Life in La Serena

Here in La Serena I work in an office that is on a hill about 2 miles from the beach. Walking to work every day, I have a very nice view of the city and the beach (see picture below). It's still a bit cold here, so I've only made it to the beach once. Apparantly L.S. is a big tourist spot once summer starts (mid-December). I share my office with a Chilean who is currently applying to grad school, a Brazilian who is finishing her Ph.D., and an American who already has his Ph.D. It's a good crew, and we chat quite a bit (usually in Spanish), although people here are for the most part swamped with work and relatively non-social.


This is the view I have from the road that leads up to the observatory offices.


This is NOT where I live. This is the 4.0m telescope SOAR on Cerro Pachon. I went up here to install an all-sky camera in sub-freezing weather with 50 mph wind gusts. So cool!


Also NOT where I live. This, too, was taken from Cerro Pachon. Those are clouds, not marshmallows.

Outside of work, I split my time between my room, hanging out with gringos from the observatory, and hanging out with Chilean college students. My room's small, but not tiny, and the family that rented me the room has loaned me both a TV & a radio at no charge (the family's way too nice). I play futbol once a week with gringos and Chileans, and i'm actually not half bad (my determination makes up for my lack of skill). The gringos from the observatory also put together weekly basketball and ultimate frisbee games. To avoid speaking English all day, I eat lunch at the Universidad de La Serena cafeteria & have made quite a few Chilean friends. Chileans for the most part are hard to initiate contact with (although I suppose being a 6-5 gringo doesn't help matters), but are very friendly once you've spent some time with them.


My room is adjacent to this house (through the two gates in the backyard). There are 2 other rooms next to mine that are currently rented out to Chilean students.


Every house in my neighborhood looks exactly the same!


It's windy on Cerro Grande. There's also nobody there to take a picture of you.


The Elqui Valley from Cerro Grande. The observatory is up in those Andes to the right.