
Excursion: Mamalluca Observatory
Visiting an observatory in northern Chile is a must. While newer ones are difficult to get an allowance to visit, the older ones are open for tourists and have daily (nightly) tours.
Mamalluca is one of them. It is situated near Vicuña and can be visited by your own or with a tour.
As I had my hostel in La Serena, I chose a tour. There is no real difference between the different offices, because they only drive you to the observatory and back. The visit to the observatory is guided anyways.
If you do it by your own the observatory costs you 11$ and if you take the shuttle from Vicuña it costs you 5$. You have to make a reservation via telephone or office. Whereas the tour with a total bus ride of three hours and pick up from your hostel costs you 39$. So yes, it was expensive but worth it.
At the observatory you first watch the sky with your own eyes, with explanations what you see. Then you enter the observatory and will see about three different stars through the telescope. Later you watch the sky again and have explanations of the southern hemisphere. Finally you see some diapositives eg. Powerpoints.
In Vicuña there is also the Museum of the famous author Gabriela Mistral. The entomological Museum shows corpses of dead insects, arthropods and vertebrates (so not vegan). Maybe it’s worth to stay one or two nights in Vicuña.

