Day 12 (November 20, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Last day in Chile. I went to University of Chile to give my lecture at the summer school, which was one of my scientific mission in Chile. I returned back to my hotel late in the afternoon and took an Uber and headed to Santiago international airport. Our flight departed ontime. Looking forward to be home. 

Waiting my connection flight at Chicago airport!

Day 11 (November 19, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Today is election day, and most of the shops and restaurants are closed. We did not go out and spent most of the day in our room, working. In late afternoon we went out for a walk and would like to have beer with Mark but we figured out that no alcohol until 8pm on election day. We toured around if we could find any restaurant that broke the rule and serve beer, but without success. So, we had to go back to our hotel and wait and planned to meet at 7:30pm at the French restaurant for dinner. The funny thing was, the restaurant has dress code and returned one of us who wear saddles. Finally, we all made to the restaurant and had very nice dinner and beer of course.

Santiago landscape from my hotel window

Day 10 (November 18, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Today is the eve of presidential election Chile. Since no election campaign within 72hr election day, it seems a bit quiet. We went to do hiking to the top of San Cristobal, which a statue of St Marry is erected at the top of the hill. From the top of the hill, one can clearly see the entire city of Santiago. It is so magnificent view. There is cable car that goes all the way to the top of the hill.  The hill, which is 300m above the rest of city, is located at the northern part of Santiago. Before the arrival of the Spanish forces in Chile, the hill was venerated by the indigenous population and known as Tupahue, meaning “Place of God” in Mapundungun (indigenous Chilean language). However, after the Spanish force arrived, the Spanish conquistadors for St Christopher changed the name to Cerro San Cristóbal in recognition of its use as a landmark.

 Heading to the top of San Cristobal hill!

The San Cristóbal hill first served as a home for Mills Observatory (currently known as the Manuel Foster Observatory) in 1903. BTW, Mills observatory is a twin of the Lick Observatory of the University of California. Later the hill dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, with statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The statue, which was designed by Luigi Poletti and constructed by Giuseppe Obici, is believed to be a reproduction of the “Virgin of Rome”. The construction of the statue cost 22,000 francs at the time. The first stone to build the statue was placed on the 8 December 1904 and the officially inaugurated on 26 April 1908. The statue measures 14 meters tall and weighs 36,610 kg. The pedestal on which the statue rests is 8.3 meters in height, and within the pedestal there is a small chapel in which Pope John Paul II prayed and blessed the city of Santiago on April 1, 1987. The statue is lit up at night by lights placed on its sides, allowing it to be viewed from all over Santiago both day and night. Currently the statue is in good condition, and was given a thorough clean and repaint in early 2012.

 St Marry Statue at the top of San Cristobal hill!

 This is where Pope John Paul II prayed and blessed the city of Santiago on April 1, 1987

 

Most importantly, you really enjoy the magnificent view of Santiago city from the top of the hill!

 I was also very lucky to pause picture with his Holiness Pop Francis at the top of the hill!

At the foot of the Blessed Virgin Mary statue there is Capilla La Maternidad de Maria Church for holding masses or other religious ceremonies.

 Capilla La Maternidad de Maria Church at top of San Cristobal hill

The Chilean National Zoo, a Japanese-style garden, and two municipal pools (Tupahue and Antilén) are also located at the foothills of Cerro San Cristóbal. Cerro San Cristóbal also houses Santiago's largest public park: the Santiago Metropolitan Park (Parque Metropolitano). 

Day 9 (November 17, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Today is the last day of the conference that brought us here. It is also our last day in Puerto Varas and will head off back to Santiago, and make my lecture preparation to the space weather summer school that starts on Monday. I'll give a lecture on Monday before I leave Chile for home.

Mountain view from Puerto Varas!

We picked our shuttle at 4:30pm to Puerto Mott airport for our flight that departs at 7:23pm. Everything went smooth and arrived at Santiago airport safely, took a taxi to our hotel. However, the hotel, for some reason, cancelled our reservation, but we were lucky enough there were room available and we got re-booked. Finally, we settled into our room safely.

 Bye Bye Hotel Cabana Del Lago in Puerto Varas!

Day 8 (November 16, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Another instrument inspection day. After lunch Marina, Mark and I went to the Universidad Austral de Chile Sede Puerto Montt (University of Southern Chile in Puerto Montt). We met two bright undergraduate students who hosted our magnetometer at their lab (FABLAB laboratorio de Fabrication). The lab is dedicated to the famous teacher-astronaut, Christa McAuliffe, who was killed in Challenger explosion. Although we identified a magnetically quiet site for our sensor (the second option to place our sensor, because we checked another site yesterday as well), we experienced another very serious issue. Since this is the second version of SMALL magnetometer (really old), we figured out that one of the main magnetic field components (Bx) is saturated and not working. If the Bx component is not working then the magnetometer data is technically useless. We tried all possible options but with no success. So, after we spent almost the whole afternoon, we left the magnetometer there and got back to our hotel. We then made ourself ready for the conference dinner which was held at the same hotel where we're staying.

Tsunami warning Siren! 

Our team and the two young undergraduate students at the end of our mission!

Day 7 (November 15, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Today is the conference excursion day (in the afternoon). The excursion took off by bus to one of German town called Frutillar Bajo. It is about 30-45 min drive from Puerto Varas. Once we arrived at the Frutillar Bajo, we're given a free time to explore the town on our own. However, for me, there was no free time to explore the town, instead I was driven away to see the future magnetometer site. Marina, Yami and I went to Ceus Llanquhue, where the University of Santiago has a research center, to see a site if it is magnetically quiet place or not. We met the director of the center, who is really a very helpful lady and very much willing to host our magnetometer if it is suitable for our scientific purpose. Although there are some limitations (nearby busy highway, wired fence, and proximity of the building where we place the mag electronics), it will be a safe place to put our mag here, of course with some scarification of data quality. 

 

Part of Frutillar Bajo view! 

 University of Santiago center that we visited for potential magnetometer site!

 University of Santiago professor and his wife just outside their summer house!

 Quincho pichi Laguna, where the conference gogroup picture was taken!

Since we completed our site survey so early, the professor and his wife, who drove us to the site, invited us to their vacation house. That gave us, especially for me and Yami, to experience Chilean household. Yami was given a tour of the house by the professor's wife. 

Finally, we were taken to the Quincho pichi Laguna where the conference attendees will have dinner. It was a fantastic dinner that we had, and finally we got back to our hotel safely around 11:00pm.

Day 6 (November 14, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Today is my big day. I had my presentation at the beginning of the day. It went out very nice and well received. For lunch, I went out with three other scientists to one of German restaurant and had Margarita sandwich (it has boiled onion, beef, and egg).   

Day 5 (November 13, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

It is conference start date, and I was confined inside the conference room for the whole day. In the evening, Yami and I went out for dinner to La Marca restaurant. I had the best soup (the typical Chilean soup), which has egg, sliced red beef meat, potato, and other vegetables.

Day 4 (November 12, 2017) in Puerto Varas, Chile

Since the conference activity does not start until 4:00pm. We went for a walk to explore Puerto Varas with Mark Moldwin. We noticed that Puerto Varas, which is now one of the main tourist hubs of Chile, has a Germany architect influence (the German language is also widely used here). Later we were told that the German colonized this part of Chile because the Spanish only controlled the northern part of Chile.

 Outstanding natural view of Puerto Varas from different angle!

 The famous Catholic church (Our lady of Fatima Parish church) view from outside and inside!

 Just a few steeps away from the church, there is St Marry's statue where people pray like this

 Here you can see the German dominance!

Day 3 (November 11, 2017) in Santiago and Puerto Varas, Chile

Today no scientific activity in the morning. Yami and I went out for a walk to explore. While we walked to the north, we noticed so many Americanisms (a lot of American hotels populated almost within half a kilometer radius). Since it was so hot, our walk did not last long. 

 As Ethiopian origin street market attracted our attention and looked at it with wonder!

 More views from Santiago streets!

What do you feel if your hotel is covered with plant like this, this is Intercontinental Hotel in Santiago!

We ended up sitting at a local restaurant for an early lunch so that we'll have time to make ourself ready to our flight to our final destination (meeting place known as Puerto Varas). Our flight depart at 6:00pm. Marina and her husband came to our hotel and picked and drove us to the airport. We took Latam airline (a merged name of Chilean LA and Brazilian TAM airlines) to Puerto Montt which is an hour and 40min flight. It was very smooth flight. Puerto Varas is about 20km away from Puerto Mott airport, and we're driven by a driver in which Marina arranged. While driving we had a chance to glance the landscape and the countryside of Chile, which is really breathtaking. Finally, we arrived at our hotel without any problem and settled down to our hotel room.

 Landing at the Puerto Montt airport!

 Driving to Puerto Varas from Puerto Montt airport

 Arrived at our hotel in Puerto Varas (seen here)

Day 2 (November 10, 2017) in Santiago, Chile

Today was actually a busy day for me than I expected. I was picked up by Marina and her husband around 10:30am. We went to the University of Chile to talk to the dean of geophysics, in which our collaborator is affiliated, about the current situation of our instruments. Unfortunately, he was not in his office. We were told to come back after 30min if in case he comes back. Marina invited me for coffee at the nearby cafe to spend our 30min waiting period. We went back but he was still not in, but we met the vice Dean, who is actually very helpful. The vice Dean recommended us to come back in the afternoon  (about 2:30pm), and in the meantime, he said, he will communicate with the dean so that the he will make some time for us. 

 Some view of University of Chile

Since we have enough time, we decided to visit Marcos's (a BU graduated Very smart engineer) lab at the electrical engineering department. This is where the first CUBSAT of Chile was built (under his leadership). The CUBSAT was launched last June from India, and has been working fine since then. I saw his control room where they track the satellite and receive real-time data. Very much impressed. 

Then we went out for lunch, and Marcos took us to a very nice Peruvian restaurant. After lunch, we went back to the Dean office, and this time he was in. He gave us a few minutes out of his tight schedule time to hear us out our issues. We clearly elaborated why we want to see him, and what is the problem we faced, and so on. He carefully listened our issue and gave us action plans to do. He seems a very nice person. 

Finally, we walked to the University of Santiago, which is about 30min walk, to meet a student that I co-supervised with Marina. I also meet some of Marine's research team.

A metro station at the center of Santiago (not far from University of Santiago), and it was designed by the same engineer who designed Eiffel tower of Paris!

University of Santiago!

At the dinner table at the nearby restaurant!

Day 1 (November 9, 2017) in Santiago, Chile

We landed at Santiago airport safely. Marina picked Yami and I from the airport and drove us to our hotel. I was supposed to hit to work right away, but the person whom I was supposed to meet face-to-face and talk about my instrument was nowhere to be found. After I've been on a standby mode for hours for the meeting to happen, finally I was told the meeting won't happen today. Although it was late in the afternoon, Yami and I went out to do a little walk (though we're so tired due to long flight) and went to the Parque Santa Maria park park where so many interesting architectures are housed. 

Finally, we picked one of many nearby restaurants for dinner. After having nice dinner, we went to our hotel to crash. Stay tune for tomorrow!

 Stranded at the hotel lobby until our room is ready!

 Some of the sensational view of the park!