Saturday we spent some time depositing into our respective sleep banks. We had been running low on sleep reserves so we restocked (mostly me). Some of the group went on a walk...but they ended up renting bikes and riding around so I missed out. We had a nice lunch and dinner and spent some time walking the town in the late afternoon/night. On Sunday we went horseback riding...it was pretty fun. The tour guides didn't talk or anything...and the desert was pretty...well...desertish. We had a good time joking around and naming our horses; Elmer, Snack, Sombra de muerte, and Michael Jackson to name a few.
We watched the Superbowl at a restaurant in town. I thought it was a pretty good game. It was broadcasted in Spanish and the announcers are very enthusiastic which makes it fun.
The next day we went to the SPACE observatory. I wish I could have taken pictures because there are no words to describe our tour of the universe. SPACE is owned by a French immigrant. He is very funny and entertaining. We started with a tour of the Southern sky. We learned how to find South, and we learned about some of the closer stars to us.
First I will start off by saying that I have never even imagined being able to see stars like I did in Northern Chile. There are thousands (about 3000 visible to the human eye). In PA you are lucky to see 100...but down here they form dust clouds in space and you can see our galaxy belt and constellations are so clear.
Then we got to look through 8 huge telescopes planted in the ground. I saw Mars, Saturn with its ring, the Tarantula Nebula, some different clusters, other galaxies...it was crazy. It looked like things you see in textbooks.
After we saw everything, the French guy came out to talk to us. He told us that the closest star to Earth (other than the sun) is 4 light years away. That means even if there is life on another planet...and we could communicate with them...it would take us 4 years to say "hello" and another four years for them to say "hello" back! We learned a lot about space and time. He also assured us that star gazing is a great way to pick up chicks. Since it is difficult to point at a certain star, you have to get riiiiight next to the girl so she can follow your arm...genius! He did not have this problem. He had a really cool green laser pointer that shot through the sky and practically touched the star he was talking about. He took us in his house and offered us hot chocolate. He was a very nice and funny guy...he spoke perfect Spanish as well. Apparently he gives tours in English as well...A trilingual astronomer.
The tour was amazing...a little pricey at $30 USD but it was worth every penny (peso)!
The next day (our last) we went into town for lunch. I had a Cheeseburger and realized America does it best...
We packed up our stuff and wheeled our luggage down the dirt roads to the bus station. We departed at a punctual 7:30pm, but encountered MORE bus problems in the middle of the night. We had an electrical failure and we had to wait about an hour for a new bus...and about another hour to load it and get on the road. It was not a lot of fun (without A/C). I watched some movies in Spanish and I could understand nearly everything...and if I didn't I would just nudge Christian and he would explain to me.
We somehow got into a discussion about September 11th. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of Chileans think poorly of the United States government. I think the media feeds them a lot of negative propaganda. They would refer to it as the "JFK conspiracy" instead of assassination, they believe that the United States sabotaged the Chilean government and ordered assassinations of their generals...and many believe that the government was somehow involved in the September 11th attacks. It was weird for me to hear this opinion about our country...and kind of frustrating...but we talked it through and figured stuff out about our opinions.
About 27 hours after we left...we arrived back in Santiago. It was nice to be home...it is 4:30am right now...and I have to leave for the airport tomorrow at 11:30 for Uruguay! I still need to pack and get my things ready...thanks for all the readers out there I will update you about Uruguay whenever I can!
Gracias
Chao!
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