A huge earthquake struck earlier today in northern Chile, about 100km north of where I was visiting this past weekend. We could feel it here in La Serena (about 4 min after the quake struck) and it was very different from the smaller, local earthquakes. A ‘slower’ rolling wave as opposed to the regular shaking.
Nothing else to add, but I know people would be concerned and want to know if we were affected.
As some of you may have been aware, I’ve been working on a photo gallery site to display the best of the thousands and thousand of photos I’ve taken over the last few years. This site isn’t meant to replace the photo sharing that Lisa does on this blog, but to showcase my favorite, more artistic pictures. The new website is tinyPHOTONS. There will be a new image everyday this week (so there are 3 already!), and I plan to add several photos a week after that (but no promises!). I hope you enjoy!
We took far too many pictures (1300+) to share here on the blog, but we have placed a selection of them online for all to see. Click here to view our photos.
What started out as another typical Saturday turned out to be another wonderful day here in La Serena. I’m currently the queue coordinator, which means I’m in charge of planing each night’s observations and managing our suite of instruments. I’m also the acting head of science operations which essentially means I’m the big boss for a time. Anyways, that means I have to work for at least a bit on the weekend. After putting in some hours, Lisa and I went to the park to play with the puppy (she’ll always be a puppy). While we were out and about, we saw some planes flying in close formation. We kept watching them as we went back home and were treated to a wonderful airshow over the bay. We really enjoyed the acrobatics while we drank some ice cold beers on our patio. I can’t think of any more ways of rubbing it in that we are enjoying a wonderful summer while our friends and family ‘enjoy’ a wonderful winter wonderland in the US, so I’ll just end it with some pictures.
I present to you the Viscacha. The Viscacha is a rodent that is part of the chinchilla family native the Andes. It resembles a large rabbit with a long squirrel-like tail. We often see them in the mornings on our drive back from the telescope to the dorm. This morning I actually managed to grab a picture of one. The Sun hasn’t quite risen yet and the viscacha wouldn’t let me get very close so the picture isn’t the greatest. Shortly after taking this picture, the viscacha bounded up the rocks and further away. It is quite odd to see what looks like a rabbit scrambling up a rocky mountainside.
That wasn’t the only wildlife I managed to see today either…
While Lisa and the puppy are probably doing a lot of this,
I’m up on the mountain for one of my many many observing runs during this Nov – Jan period (I’m observing 16 nights from Nov 9th-Jan 3rd). Things are very beautiful up here and while I hate to be away from the family, at least it is in a wonderful setting doing something I love.
You’ll notice the clouds in the picture. Yeah, not good for observing…not good at all…
We’ve made it from Chile to London and now Portugal. Internet access has been spotty or expensive, so real blog updates will have to wait until we get back to the States. We’re having a wonderful time and can’t wait to share our experiences and photos. Until then…
Sorta. Lisa is still to busy to post anything. She’s at the orphanage this afternoon and she has dance class tonight, so I doubt she’ll post anything today. I’m not really doing anything really worth posting about, but the puppy and I take cute pictures.
While Lisa and Jon are staying ever busy with their travels across the countryside, I’m stuck at home on the couch not feeling too well. Since they barely have time in the day to actually go everywhere they want, I’ve been asked to fill in and post yesterday’s activities.
The first stop was Tortorollio, a beach area to the south of La Serena. While the weather has become decidedly fall and not normal beach weather, no visit to Chile is complete without a trip (however brief) to the beach.
They then traveled to Fray Jorge (Parque Nacional Bosque De Fray Jorge) , a small dense “Valdivian cloud forest” surrounded by the desert. Moisture is provided by the dense and nearly ever-present fog, the camanchaca.
After that, they traveled inland a bit to Termas de Socos where they enjoyed a bite to eat and had a look around at the thermal pools.
Finally, they visited the Enchanted Valley, home of many petroglyphs and petrographs (as seen before).
I guess I shouldn’t have said finally because after all that they went to a birthday party of a friend and didn’t get home until around 3am. At least that is when I think they got home since the puppy and I went to sleep at 10:30pm.
Today’s fun is more around town. Trips to the market, La Recova (everyone’s favorite shopping destination) and lunch downtown. Hopefully I’ll be back to work so Lisa can tell you all about it.
