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| Bailey's Beads, sunlight shining through the mountains of the moon, and numerous solar flares from eclipse 2019 Argentina. |
"The Venus transit is not a spectacle the way a solar eclipse is a spectacle." -- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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| Salt field seen in transit from 30,000 feet |
June 30th was a transit day for us and we finally rolled into San Juan Province, the city of San Juan, Argentina. This is just outside the pre-Andes on a plain that receives about an inch of rain per year. It is a wine and olive growing region.
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| We visited this olive factory whose equipment is from Aix de Provence. We did get a minor olive oil tasting, but our visit was very short due to time constraints.What we got tasted awesome.If only I could haul around olive oil in my suitcase! |
The city of San Juan is 770,000 people, but seems smaller for some reason. There is a dam for irrigation and water nearby which they took us to see in the dark :)
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| A borrowed photo of the Punta Negra Dam which provides water for the San Juan Province. We were there in the dark :( |
Our hotel, the Albertina, defines swanky for this town, but probably isn't as nice as Motel 6 in the USA. But the owners are nice and very helpful. Electricity was out for a good bit of every day so far, including getting up and dressing in the dark. It is winter here and all of Argentina is on the same time zone, so it doesn't actually get light until about 8:30AM.
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| The owners and staff are very nice. The hotel is very basic . Cleanliness could use improvement. |
We were up yesterday and out by 7:30 and headed to Ischigualasto Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. Never heard of it? Me neither until yesterday. It is literally in the middle of nowhere in the pre-Andes plains. In fact, it was a 4.5 hour drive by bus from San Juan.
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| Ischigualasto literally means "a dead place." It reminds me somewhat of the badlands in the USA. Very little grows here and it was once a body of running water. |
So what is it? Ischigualasto Provincial Park, also called Valle de la Luna, is in northwest Argentina. The name of the park in Native American means "dead place." Its moon-like desert landscapes contain striking rock formations in areas like the “Painted Valley” and the “Bowling Field.”
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| They called this the Bocce Ball Court. These concretions were formed at the bottom of a river bed. |
Dinosaur fossils from the Triassic Period are displayed in the park's museum and this a one of the best paleontological spots on the planet for dinosaur digs.
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| This large reptile species discovered in the park is named Ischigualastia jensenii |
There are even dinosaurs named after the park such as Sanjuanosaurus and a large reptile genus Ischigaulastia.
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| They had great dinosaur models and a very nice paleontology museum at the visitor center for those into dinos. |
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| The eoraptor was discovered in this park. |
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| As of yet unnamed species. Pirate-o-saurus? |
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| An ongoing dig |
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| Note the size of the dino vs the size of the dude in the extreme right of the photo. I think this was an herbivore, but I still don't want to cross its path. |
Trails run up Cerro Morado, a mountain with views over the valley.
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| The sphinx formation |
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| So many contrast in this "Valley of the Moon." Beautiful red rocks against grey-green badlands. |
Guanacos, a llama-like animal, are common in the park and in the shrubby grasses along the road, and we were able to see numerous ones of them as well as the emu-like bird, the nandu (also called lesser rhea in English.)
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| The guanaco. It is related to the alpaca, however is a wild herbivore. Llamas and alpacas are pretty much all domesticated. We saw many of these in the park and on the roadside, especially around sundown. |
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| The nandu is on the run. It is a flightless bird (which the pirate believes should be an oxymoron) related to the emu and ostrich. Also known as the lesser rhea. Not all birds of the ratites group are flightless. |
It's amazing anything can live out there really. It is truly an other-worldly landscape. It's a bit like the US badlands and some of the drier parts of New Mexico and Nevada, but unique to itself.
I am glad we went,but it was a really exhausting 9 hour transit on the bus and we were almost as glad when it was over as we were doing it. We aren't big time bus tour people anyway, and this is one feature on this trip that reminds us why.
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| After a really long day, the pirate and I cast some long shadows. |
Today was the reason we came though. Solar eclipse 2019. Most of my friends who have always thought I was "touched" for chasing eclipses all over the world, had second thoughts about calling me crazy after stepping under the umbra in the North American eclipse of 2017. I just tell them all I am "totalitarian." I don't know what the actual draw for me is except that it is super cool to see it get dark in the daytime and then see all the eclipse phenomenon such as diamond ring, Bailey's beads, shadow bands, etc. and then look up and see what looks like an eye in the sky peering down at you. Not only does it appeal to my scientific nature, but it's just plain cool.
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| Solar eclipse 2019. It's the only time we can see the corona of the sun (or safely view the sun itself) with the naked eye. This corona was very lovely indeed. Corona size and shape vary eclipse to eclipse. This photo done by someone else through a filter but shows the shape beautifully. |
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| If I had said "diamond ring phenomenon" to most anyone I knew in the USA prior to the Great North American eclipse of 2017, I would have gotten a blank stare. But now most everyone I know has a point of reference and knows it is okay to remove your eclipse glasses once this happens. Note the solar flare at the 6 o'clock position. |
This solar eclipse was super special to me for several reasons:
1. We were literally at the bottom of the Andes all day and got to look at them from the high plains all day long. Just beautiful mountains (if you aren't stuck on them or trying to ascend them) with snowy peaks!
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| You could not select a more picturesque spot for an eclipse. Seriously. |
2. We had amazing weather. The sun shown and there literally was not a cloud in the sky. For eclipse fans, there is nothing worse than going halfway round the world and seeing nothing but rain and darkness. So I was grateful for the clear sky and also that it was about 65-70 degrees during most of the day--and it is winter here, so could have been freezing. It did get noticeably cool during the eclipse itself.
3. We had lovely spot on someone's farm, Finca La Laguna, to watch it. It reminded us of a more refined crowd at Bonnaroo--just out in a field with catering and portapotties (for which we were grateful.)
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| The pirate out standing in someone else's field. |
There was a nice lunch and we saw gentlemen roasting the meat course in the open air over a wood fire.
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| Where's the beef? Roasting over wood coals! |
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| A guacho band played traditional folk music before the eclipse. |
For the cost of attending the eclipse in this location, there was plenty of water, food, local wine (which tasted great) and local craft beers as well as Coca Cola products. It was a three hour drive to this remote location where there isn't a store, gas station or restaurant in sight for the last 2.5 hours, so not having to provide these things for yourself was welcome. We were stationed in the area with scientists from NASA and about 400 people from all over the planet. Additionally, they had music prior to the eclipse by a gaucho band and it was lovely.
4. This eclipse took place late in the afternoon on a new moon and we had a great view of totality for all 2 minutes (yep, it was that short and still worth it), but as the very final stage of the eclipse (4th contact) occurred, the sun was setting over the top of the Andes. Just gorgeous.
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| My actual view of the eye in the sky eclipse and our surroundings. |
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| as it was getting light again |
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| The last rays of the sun setting over the Andes |
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| Unenhanced view of the sunset. So beautiful |
5. There was a very tight corona on the sun and a lovely shape. I did not personally see many solar flares on this eclipse with the naked eye, as I have with a few of the ones I have seen in the past, but those with binoculars saw many.
6. There were some lapwings and other bird life about, and it was interesting to see their reactions.
7. I was with Paul who is relatively new to and a good sport about eclipse viewing. He was really impressed with the setting and the eclipse itself.
8. It's always sort of fun to listen to the people around you gasping and oohing/ahing and even screaming during totality.
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| Our compadres. A mixture of NASA scientists with as many as 30 eclipses under their belts and the other big group was those who saw their first one in the USA in 2017 and then joined the club. Regardless of how many eclipses you've seen, the gasping, cheering, and generalized sounds of wonderment seem to escape from everyone. |
Vikings believed that the apocalypse would be inspired by the actions of two wolves — Skoll and Hati. They thought the wolves wanted to eat the sun and the moon; Skoll would go after the sun, while Hati would go after the moon. An eclipse would be the result of one of the wolves catching the sun or moon. To scare the wolves off, the people on Earth would scream and shout and make as much noise as they could in order to scare the wolves away. It's not much different in the middle of nowhere Argentina.
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| Two very happy campers in the middle of nowhere Argentina! |
So overall a super successful eclipse viewing with all its wonder and beauty in an amazing location with perfect weather. And the next one is early December 2020 ALSO in Chile and Argentina (are these people lucky or what?) for anyone whose interest is piqued. The next US eclipse is 2024. Get ready!
Paul's Ponderings: A bit of a travel day to start things off, with a late arrival into San Juan (not the Puerto Rico one). The evening "events" were a bit of a bust, but we had a nice cheap meal at Cafe Freud, which was populated by a lot of interesting locals and a waiter who appeared to have been there since the 1950s. But it was close and it was easy, so no complaints.
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| There were so many tourists in the untouristed town of San Juan, the only thing the restaurant had left was a ham sandwich. No fries. |
We spent the next day at Ischigualasto which despite being a LONG ride from San Juan was spectacular....reminded me a lot of the American desert southwest, or parts of it anyway.
After a night's sleep in the local hotel we were in, which was not a place I'd recommend, but it was manageable, we went to the eclipse location. And by any measure it made up for anything that went wrong on this trip.....the pre-Andes on one side and the snow covered Andes on the other. 70 degrees outside. Good food, beer, wine, music, and an open farm field with a blue sky! Then a massive eclipse in the late afternoon.....no clouds, just a big eyeball at totality, with all that goes with an eclipse: temperature drop, weird twilight, birds acting oddly, and so on. This is my 4th eclipse and by far the best location and my spouse's 11th and per her comments, it was the best setting ever.
On the way back, we stopped at a cold windy very dark place in the valley and lo and behold we had a massive view of the cosmos.....southern cross in the sky, millions of stars, and so forth....amazing what a rural area with no light around can do for your view of the heavens.
We made good time returning to San Juan and that ended a very unique and special day.
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| The pirate saw the Southern Cross for the first time, but it wasn't why he came this way. |
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