Road Trip North - Part 1

We left on Wednesday for a two night road trip up north.  Our first goal was Hacienda Los Andes, a remote lodge focused on astronomy that we had visited the year before.  Along the way, we stopped at several attractions.

First, is a famous empanada spot that serves only cheese empanadas and papaya juice.  We enjoyed two freshly made empanadas and pushed on to the north.

The place to stop between Valparaiso and Serena

Randy enjoys his cheesy empanada

 The next stop was the Valley of Enchantment (Valle del Encanto) which we had also visited in 2015.  Unfortunately we did not have much time because we had to get to the Hacienda Los Andes before dark, which comes pretty early in June.  After talking in my terrible Spanish to the friendly (and lonely) care keeper we drove in our trusty SUV to the valley below.  I ventured out to the part of the park that I had not seen the previous year where I finally stumbled on a few petroglyphs.  The park has terrible signage which makes finding the interesting ancient artifacts difficult and rather random.   But, we all enjoyed what we were able to see and also the natural atmosphere of the unpeopled and remote place.   We just needed another hour or two to fully experience this unique place.

Our Toyota RAV 4 SUV at the Valley of Enchantment

The ancient petroglyph is just visible

I stumbled on this treasure in the remote part of the park

Another weathered petroglyph

A tacita - a stone with holes with unknown purpose.  It is thought that these are used to reflect the night sky constellations during spiritual ceremonies.

One of the better signs of the park but still offers virtually no information

Another cute but uninformative sign

We then drove through Ovalle, the main town in this region (which we would explore the next day).  Then, we entered the single road that leads to Rio Hurtado and the Hacienda Los Andes which was paved about 2/3's of the way and then became a challenging dirt road.  Fortunately, we were in a 4 wheel drive SUV and felt more confident than when we traveled along this route the year before.

The amazing views on the road to Rio Hurtado

We reached Hacienda Los Andes at dusk and we were the only guests.  Ash and Rachel were upgraded to the huge suite room (which we had occupied the year before) while Randy and I took a room with three beds.  Randy took the bigger bed while I was happy in my single bed.  It was cold and I requested a space heater.  We had a delicious dinner early at the lodge building with a weak fire in the fireplace.  Since the moon rise was early that evening, we had to get our star gazing in early.

The fire was nice but did not put out much heat

The Floating Island desert

After dinner, we met the German astronomer who would lead us and she led us at a fast pace up the hill to the observatory.  It was a challenge after the rich dinner and a couple of Pisco Sours but we all made it.  She explained about the southern skies and pointed out some constellations, stars and planets using a laser pointer.  Then, we entered the observatory and she cranked up the sophisticated telescope.  While we were done before the moon actually rose, the light where it was rising increased minute to minute.  We were able to see some stars and clusters before it got too light.  Then, we saw Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, all clearly visible and with the rings, moons, and internal features.  Really outstanding viewing even under less than ideal conditions.

We hiked back down and went to bed around 9 PM and slept about 11 hours.  That star gazing is hard work!