Catch Up!

Where do I start!

Well forgot to report on the Observatory trip. It was extremely worthwhile! We had an English speaking guide and an expert Astronomer to give us a taste of Star Gazing!
The moon was fairly bright, which meant we could have a really good look at it and the boys were able to take photos of it through the telescope! We also saw Saturn with its rings and its moon Titan. We saw the Orion Nebula, which is a star factory and a close up of one of the southern cross stars which is a binary star. The guy was really good with the boys and made sure that they saw everything and was very impressed when Lachie knew what Saturns moon was called.

I finally had a go driving and found it wasn´t as bad as I had expected. We were on a pretty rough dirt road and at one point I don´t think Graham appreciated my rally driving skills....... Still he only grabbed the wheel once. Personally I couldn´t see what the problem was! I did have to stop quite suddenly going up a hill when we spotted LLamas very near the road and wanted photos! Oh and then a Chilean Fox ran across the road, so it turned into quite an eventful drive!

After La Serena we drove about 100km south to a place where thee are Thermal Pools. There was accomodation so we decided to stay and made use of the hot baths and cool swimming pool. We met the owner who was very interesting. Firstly when he found out we were from NZ he insisted on giving us a discount. This was because he had gone to an English school in Santiago and his headmaster was a Kiwi! But wait, theres more. It turns out this Kiwi with the surname Lowe, was the photographer on the Hillary Everest expedition! This chilean Ronald, took up photography and about 40 years ago spent 6 months living with and photographing a tribe of Head Shrinkers in the Amazon Jungle! So guess what the boys had a lesson in that day..... Head Shrinking. Now I don´t think they would have learned about that in school! Turns out its quite a simple process but I´ll let he boys fill you in on the details.

We are now about 30km south of Los Vilos staying in a wonderful little fishing village called Pichidengui. The summer season is over so we are about the only tourists here. There is a little dairy and a Pastelaria that sells bread and the yummiest Empanadas we have had so far. We can buy fish straight off the boats although we have no idea what kind of fish it is, but it is delicious. There is a great rocky headland so lots of rock hopping has been done and a beautiful beach for walking on and swimming for those of our group who are part polar bear!

We went all day yesterday not realising that the clocks had gone back here in Chile! We found out quite by accident and were glad this wasn´t next weekend or we may have missed out flight to Argentina!
Talking of flying to Argentina, Graham couldn´t believe that I sat up the other night and watched the movie Älive¨!

So less than a week left in Chile now and still G hasn´t got his Poncho! Times running out.... will it be a rushed buy right at the end!