Director’s Astronomy Tour to Chile Prepared for Lowell Observatory In partnership with Avenues of the World Travel Each night in the north of Chile, in one of the driest deserts on earth, some of the most powerful telescopes ever built collect a soft rain of starlight that falls from the sky. From these precious droplets of light astronomers learn about the cosmos and our place in it. This seven-day adventure will showcase Chile’s dazzling skies and provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit some of the world’s leading astronomical observatories. Come “play with the light of the universe,” as Chilean poet Pablo Neruda said. Your tour at a glance: Date Location Accommodation Meals Fri, Oct 28 Depart USA In Transit Sat, Oct 29 Santiago Plaza El Bosque Ebro Sun, Oct 30 La Serena Club La Serena B, L Mon, Oct 31 La Serena Club La Serena B, L, D Tue, Nov 1 Antofagasta NH Antofagasta B, L, D Wed, Nov 2 San Pedro de Atacama Terrantai Lodge B, L Thu, Nov 3 San Pedro de Atacama Terrantai Lodge B, L, D Fri, Nov 4 Santiago Depart B Sat, Nov 5 Arrive USA Friday, October 28 2016 Depart US for Chile Depart on your overnight flight to Santiago, Chile Saturday, October 29 2016 Arrive Santiago Hotel Plaza El Bosque Ebro Welcome to Chile! Upon arrival you are met and transferred to your accoMModations. Your rooMs are available for iMMediate check in. This afternoon you enjoy a tour of Santiago and visit to the Pre-Columbian MuseuM. Your trip begins with a tour of the main avenues in the city’s civic center. First stop is La Moneda, originally built as a mint in 1805, the neoclassical building was the home of Chilean presidents until 1958, and today is the actual seat of the government (we will try to go inside, time and interest permitting). Continue exploring narrow streets, eventually arriving at the Plaza de Armas, a picturesque and lively square surrounded by the 18th century Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Historical Museum, and the central post office. Leaving downtown, the tours head toward Parque Forestal, near the Fine Arts MuseuM, and the bohemian neighborhoods of Bellavista and Lastarria, where historically intellectuals and artists have made their homes, now filled with restaurants and cultural venues. Ascend San Cristóbal hill, located inside a beautiful public park whose peak is crowned with a 118 foot statue of the Virgin Mary and provides panoramic vistas of the city and surrounding Andes Mountains. Continue exploring other neighborhoods of Pedro de Valdivia Norte, and the elegant and exclusive neighborhoods of Las Condes and Vitacura where many of Santiago´s elite live, shop and dine. You continue to the newly re-opened Pre-Columbian MuseuM, which houses an extensive collection of material on pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas and Diaguitas and peoples as Selk'naM Chilean, Mapuche and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), among many others. You return to your hotel in the late afternoon. It is the Hotel Plaza el Bosque Ebro, located in the El Golf financial district, steps froM subway stations Tobalaba and El Golf, surrounded by many stores, restaurants and businesses. The hotel has 179 suites, two restaurants, a heated swiMMing pool, gymnasium and spa. Sunday, October 30 2016 Santiago to La Serena Club La Serena Hotel Breakfast and Lunch Today you depart for La Serena by private coach. La Serena means ‘The Serene One’ in Spanish, an apt name for this charming seaside city known for its natural beauty and relaxed lifestyle. En route, you visit a winery and pisco distillery, where lunch will be provided. Pisco is the national drink of Chile, a spirit produced from grapes grown in the unique microclimate of this region. Many meals and social gatherings in Chile begin with a refreshing pisco sour. Chile is also renowned for the excellent quality of its wines. Of special note are the Carménère wines, made from a variety of grape wiped out by disease in Europe 150 years ago but subsequently discovered to be flourishing in Chile. You arrive at your hotel in the late afternoon. Club La Serena Hotel has an extraordinary seaside location on the Avenida del Mar, with picturesque views of the neighboring city of Coquimbo across the bay. The hotel is located not far froM La Serena’s iconic lighthouse (El Faro) and just minutes froM downtown. The hotel has beautiful gardens and ocean views from its rooms. Other amenities include a pool, restaurant and bikes for use by guests. In the evening, visit Collowara Observatory, one of Chile’s newest astro-tourism centers. It is situated near the small town of Andacollo, 1300 Meters above sea level on the suMmit of Cerro Churqui. Collowara Observatory has a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in its main observation dome, as well as 16- inch Dobsonian and two 10-inch Newtonian telescopes. There are also three viewing terraces from which you can enjoy the beautiful southern skies and see Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and Gemini Observatory in the distance. Monday, October 31 2016 La Serena Club La Serena Hotel Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Today you have a daytime tour of Gemini Observatory. Gemini Observatory consists of twin 8.1-meter diameter optical/infrared telescopes located on two of the best observing sites on the planet, one in Chile (Gemini South) and the other in Hawaii (Gemini North). The observatory is operated by a partnership of six countries: the United States, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. Gemini has played a leading role in many scientific discoveries such as ithe accelerating expansion of the universe that led to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, and it has also captured images of planets around other stars. Gemini South’s next- generation adaptive optics system (GeMS) produces the sharpest images over the widest field of view ever captured from a ground-based telescope. After your visit to Gemini, you continue to the beautiful Elqui Valley. Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in this region. The Elqui River runs some 140 km to the beaches of La Serena, passing through hills laden with vineyards and towns that have made blending agriculture and tourism a local tradition. You will visit one of the valley’s many lovely wineries for lunch. Enjoy time in the charming local villages. Dinner is included this evening in the town of Vicuña. Tuesday, November 1 2016 La Serena to Antofagasta NH Antofagasta Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner This Morning you are transferred to the La Serena airport for your scheduled flight to Antofagasta. This northern port city, which has a population of about 350,000, is the heart of Chile’s mining industry, a key component of the country’s economic success. Antofagasta once belonged to Bolivia but was captured by Chile during a war in the 19th century. Upon arrival in Antofagasta, a private coach takes you to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) for a special behind-the-scenes daytime tour of this state-of-the-art astronomical facility on Cerro Paranal mountain. The observatory, which is owned and operated by a consortium of 15 European nations, is located in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest deserts in the world. There are places in the Atacama Desert where no rainfall has been recorded for centuries, creating a stunning Moon-like landscape devoid of vegetation. A quick detour en route to Paranal Observatory takes you to one of the world’s most unique works of art, La Mano del Desierto (The Hand of the Desert). Created by the Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal, the hand reaches up nearly 40 feet from the desert floor as if trying to touch the heavens. ESO’s Paranal Observatory is the Most scientifically productive observatory in the world, producing nearly 1,000 scientific papers yearly. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is the flagship facility for European ground-based astronomy. It is the world’s most advanced optical instrument, consisting of four main telescopes of 8.2m diameter and four Movable 1.8m diameter auxiliary telescopes. The telescopes can work independently or together to form a giant interferometer (VLTI) that allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. VLTI’s vision is so sharp that it could distinguish the two headlights of a car at the distance of the Moon. From Paranal it is also possible to see Cerro Armazones in the distance, the mountaintop that is the future home of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will be the world’s largest telescope when completed in 2024. With a mirror 128 feet (39 meters) in diameter, the ELT will collect nearly 300 times as much light as Hubble Space Telescope and produce images 15 times sharper. After your tour of Paranal you return to Antofagasta for the evening. Your accoMModations are in the modern NH Antofagasta hotel situated on the beautiful coastline just 15 minutes from the city center. The 139 bright and spacious rooMs are decorated in a classic and relaxing style. You will have ocean view standard rooms. Dinner is included this evening. Wednesday, November 2 2016 La Serena to San Pedro de Atacama Terrantai Lodge Breakfast and Lunch Today you travel by private coach from Antofagasta to San Pedro de Atacama, arriving at this picturesque village in tiMe for lunch. Although San Pedro has only 5,000 residents, it is a popular tourist destination thanks to the archaeological significance and natural beauty of the region.