Total Solar Eclipse, 2nd July 2019

In all these years since we started writing this blog we have had the privilege to enjoy countless incredible moments amidst breath-taking landscapes and natural beauty, travelling around Chile and beyond. And still we find ourselves knocked off our feet every now and then by yet another new remarkable experience: this year’s total solar eclipse definitely falls into this category.

The eclipse path spanned across much of the southern Pacific and into Chile and Argentina. Needless to say that already about a year ago, when we first found out about it, we decided that we would have to go and see it, and not just from anywhere but from right bang-on inside the totality zone.

Eclipse path (taken from www.timeanddate.com, © OpenStreetMap contributors)

In Chile, the total eclipse was visible from within a strip of just under 150km in width, located about 400km north of Santiago, in the Coquimbo Region. We managed to arrive a couple of weeks early in the area, more or less travelling directly from Malalcahuello to the Valle del Elqui. There we established our base in a rented cabin, working and enjoying a few nice hikes in the area while waiting for the eclipse.

Our cabin in the Valle del Elqui

Mario Carrasco enjoying a hike under the waning moon (illuminated on the right in the southern hemisphere)

A couple of days before the eclipse we had to relocate, given that pretty much every hotel, cabin and campsite in the area was fully booked already months in advance for the main event, and often at prices that were, frankly, a rip-off. Luckily, back in February, we had managed to rent a 4x4 vehicle for those days, and this gave us the flexibility to camp a little off the beaten track, some 30km on a dirt road into the mountains and within a few kilometres of the centreline of the totality zone, on a little ridge with great views all the way from the Pacific Coast to the Andes Mountains.

Our eclipse campsite

When we arrived we were surprised to find out that only a couple of kilometres further on a large organised camp with generators, music stages etc was set up, providing the infrastructure for a 5-day long eclipse Rave party. Luckily, we were just far enough away that they didn’t bother us too much.

The eclipse party a couple kilometres from us

Apart from that, most other folks who made the effort to go to this fairly remote spot were more in line with our expectations, i.e. hoping to enjoy a natural spectacle in a quiet and more down-to-earth kind of way.

The eclipse was quite late in the afternoon, just an hour before sunset. We started watching the partial eclipse with our eclipse glasses, waiting for the light to fade away slowly as we were approaching the total phase.

From our vantage point on top of a ridge we could observe how the sky above us turned dark for a little more than 2 minutes, with crazy reds and orange tones dominating further south and north, outside the totality zone.

The sun disappearing just seconds before the total eclipse (photo courtesy of our friend Herwig)

A few more photos of our days camping and watching the eclipse in below slide show (higher resolution here), although it is impossible to really capture the sensation of the experience, and the goose bumps it caused, in a few pictures.