TOTAL ECLIPSE

TOTAL ECLIPSE

On Thursday November 3rd between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. we had a total solar eclipse.  Scientists came from all over the world to Bolivia to observe the event because at Huancaya near Potosí, which is at an altitude of over 4.500m, visibility was expected to be excellent.  

During the preceding days there were announcements on the radio informing people that this occurrence would take place, that the sky would grow dark and it would become chilly, that animals might get agitated but that it was a natural phenomenon and nobody should be afraid.  Rigoberta Menchú, the Nobel Peace prizewinner from Mexico, also came, and she said that solar eclipses are related to life not death and people had nothing to fear.

It was a clear sunny morning.  At 7:45a.m. when the sun is already fairly high in the tropics, the shadows began to lengthen a little and the quality of the air began to change.  It gradually became cooler.  However, due to the strength of the tropical sun, the light from the halo still around the sun at the point of total eclipse was so strong that it never really became dark.  In fact, at that point both the temperature and the quality of light closely resembled those of a perfect summer´s day in Scotland!  By 9:30 the event had passed and the sun returned to its usual scorching intensity.