09/05/04- 10/05/04 La Serena

We decided to stop at La Serena in order to break up the journey from San Pedro to Santiago and also because loads of people had recommended the observatories here, so after a quick bite to eat we booked a trip that night to the observatory which was spectacular. We were able to look at the ring of Saturn, the Surface of Jupiter with the gas thingy in the middle and Venus which was in a crescent. They also pointed out loads of constellations and the southern cross, which i havent been able to see since.

The following day we spent on the beach and managed to find a sushi restaurant. We then had to travelled overnight to Santiago to collect passports (mine was still very hot off the press) the went straight to the bus station to get a bus to Argentina.

We were shown around the observatory by the only man in the world who could say 'if you peer through this you can see Uranus' without it being vaguely funny. Oh how puerile.

Anyway, the stars were amazing there and looked a bit like this: