The Day started off bright and early.
The dog, Rosita is her name, was apparently having nightmares because even after I shut literally everything off, she had a few more barks and whines but then, at the risk of sounding heartless, I put in my earplugs and I wasn’t bothered.
Apparently, Katelyn never heard it!
She sounded so loud it’s hard to imagine that she wasn’t hear all the way to Punto de Choros.
Speaking of, let’s finish the story about yesterday. (July 1st).
Let’s talk about Punto de Choros.
So last night, we left La Serena to come to Punto de Choros and our little cabin around…..5:30. There was some miscommunication between our host and ourselves which led to another miscommunication between a security officer at a residential complex and us but eventually that was resolved and we were guided by our host’s son to the highway. He got us a couple of miles down the road, saw us fill up our tank, and gave us the directions for how to find his father.
We made our way to a tiny little town (after an hour of winding roads and lots of speed traps-don’t worry-I kept to the speed limit) that was almost nothing but dirt roads and darkness. Until we got to the main square. As we arrived, we found that the whole town had come out for a movie night in the square. So the café where we were to meet our host, was surprisingly busy! We were able to get an English speaker to help us find our host who we had beat by about ten minutes. We watched some of the movie from the sidelines before we were wisked away by our host to our cabin.
The cabin is super cute and it really is out in the middle of nowhere.
But not only that, it’s a family run affair. When we got there, not just the host showed us around; his daughter, who translated, was there; his wife who made us fresh bread and tea was there, the uncle who pulled out all the freebies was there, and the neighbor/groundskeeper who is down the road in case anything is amiss was there.
The gave us wine, bread, olives, candy, papaya and they made sure we weren’t wanting for anything before we left.
It was so nice.
We settled in and we tried calling about the Penguins at the reserve. Managed to get nowhere because of…you guessed it! Language barriers.
We did get the time that tours start so we ended up decided to just give it our best go today.
Which brings us back to today.
We got up bright and early and made our way to Punto de Choros.
It was only a 13ish minute ride away, and it’s another tiny town that has nothing but dirt roads. The GPS took us to the wrong place first, but we got put on the right track by a local. And then we were directed to CONAF-the Chilean National park service. They look after the national parks and make sure tourists aren’t being assholes.
They’re also the ones who determine if the penguin reserve is open.
Apparently, the Penguin reserve was closed.
Not all of it, just… the actual island where the penguins are. However, there were still boat tours that went around two of the three islands so it wasn’t a total bust.
So a very lovely woman who spoke English was able to get us this information.
We got our ticket and after a few minutes of waiting (we saw a local pull up a crab trap and they’re purple??? Also I think they used shark fins as bait and that concerns me but….???) our guide took a row boat out to our boat and boated over to the dock.
Then we started the tour! It was about 2 ½ hours and we did see A penguin. One.
I’m guessing it was because we weren’t at the “main” penguin island but we still saw Sea Lions and a bunch of birds including Blue Footed Boobies, and we also saw a marine otter! Several actually.
It was a great tour! We had some Americans behind us and one of the girls was fluent in Spanish and as she was translating for her friends…well I eavesdropped.
So we were able to hear some of the information.
After the tour we got lunch by the docks, took it back to the cabin, ate it outside in their little picnic area and took a small break before the eclipse.
I got my gear together, and then we left to find our spot.
We tried going to the beach across the main highway (we’re not quite on the beach-we’re like a ten minute walk.)
But the car almost got stuck in the sand and I got us out of there before we ACTUALLY became stuck. So we moved on! We ended up heading back to Punto de Choros where we could see the islands from the shore by a hill.
I set up, and then we waited! I took pictures on and off throughout the hour, and we even had a few guests!
A couple came over to ask about my set-up (How do you take picture without ruining the camera?)
I got to show off my filters and they saw what it looked like on my camera.
We also had a puppy come and visit!
About 10 minutes to the Eclipse a white and black spotted puppy joined us.
And then some clouds joined us.
With 7 minutes to go, a small burst of clouds swept in from the ocean and covered the sun.
On one hand, it was neat. I got to see the eclipse without the glasses.
On the other hand, IT WAS GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING.
We had been having clear skies for the most part and AT THE LAST GD SECOND….
But then the skies parted and the eclipse shone through.
Well the eclipse did what eclipse’s do…
Everything went dark.
And it was spectacular.
I love eclipses so much.
I think I know what it is, but also….do I?
The surrounding twilight? The sudden change in temperature? The ring of light?
I don’t know!
But at totality, I wasn’t alone.
There was cheering by the others surrounding us, the town of Punto de Choros had music going (Of course they HAD to play ‘Eclipse of the Heart’ and cheers were heard from the local residents.
It was…perfect.
And totally worth this crazy journey thousands of miles from home in a country where I don’t speak the language.
**This post was written day of, and I may go back and add things. There feels like a lot is missing, but in the moment....there it was.