Harry Liedstrand

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Summer/Winter Solstice 2019

By

July 6, 2020

We had a three week adventure planned for mid June of this year, 2020, that included travels in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, and Switzerland. We were going to stay through the summer solstice and return around the 4th of July. Needless to say the trip was cancelled due to the Corona virus pandemic. Instead, we spent this year’s summer solstice hiking the Bear Creek Trail in Briones Regional Park (see previous post below). Since the solstices are important “holidays” for us I thought it would be fun to revisit what we did on the summer solstice last year, in 2019.

On June 19, 2019 we arrived in Lima Peru around midnight. We had flown from San Francisco to Atlanta to Lima to begin our adventure of chasing the total solar eclipse of 2019. We had a day to walk around Lima before heading south to Paracas Bay on the solstice, June 21, 2019.

It was a rainy day in Lima on June 20, 2019

It is the dead of winter in Peru in June. In fact, June 21 is the winter solstice in South America. It was strange to pack our winter expedition gear in sunny California just before our summer solstice knowing we would soon experience the winter solstice in Peru and Chile.

The City Hall of Miraflores, Lima, Peru
I took spme pictures of the street art around the Central Park of Miraflores.
Colorful murals.
Advertising tacos and burritos.
Soccer is very popular in South America. Everybody loves their country’s team when it comes to the World Cup Championships.
We searched for a restaurant to sample the delicious ethnic cusine of Peru.
We rested at the El Pardo Double Tree by Hilton Hotels, Lima, Peru.

Travel Quest Tours International organizes total solar eclipse expeditions and astronony adventures. We joined the southbound eclipse group and were looking forward to experiencing totality on July 2 in Chile. The expedition was highly organized. The eclipse team included a trip manager, 3 trip leaders, a trip astronomer, an eclipse astronomer, an eclipse meteorologist, and a physician. We felt like we were ready for just about anything the cosmos might throw at us.

Total Solar Eclipse–August 21, 2017 viewed from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Rob Hawley is an astrophotographer, and Cesar is one of our trip leaders.

Rob Hawley, a fellow eclipse chaser, is a serious amature astronomer and astrophotographer. You can find out more about him by visiting his website here. Cesar Higueras is one of our trip leaders. You can find out more about Travel Quest International and their eclipse tours here.

Cody Carter is TQ’s head of Client Relations and one of our favorite trip leaders.

The next day, June 21, was the winter solstice — aka our summer solstice back in California. We boarded a bus and headed south, out of Lima, towards Paracas Bay. It was a long bus ride, but before going to our hotel there we all took a dune buggy ride in a caravan to watch the sunset. We watched the closing of the shortest day of the year in Peru as the sun set over the sand dunes of Paracas National Reserve. It is very dry in this area of Peru and it rarely rains. Travel Quest set up an oasis with refreshments for us in the heart of this desert.

Sand dunes in Paracas National Reserve

We climbed into our dune buggy for and exciting ride. On the top of the last dune overlooking the tents of the oasis our dune buggy threw a rod and the engine stopped dead. You can hear the engine start to sound a little funny in the video. We only had a short walk down the dune to rejoin our companions.

Our dune buggy ride.
Our driver tries to asses the engine damage…but this dune buggy is out of commission for the rest of the day, or until it gets a rebuilt engine!

We have afternoon snacks and a Peruvian drink called Pisco Sour in our desert camp. Some travelers try “dune boarding” down the steep sand dunes on snowboards. It’s a lot of fun.

Everybody relaxes from the long bus ride and enjoys watching the sunset.

Yippie!
Let’s take a solstice picture. Smile!

We hitch a ride back to the waiting bus on another dune buggy. It has been a long and exciting day. But, in fact, it has been the shortest day of the year in Peru. It has been a happy winter/summer solstice for us.

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Email: harry.liedstrand@gmail.com
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Listen to this!

Schoolhouse Reels
https://harryliedstrand.com/wp-content/uploads/TheSchoolhouseReels.mp3
From Dos Valley Trio's 2017 recording Jewels of the San Joaquin: Harry Liedstrand on fiddle, Cindy Liedstrand on guitar, Terry Barrett on mandolin

Fire In the Mountain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orx6wempwx4

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