This is a fun one.
I have this rule about sunsets – never give up until you see the first stars – then you can leave. On this particular evening I was convinced nothing was going to happen. Santiago was particularly hazy, and the sky was just cloudy. Everything was seemingly turning blue, when out of nowhere a ribbon of pink appeared in the sky, and not long after the sky just exploded with color. It was absolutely amazing. The view above was the view I wanted. The Andes mountains had a fresh coat of snow on them from a few days before, and I always love a view of the tallest building in South America, the Gran Torre Santiago (known locally as simply the Costanera Center – pictured in the distance, left of center). The haze, though still heavy, turned pink, and I thought it gave the scene an interesting look. The picture below is what was happening behind me. Absolutely incredible sky, with Santiago as far as you can see. What an awesome evening! Santiago has now blessed me with two unbelievable sunsets, and I am forever grateful (click here to see the first one)
But wait… it got better! My good friend Steve (you’ve heard mention of him on this blog many times) and his fiance Ashley were in town. They had traveled to Chile to watch the solar eclipse happening just a few days later. I had met them the night before for dinner, and believe it or not, it was my first time meeting Ashley in person. Steve and I have this joke, he’s been dating Ashley for quite some time, but I’d never met her… so I’d started calling her the Mythical Ashley. It was fitting though that where we met was in Santiago, Chile, if for no other reason than it’s randomness. Well, on this particular evening while I was watching the sunset, I knew Steve was in town, so I told him I hoped he was watching this sunset because it was amazing. Almost simultaneously he sent me basically the very same text. Great minds think a like! The place I was photographing from closes at dark, so my colleague who had joined me and I took our cues from the cops coming through, motioning for people to leave, and we started down the hill, chatting about how amazing the sunset had been. As we were talking with the other people leaving, suddenly the couple about 10 yards in front of us stopped and turned around – it was Steve and Ashley! Turns out we had all been within a hundred feet of each other when Steve and I were texting each other. Randomly we had both found ourselves at the same spot! To document, we of course took a picture, which is below.
More from Chile next week!
–Dan Thompson
