileans, the beaches stretched well beyond the horizon, nestled in tightly with the overlooking mountains. The weather was perfect for beaching when we arrived in La Serena.

When I found out that Nicole had never flown a kite in her life, I took it into my hands to break her of this crime. After much searching, we finally found a kite on the beach for CH$1000, which is the equivalent of USD$1.80. Cheap Cheap¹.

Unfortunately, the kite broke after about 2 minutes of use; the first big gust of wind broke the main wing supporter in two. Luckly, I went to school for 4 years to learn how to fix these kinds of problems, and using a bit of the fishing string and a lot of lashings, I had the kite fixed in no time. That’ll show you, Mr. Cheap-Kite-Dealer-Man.