Day 7

Travel day. With limited flight options out of La Serena, we were forced to city-hop back to Santiago in the south, before transferring to Calama, far to the north, and one of the driest cities in the world, on the outskirts of the Atacama Desert. Driving for hours up the desolate mountain roads in our 4-wheel-drive pickup trucks, we reached our destination nearly at midnight, the ALMA OSF (Operations Support Facility). Sitting at an altitude of 10,000 ft, the OSF serves as the living quarters, laboratory, workshop, control center, and operations offices for ALMA staff. This initial site is in the “safe zone,” still harsh, but separate from the radio telescopes at the high site in a dangerous elevation. Unfortunately, with all of our traveling, luggage for half of our group did not make it onto our last plane. Uh oh. We’re facing one of the harshest mountain environments on Earth soon, and my jacket is in another city. With only the clothes on my back and my cameras, I settled in for a fitful sleep in my thankfully immaculate ALMA dormitory. A hygrometer in my room displayed 17% humidity. Of course, outside would be even dryer.