La Serena, Chile

On July 2, 2019, the moon fully obscured the sun, as was visible from the beach in La Serena, Chile. It may seem like I hop around continents somewhat randomly, but I had plans to go to Chile with my friend Haley for a long time prior to my other travels, specifically to view this solar eclipse. We had seen our first solar eclipse together in the summer of 2017, as it crossed the midwest of the United States, and we were eager to see it again.

In terms of natural phenomenons, solar eclipses are by far my favorite. It is difficult to properly describe the surreal feeling in words; it’s just something you need to see for yourself. And so many people tell me that they have already seen one, because they saw a partial solar eclipse. That does not count in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, it is fascinating to wear those special glasses, and watch part of the sun slowly get obstructed more and more. But until it is fully covered, you have to wear those glasses. Even if there is a sliver of light, it burns your eyes to look directly at the sun. 

At the moment of full totality, you can remove those sunglasses, and look directly at it. There is no more burning light. There is just a black circle in the sky, with a light haze around it, and it lasts for a mere couple of minutes.

When we first saw this in Nebraska, USA, we were dumfounded. It felt like my mind playing tricks on me. The surroundings felt like sunset had just occurred and darkness enveloped us. It doesn’t feel real at all, not something you ever expect to see in the sky. And before you know it, it’s over. The sun shines through once again, and it is broad daylight.

Haley and I left the quirky city of Valparaíso to drive about 5 hours north to the town of La Serena. We drove the scenic route, along the Chilean coast, and stopped multiple times to wander around by the beach and take pictures. It was chilly (ha), as it was winter down there, but the sun shone brightly and the waves crashed on the beaches with force.

The city of La Serena doesn’t have a ton going on normally. It is a beach-resort city, and normally pretty quiet. But thousands and thousands of people flocked to there that first week of July to watch the solar eclipse. There were multi-day eclipse music festivals going on in the surrounding areas.

On the day of the eclipse, we saw hundreds of the special paper eclipse glasses being sold. This amused me because in the States when we had the eclipse, those things became a hot commodity due to a shortage of supply. I actually bought some nice reusable ones from Amazon, which were much more convenient and comfortable to wear. We were pretty prepared.

We found a nice spot on the beach, laid out our blankets, opened our bottle of wine, and prepared for the eclipse. We probably spent about 2 hours on the beach.

I really wanted to capture a cool photo of the eclipse this time around, especially since I now had some experience with long exposure and night photography. I had my tripod ready to go for the eclipse and all my settings pre-programmed because I knew I would only get a few chances at this before the eclipse ended. 

The moment it happened, the beach explored with cheers and you could see the amazement on everyone’s faces. We all gawked at in in awe. I took pictures. And then in a flash, it was over. And boy, did the beach clear out fast. People did not hang around to watch the sun slowly become whole again.

We were one of the last ones to leave, and it got cold as the time went on. We were bundled up in all the layers we had watching the eclipse fade out, and then marveled at the sunset over the horizon. The conditions had been perfect that day; not a single cloud in the sky. The total eclipse occurred shortly before sunset, providing us with a cool viewpoint. 

We had been monitoring the weather a bit that week. Back when we saw the eclipse in the States, things did not go as smoothly. The place that we drove almost 7 hours to was covered in clouds and a hint of rain. We hopped into the car, and drove as fast as we could west, all the while watching the clouds above us and hoping to pass the storm. We had made it just in time, to clear skies, and saw the eclipse in western Nebraska. 

In the town of La Serena, there isn’t a ton to do, especially in the winter. Several hours east of La Serena is the Elqui Valley. Here, we found two things to check out. One, a Pisco distillery, which we didn’t realize was as far as it was, and we made it there barely in time before they closed. But we drank some Pisco straight and it burned all the way as it  went down our throats. I definitely prefer Pisco mixed with lemon juice in the form of Pisco sours, rather than drinking it straight!

The second, and more exciting thing we did, was drive out after dark to the Elqui desert, and stare up at the stars. We had perfect conditions; a new moon, no clouds, and the Elqui Valley is considered a dark sky sanctuary. I have never seen a sky as black as it was here, and the Milky Way so prominent with the naked eye. It looked even more amazing with long exposure pictures. We had a wonderful little photoshoot here, capturing the twinkling stars.

Despite the fact that we spent hours on the road, whether it was driving up to La Serena, or visiting the desert, we were happy that we got to see everything we did. Chile is such a vast country, and we only saw one small portion of it. The far north has some more spectacular deserts, and the south is the glorious mountainous region of Patagonia. In fact, there is another solar eclipse scheduled in Patagonia in December of 2020. Perhaps that will be the perfect opportunity to visit that area, and check off another eclipse!

-Anastasia