Maitencillo

My first weekend in Chile I was invited to the sea with two fellow astronomers. The house is in a small town called Maitencillo, an hour and a half north-northwest of Santiago. It was wonderful to see some of Chile outside of cities, not entirely intentionally, dip my toes in the Pacific and eat fish caught that morning.

Wildflowers and the Pacific, heaven may look like this.

More wildflowers, and a reminder I'm
in an active techtonic zone.

One of many, many pictures of an abundance of pelicans.

"California poppy"

Chile's Pacific coast.

The coast looks so much like California during the rainy season, palm trees, mountains falling to the ocean with a two lane highway winding through the coves and past amazing vistas. On the day we drove north from Maitencillo I would occasionally find myself forgetting that I wasn't home. The inevitable reminders were slightly jarring as a result.

Texans will find the flag in the next picture somewhat familar, however the white lower stripe extends the width of the flag and the blue square is only on the upper half. After living for a year in Austin I did double takes my first few days.

Still getting used to seeing the Chilean

flag everywhere.

There are palm trees, therefore I can trust this place.

I mostly included this last picture because in an attempt to be artsy I think I ended up with a frame from Myst. The wooden walkway went to a lookout ontop of the rocks. There was a sign at the entrance that said something to effect of "stay off". We listened. It didn't seem like the Chileans did.

To close, some gratuitous pictures of the pretty.

Yes, Virgina, you need a wetsuit.