earthquake in chile, telescopes seem undamaged

during the wee hours of the morning, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit chile southwest of santiago. there are several major observatories in chile which house some of the largest telescopes on earth. the gemini-south telescope lives at the southern-most observatory, which is about a 7 hour drive north of santiago. a friend has reported that he could feel a rumble at the telescope, but no damage occurred as a result of the earthquake and observations will carry on as normal tonight! i havent heard news from the other observatories, but they all live several hours farther north of the earthquake epicenter.

the earthquake generated a tsunami that is currently propogating across the pacific ocean. it is set to hit hawaii at 11 am local time. i have several friends using telescopes on mauna kea right now, and some in airplanes traveling there, so i'm sending positive thoughts their way! i'll keep you posted on any news as i hear it.

the big picture has an early set of photos from chile.

UPDATE: aside from some power outages and lack of communication soon after the earthquake, no major telescope facilities have suffered damage. the ESO facility in santiago reports no damage. the university in concepcion is another story... news from colleagues is that people they know working in concepcion have relocated to stay with friends in other cities (mainly santiago) until the infrastructure is fixed a bit. read more at SarahAskew.

intentions for the new year

slow down

pay attention

question everything

start now


“simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

- leonardo da vinci

te recuerdo amanda

victor jara.



read how i was first introduced to victor jara and his soul-soothing song, te recuerdo amanda.

a quick trip to chile!

i had a nice, though exhausting, short trip to chile!

the ocean water was so cold that i didnt swim the entire 8 months i was in chile last year.... but this warm summertime sunday, we played in the waves!






it was good to see again my british sister that i met chile! ;)




i took a bus trip into the grape-vine-lined valley, to the small town of vicuna...




... where i explored the bug museum!






la serena always provides entertaining night life!


the chilean cuisine provided particularly delightful adventures this trip!

viva chile, mierda!

it's so hard to believe that 8 months has passed since i began my adventures on this crazy continent. tomorrow i start my journey from here...



Viva Chile Mierda!!

to here....



America, Fuck Yeah!!

similar flags but oh so different places. thank you to everyone i met along the way. i've learned many things during this journey and i can confidently say i'm a different person than who i was when i arrived. i'll miss everything from the endless avocado and peeled tomato salads to the interesting translations to the random treasures in the andes... and most especially the empanadas!!

goodbye chile... for now. hello again austin!

volcanos: sneak preview

its a busy week. i'm trying to finish up a paper before i leave chile in addition to completing the project that brought me down here. the latter will be a slightly difficult task, as the instrument, FLAMINGOS2, is *still* in florida... but i'll do my best to organize the future observations.

here's a preview from last weekends trip to the see the volcanos of the atacama desert. i want to share the rest of my peru pictures before i just to these, but here's a teaser! i absolutely loved the brilliant yellow of the plants!



also, i noticed the moon close to a bright jupiter in the sky last night! it's passing through scorpius. here's a view from the northern hemisphere with the moon a few times bigger than it actually looks on the sky, for clarity!

back from the dry

the atacama desert in northern chile is the second driest in the world... we actually pointed out to each other when we saw plants because they seemed so unusual in the stark landscape. pop quiz... what's the driest desert in the world??

i've returned from the northern desert to realize that i have only TWO weeks left in la serena, chile!! holy crap how time flies as little moments simultaneously linger in my mind! so much to say, so much to do, so much to see, so much to feel...

one last hurrah

one last adventure before i leave chile... rachel, rodrigo and i leave bright and early tomorrow morning to drive to the northern deserts around the city of san pedro de atacama... to see the valley of the moon, flamingoes, salt lakes, volcanos and who knows what else!!


i cant believe i leave chile so soon!!

viva chile mierda!

it's so hard to believe that 8 months has passed since i began my adventures on this crazy continent. tomorrow i start my journey from here...



Viva Chile Mierda!!

to here....



America, Fuck Yeah!!

similar flags but oh so different places. thank you to everyone i met along the way. i've learned many things during this journey and i can confidently say i'm a different person than who i was when i arrived. i'll miss everything from the endless avocado and peeled tomato salads to the interesting translations to the random treasures in the andes... and most especially the empanadas!!

goodbye chile... for now. hello again austin!

ham and jam

so much for star gazing during this week on the mountain top! eventhough its a new moon now, i'm stuck under the thickest layer of clouds i've seen over these mountains! weather sources last night reported that the freezing line would be at 3,500 meters which is higher than the 2722 meter (8930 ft) altitude of cerro pachon and the gemini-south telescope. when i woke up this afternoon, i saw exactly where the 3500m line is on the nearby mountains across the valley due to the nice layer of snow that appeared overnight!

a while back i mentioned that i enjoyed the dinners at this observatory because there is usually some unidentifiable food item served. as i've lived in chile, i've become more familiar with the local delicacies and have recognized almost everything i've eaten on this observing run! i happened to have my camera with me at dinner tonight and (like a dork) took this picture of my salad plate. theres the typical broccoli, peas, corn, an olive, tomatoes and onions, and then... the mystery. i didnt know what that brown tubular thing was for a long time, and even saw it in its raw form at the farmer's market a few times before realizing what it was.... cochayuyo... a kind of seaweed! it's taste is not as strong as a typical green variety, but there is definitely a seaweed flavor to it. i've mostly seen it mashed up in stews more than served plain like this.

another feature of all night observing is the "night lunch". at this observatory, we fill out a form with many choices for sandwiches and other snacks and then receive a little goodie bag. i decided to be adventurous tonight and try something new. i got one relatively safe sandwich with ham, avocado, cheese and onion. there was an option for "jam" which i was a bit confused about. the flavors looked like the flavors of yogurt that they usually throw into my night lunch so i just chose the apricot. i also created a tocino sandwich, having recently learned that tocino is bacon. i mean, how could one really go wrong with bacon? when i received my night lunch i opened up the sandwiches to inspect and found that you can go wrong with bacon! one sandwich was covered with barely cooked, greasy bacon and the other had both pieces of bread smeared in sticky orange jam! hahaha! oops. i'm not saying that i'm not going to eat them when i get hungry, but i've never had a ham and jam sandwich before!

what is a melody?

i've discovered that chileans are very uncreative when it comes to naming streets. every city that i've traveled to in this country (that has at least two streets) has one named Prat and one named O'Higgins**. in general, when you find prat, you've found the main street and you know o'higgins will be cross somewhere nearby! arturo prat was a chilean naval officer in the second half of the 19th century who sailed on a ship called "O'Higgins" which was named after Bernardo O'Higgins - one of the commanders that freed chile from spanish rule in the early 1800's.

in La Serena, prat is a one-way, one lane street dominated by pedestrian traffic. the buildings are mostly two stories tall with shops at ground level and extended porches above. the small stores range from new to used goods, selling clothes, shoes, books, wine, electronics, dollar store stuff, office supplies, etc... vendors stand along the blocks selling a couple dozen manjar sweets. there are often people sitting on benches and others leaning against the building walls with paper cups extended for loose change.

after my spanish class this past wednesday, i was walking along prat wondering about who this historical prat figure actually was when my thoughts were dramatically disturbed by a loud, chaotic and persistent whistling sound. across the street was a man sitting with an overturned bucket and a cup on top. he held an old plastic recorder in his hands and rapidly moved his fingers over the holes as he blew continuously to make some of the most awful high-pitched sounds possible!! there was a slight twinkle in his eye like he knew he couldnt really play any songs, but he was making the effort to entertain, which in his mind must have been worth some monetary donation! i actually laughed out loud at this sight. i'm not sure why i found the situation so funny, but i stopped to survey the scene. i wanted to see how long he would continue "playing" and i wondered how others were reacting. i saw some cringed noses, but mostly people just walked on past without dropping any money. that lack of action says something because i've noticed people here are very generous with their loose change.

the man just kept on playing, so i walked across the street and dropped a 100 peso coin in his cup... i definitely felt entertained!

**almost every US city i've been to has a martin luther king, jr blvd

santiago, chile

rachel and i took an overnight bus to santiago last weekend with no particular plan. it turned into an amazingly fun trip!




i bought two fantastic paintings from this contagiously happy man!




we happened upon a fun parade.




on mothers day we walked into plaza de armas to find los bomberos doing flips off their firemans truck onto a big inflated cushion. on an impulse, rachel asked them if we could jump too. much to my surprise (and everyone in the square i think)... they said yes!




green beans seem to be a popular topping on sandwiches.



the most intriguing theme restaurant i've ever been in! every inch of the place was covered with "viking" stuff. they served a yummy traditional chilean meal!

las empanadas chilenas

rachel and i spent most of saturday making empanadas! we each made our fillings friday night in preparation. i made pino (meat filling) and she made chicken filling and apple filling. preparing the dough.....


rolling and cutting it into circles (using wine bottles and pot lids for lack of better tools!)


placing the pino filling on the dough.... the meaty concoction, an olive and a slice of hard boiled egg. i still havent been able to discover the origin of the olive in the meat empanadas, other than it tastes good, which is reason enough!


folding over the dough and securing...


poking holes.


and enjoying the (cooked) yumminess....


... for many many meals to come!!