blocking our view from La Serena,
most of us opted to travel to our
preplanned eclipse-viewing site
about 40 miles (65 km) east of La
Serena, near a city called Vicuña.
Here, the local climate tends to
produce fewer late-afternoon
clouds, which is why we had
secured a soccer field that would
provide a primo view of the eclipse.
Although we had exclusive access
to the site, TravelQuest made sure
to invite local schoolchildren, as
well as some local vendors, to join
us for what is usually a once-in-a-
lifetime experience.
To ensure we would beat
eclipse-related traffic, we left La
Serena for the soccer field first
thing in the morning, even though
the main event wouldn’t occur
until about 4:38 P. M. local time.
Fortunately, the traffic was rela-
tively mild, which meant we
arrived with about seven hours to
spare before first contact — when
the Moon first starts its slow trek
across the Sun. This gave the manydozens of eclipse chasers and pho-
tographers ample time to set up
their equipment. And boy, did they
bring equipment.
Scattered across the soccer field
were more than 100 telescopes and
tripod-mounted cameras, and even
one handmade and self-designed
spectroscope. The atmosphere at
the site was electric. As we all
patiently — albeit anxiously —
awaited totality, some spectators
casually tossed frisbees, while oth-
ers enjoyed impromptu dance ses-
sions. Many others, however, were
entirely focused on ensuring their
equipment was ready to go. But this
didn’t stop them from inviting
those without equipment to sneak
peeks at the increasingly crescent-
shaped Sun (while using solar fil-
ters, of course).
The closer we got to totality, the
quieter everyone seemed to get.
Then, just a few minutes before the
Moon completely obscured the
Sun’s disk, the chatter picked back
up with a vengeance.To avoid all the visitors f lock-
ing to Chile (the population of La
Serena more than doubled in the
days leading up to the total solar
eclipse), we got off to an early
start. Due to the possibility of sea-
sonal coastal clouds rolling in and4
3
Scattered across the soccer field were
more than 100 telescopes and tripod-
mounted cameras, and even one handmade
and self-designed spectroscope.