Dear Obiwan,

Tonight earned a special entry! The lunar eclipse ending up being such an incredible adventure!

To continue, we had just arrived back at the hostel after our very late dinner. Francis and I were eager to go see the eclipse and Francis mentioned that someone told him all you needed to do to watch the eclipse was walk 10 minutes away from town. So waiting for almost 2 hours…was tough at first.

But, we had to wait for Juan Pablo, who was the other hostel worker who was coming with us/ leading us. His shift ended around 12 midnight, which is right when the eclipse was beginning!

But, it was worth it to wait Obi, don’t worry! At 12:30, we were off. And our group had grown, from me and Jimmy this morning…to now 11 people!!!

Then began our biking adventure Obiwan!

After readjusting my bike and remembering how to ride a bike correctly, we were off. I had no idea where we were going, but at this point I was stressing because you could SEE THE MOON STARTING TO ECLIPSE.

But we were on our bikes and following Juan Pablo. At first we were on THE MAIN ROAD. Which has cars and TRUCKS. And it was 12:45 at night and there were no street lights, so, it was tad scary. However, due to the SUPER MOON, it was actually super bright out and very easy to see! Well, at first, but…then it started to ECLIPSE.

At first the road was flat and dusty, but then…it started to incline…and Obi, remember that awful hill in the Galapagos that I needed to give up on and catch a ride in a truck? Well, flashbacks to THAT. But…this was only the first hill…after this hill we went down a little, but next was, THIS CRAZY STEEP HILL.

It was SO TOUGH, SO STEEP, and SO LONG. Every single one of us had to walk our bikes for this hill, except Jonathan and Juan Pablo, who are from here, they were fine.

But at this point, I was ENRAGED at our leader, Juan Pablo. All I kept thinking was, “I’M MISSING IT I’M MISSING IT, IT’S ECLIPSING OVER MY HEAD AND INSTEAD OF WATCHING I AM SWEATING AND DYING PUSHING THIS GOD FOR SAKEN BIKE UP THIS MASSIVE HILL. WHAT THE HELL.”

Also, I would randomly yell, “you said THIS WAS EASY JUAN PABLO!” I should know by now that ‘easy’ means HELL in South America terms. But it was also cool to watch the moon eclipse while hiking up this hill though.

Then finally, our ‘20’ minute bike ride, which was 45 minutes in actuality, we made it! I had no idea where we were, but it must be somewhere important because there were a few cars there parked as well, one person had a fancy camera and was getting it all on camera doing an over exposure thing!

We all climbed on this big flat rock and laid down and finally- relaxed and watched the eclipse! While laying down Juan Pablo and Jonathan surprised us with wine!

After about 10 minutes, while laying down watching the sky all of a sudden Carolina SCREAMS and we all jump and saw a DOG! He came out of NO WHERE and had licked her face!!! The dog was so cute! But, doggy whatcha doing? We’re in the middle of the desert?! Are you okay?

But the dog was fine, he sat next to Jimmy and snuggled. I named her Luna, creative I know, and Luna stayed with us the whole night! She was also so cute and funny, every time a car would come by or a dog would bark in the distance or something we couldn’t hear, she would bark and growl!

Then all 11 of us, plus Luna the dog, relaxed, drank wine, listened to some music that Juan Pablo played, and watched the moon eclipse. After it eclipsed it turned red! HENCE THE SUPER BLOOD MOON ECLIPSE! It was also called wolf moon due to it being in January.

And Obiwan…when the moon eclipsed…we could suddenly see the SKY! And WE COULD SEE THE MILKYWAY! It was so BRIGHT AND BIG! The stars also continued to get brighter and brighter during the eclipsing.

During the total eclipse I got up to look at the stars and the valley below us. I sat next to Juan Pablo and said how amazing this valley looks…and then…he told me that we were in MOON VALLEY. I didn’t know Obi! I had been starting up so long and also, I just dind’t know what I was looking at.

IT WAS INCREDIBLE, WE WERE IN THE MOON VALLEY WATCHING A SUPER BLOOD MOON ECLIPSE! It was so magical! And as the moon started to come back, the valley looked so magnificent. The cracks of the earth shined in the moonlight and their shawdows grew bigger and longer as the moon became brighter and brighter. It was gorgeous and something I will never forget for my whole life.

While looking at the sky Juan Pablo taught me about the Southern sky, since I know the northern sky’s better! I saw Orion and learned that his belt points north. Then I saw the Southern Cross, which has one start that is always constant, so as the world spins, it is always pointing South. Then he showed me 2 nebulous’s! Wowowow!

After the eclipse was over and the moon was back to SUPER MOON, half of the group left for bed. So now it was just 5 of us, we all waited for the moon to come back to her normal full self. As it waned, we watched the moon become less red, the stars fade, and watched the valley become brighter and brighter from the moonlight. (Cue ‘By The Light Of The Silvery Moon’)

Once the moon was back, we biked back. And Obi, do you remember that we had to bike UP these 2 huge hills and it was so TOUGH and took 45 minutes? Well, we got to ride back DOWN those hills! It was exhilarating!!!

But, right as we start to bike Jonathan yells, “DON’T USE THE LEFT BREAK, ONLY RIGHT!” Which caused my imagination to run wild. I kept imagining myself joyfully flying down, looking at the sky, then something runs across the street, I use the LEFT break and fly off the handle bars over the cliff mountain side to certain DEATH.

So at first I was gently holding onto the break, but after a few minutes…I let go…and FLEW DOWN. It’s like I forgot how much I love going FAST. Once it was happening, it was so much fun and such an incredible feeling of freedom!

Also, the road was so much easier to see due to the bright super moon! The way down was also crazy fast, only took about 10 minutes!

Once back in town Jonathan left, and now it was 4 of us. Juan Pablo and his friend said we should got to the famous ‘La Playito.’ La Playito is a desert party that happens EVERY NIGHT Obi, every night! Our leaders thought it was going to be NUTS tonight because of the eclipse. However…it was 5:00am, and by the time we arrived, it was near dead. There were about 60 people, and we were told it normally has 200-300 people!

But it was still cool to see. There were 3 different bon fires with different music, one fire was EDM, one was reggaeton, and the last was more clubby. At this point I was beyond exhausted. We hung out there for a little but I was falling asleep a standing. So after a little I went to bed, with the sun coming up!

Goodnight, or good morning my dear Jedi,

Love, Tú Madre,

Carly