Telescope in the Atacama Desert

 
Since retiring Phil's been hankering after a remote observatory.
When we first came to the Cook Islands over thirty years ago it seems that the night skies were clear and the Milky Way looked magnificent for most of the year. I'm sure that's an exaggeration; you remember the things you want to as time goes by. But certainly the sky at night is much cloudier than it was when Phil first built a telescope on Rarotonga. That's global warming in action at the local level.
It's been a long time coming but at long last Phil's telescope in Chile has seen first light.
The observatory is situated at the southern end of the Atacama Desert, 1600 metres high, in an area called El Sauce.The site is home to several other telescopes including four large domes owned by a group of Russian astronomers who also have air-conditioned containers with living, office and storage quarters. Phil's telescope is the first of what will eventually be six set up in a large shed with a roll-off roof. Another much smaller shed nearby has several small telescopes used for tracing space junk. And site has room for more observatories of varying sizes.
Electricity shouldn't be a problem as there's a large array of solar panels with plenty of room for more and, along with clear skies at night, the Atacama has lots of sunshine during the day. Not all the time though - about 330 days a year!
The scope has has been operational for a few months now but needed some extra bits and pieces added to it so we had a holiday that included flying to Santiago, Chile's capital, and then La Serena, a forty-five minute flight further north.
Hired a 4WD SUV iin La Serena and drove to Hurtado, the town nearest the site. The 4WD was necessary because most of the roads we were on were one lane dirt with occasional passing places as you can see in the video.
It was quite an adventure, but the thing about adventures is that they're usually uncomfortable at the time otherwise they'd just be called 'travel'. It was hot during the day but one night we stayed at the telescope and boy was that cold! At 1600m above sea level, when the sky is clear the temperature drops like a stone. During the day the wind howls around the various observatories, because of thermal currents. At night the temperature falls and the winds die down. This means that very early morning is the only time to fly the drone to get some aerial footage, so we were up before dawn and wore layers of t-shirts, jumpers and jackets to ward off the chill. Also needed to keep the drone and GoPro batteries in pockets to warm them up before they would operate.
Living in a tropical island paradise, you forget what really cold weather is like!

Fatu Hiva, Marquesas Islands, on board the Aranui 3

Here's a flashback to 2010 when we sailed aboard the Aranui 3, a combination cargo/passenger ship that carried goods and tourists to the Marquesas Islands.
Back then I edited videos from several of the islands but, as is frequently the case, I didn't get all of them finished. (I have gigabytes worth of unedited video on my hard drives.)
I was reminded of this when I checked out the Aranui 5, the extremely fancy replacement for the Aranui 3. Whatever happened to the Aranui 4? I've got no idea - the 5 was always planned to take over from the 3.
In 2010 we visited Fakarava (not one of the Marquesas), Ua Po, Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa and Tahuata as well as Fatu Hiva, Ua Huka and Makemo; the videos from these three islands have been in limbo for many years.
The itinerary of the Aranui 5 now includes Bora Bora. I imagine this is for the benefit of the tourists as I'm sure Bora Bora has no problem with cargo deliveries unlike some of the more remote Marquesas.
We travelled to Fatu Hiva after leaving Hiva Oa - Paul Gauguin's tropical island bolthole.
The island has bleak-looking mountains made all the bleaker by the torrential rain. The valleys were green though, unsurprisingly.
This is the place where the young Thor Heyerdahl and his then-wife went back to nature before the second world war. There they struggled against the climate, mosquitoes and venomous insects, rain, skin disease and local hostility. The book 'Fatu Hiva: Thor Heyerdahl's first Pacific Adventure' describes this in fascinating detail.
It was on Fatu Hiva that Heyerdahl formed the ideas which eventually led to the famous Kon Tiki expedition. 

Lao Food Festival, Vientiane

Before our Mekong river cruise on the Laos Pandaw in early 2016, we stayed in the Lao capital Vientiane for a few days and checked out a food festival in Chao Anouvong Park beside the Mekong River.
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The annual Lao Food Festival is a fascinating celebration of Lao cuisine,that takes place in late January in Vientiane.
This year the weather wasn't great but that didn't spoil the fun.
The organisers, the Women's Union and Businesswomen's Association, focussed on units run by Lao women, growing and selling agricultural products as well as cooking for restaurants and cafes.
One-hundred-and-sixty stalls were set up in Chao Anouvong Park beside the Mekong River.
Some sold fresh or  preserved food as well as herbal medicines, silk and souvenirs while others cooked popular local Lao treats.
Lao people enjoy fresh vegetables and herbs, and these appear in almost every Lao meal.
Meat and fish are usually grilled or steamed, so the dishes are fresh and low in fat - healthy as well as tasting great.
Vientiane is full of western-style restaurants but for tourists it's well worth looking out for local ones such as Ban Vilaylac.
As well as the whiteboard specials this friendly place has a very large menu - makes choosing difficult!  But the Lao version of fish amok was tasty as was my stir fry chicken with vegetables.
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Good to get back to editing the holiday videos - brings it all back.