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This slideshow contains highlights of our trip to the north of Chile between the 14th and 17th August. Starting in Santiago, we travelled via La Serena to Parque Nacional Pan de Azucar and then on to Paranal, where we enjoyed a night at the telescopes where Rachel works.

We continued north and east, taking the Road to Escondida (of Eric Clapton fame) through the Atacama desert, past deserted (sorry) “ghost” nitrate towns and the largest open cast coppermine of the same name, to San Pedro de Atacama, at the edge of the largest salt lake in Chile (the Salar de Atacama).

A real highlight in Argentina is the drink named the “Submarino”. Rachel likes both milk and chocolate. To get them together in a hot sticky yummy arty italian form is heaven indeed!

A highly visited cafe in Buenos Aires is Cafe Tortoni, which retains its beautiful mahogany interior, furniture and bar and tango concert room to the rear. Quite an experience… albeit one shared with 20 other tourists that day!

We stepped back in time some 10 days ago.

Seeking a luxurious escape from Santiago’s poor air and associated respiratory maladies in the heart of a most devilsomely cold winter, we made the journey to Buenos Aires, “city of the good winds” by airplane. Staying in two fine hostelries including one establishment specialising in the teaching and practice of Tango we have returned fully relaxed and ready to face one’s tribulations with new vigour.

Whilst exploring this fine city, we enjoyed many fine wines and gastronomic delights, the details of which we shall divulge to you in due course. A pleasant stroll through the city reveals many architectural curiosities with a variety of European influences. However, one would advise the taking of suitable precautions while examining the forementioned buildings, due to the abundance of litter and other unspeakables to be found on pedestrian walkways. A selection of architectural highlights captured on our 8mm photographic equipment may be found below.

I’m writing this in the hope that one day it will reach the world, or at least the world-wide-web. By “one day” I mean tomorrow, as things should be fixed by then. On the other hand you could find this message in 5 years time, after a search party turns up my remains in the middle of the desert. You see, at the moment Paranal is semi-dead, and could be gone by the morning (ever the pessimist). The generators are dying and we have just enough power to control the telescopes, which of course take priority over humans. Apart from the control building the site is lit by eerie emergency lighting, with just enough power in each light to guide you through the blackspots without serious injury. The dining hall is full of candles and the rooms are pitch black. I have turned off my torch to preserve power and am very glad that I can touch type. All communication with the outside world from here is dead - phones, internet, satellite link.

It’s just hit me that Paranal is very remote. At 1 1/2 hours drive from the nearest settlement, and with no water pipes, electricity cables or any other link to the world, we could disapear in a puff of smoke and no-one would notice for days. The only lights on the horizon come from a distant mine, and they probably wouldn’t care if we evaporated - astronomers and miners don’t see eye-too-eye; they look down and we look up.

Normally on Paranal I feel like I’m just stuck in the office for 10 days - I can phone Doug, e-mail and browse the web just like in Santiago, and I don’t feel like I’m too far from home. Now I’m stuck in a dark building, with only engineers and astronomers to talk to. There are no options for procrastination or for work, the pool is too dangerous, the keyboard needs power, dinner will have to be raw, and I’ve got a cold and am feeling grumpy! So, I’m going to save and sign off before my laptop batteries die, and wish you all a good night.
I’m off to read my bible under an emergency lamp in the corridor!

I would like to share a tale of moderate-woe, in the hope that this would be a caution to all you folk who, like me and Douglas, pick up all sorts of random things in the supermarket that you never get round to eating. (Emma, who plans her meals in advance, need not take heed).

The cabbage sits on the shelf. Deep purple-red, looking healthy, shiny, full of vitamins. It calls out to you. Ooooh cabbage, you think, just like-a mama used to make in your distant and slightly distorted memory. You add it to the trolley.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and you’re out of food, hungry and desperate you rummage through the fridge. Nothing…..except, hiding at the back of the vegetable rack…..the cabbage is lurking. Not looking quite so healthy now, it is nevertheless surely still full of leafy goodness and vitamin Purple. You can’t ignore it. It would be wasteful to go and buy something else. But what to cook?

The recipe books, which include 100s of years of granny-wisdom, include “broiled cabbage”, “sweet and sour cabbage” and “spicy baked cabbage”. All of which take 2 hours in the oven, hence ensuring that the cabbage is truly dead. “Never eat an undercooked cabbage”. Yours truly not having 2 hours to spare before extreme grumpiness sets in, I cobble together bits of the recipes - an apple, some wine vinegar, lemon rind, and bung it all together in a pan for 10 minutes.

Well, boys and girls, I’m going to surprise you - this tale actually has a happy ending. The cabbage was dead enough after 10 minutes and both Doug and I lived to tell the tale. It actually tasted OK. However, it was very nearly a disaster, and in the spirit of “health and safety first”, next time I’m going to write a shopping list.