Waking up in the Atacama... half way to the VLT!

The day started in awesome style, again. I awake to find that I had parked the astro-wagon in between 2 volcanoes the night previously. Having stopped in thick fog, I had no idea where I had ended up at all. As I awake after a midnight BBQ, the sight is incredible. All around are volcanic remnants of ages long gone, pyroclastic flows once traversed through the park where I slept, what’s left was the environment I awoken to. Steep rocky hill sides left and right with a flat road in between, it was silent and cool, I can imagine T-Rex wandering up here!

The task in hand: get to VLT Paranal "The world's most advanced optical light astronomical observatory" ASAP!!! I am gripped and excited…off we go and as always, drama was not far away. As we creep north away from the last night, we mistakenly think that we have enough fuel, but we are wrong. It looks as if we are going to be stranded in the desert with no way of contacting anyone... stuck on the Pan American highway. I slow the van down to a crawl and hope for the best, we climb and climb and climb and I cannot free wheel at all. As the needle descends below the red line, I know we are in trouble. We are aiming for a town called Taltal which has a filling station, but we can't get another 5 km at best, while Taltal is 22km away. A no brainer... we are knackered. 

Plans are being hatched as to what we do in the event of getting stranded without fuel. Then we see the sign to Taltal, sure enough its 22km away, however we have climbed for 2 hours and MIRACLE!! Taltal is on the coast, it has to be at sea level!! we start to roll and roll and roll and 22km later we roll in to the fuel station, a dead stick dry as a bone, amazed at our good fortune. I know the day is looking up!

First sight...

Off we go with a full tank 1.5 hours from Paranal. Finally we spot it at the top of a hill and we stop to take in the first sight! As we climb through the clouds and see a sign  to ESO, we turn left, drive up the track... excitement builds as we pull around a steep corner!! My eyes are bulging from my head as I see it for the first time, a majestic shining tower of human capabilities. VLT Paranal: I have arrived. 

We are met at the gate, I’m excited I want to go in!!! I tell the guard my name; his English is worse than my Spanish, but the message is clear, Gary who? I start to sink, is this all a mistake... what’s happening? 

The guard hands me a telephone, on the other end is Reception and she can speak English. She confirms my worst fears - I am a day early…argghhhhh!!!! But at least, I think, I can still go in... just a day later than I have arrived. But this is ESO they are incredible, they let us in and find us a room in the scientists home (and James Bond set!) the fantastic Residencia. I am in!

The Residencia is amazing, climatically controlled with a pool and plants everywhere, the humidity is high, it feels so futuristic. We are not allowed onto the summit until tomorrow when our guide Valentina arrives to show us around. So what to do now? A fantastic shower... with an exciting discovery on the bath towels :) Dinner, the food is superb and very welcome...night falls…

We venture outside and the sky is knockout and on the summit of the hill we see the VLT platform and suddenly out shoots a green laser into the sky, the laser guide star was turned on, I was here, me Gary Fildes at the VLT Paranal Chile.