Coquimbo

If you're looking to swap Netflix for the cosmos and inject a little existential wonder into your Chilean adventures, the Mamalluca Observatory, perched on a quiet hillside in the Elqui Valley near Vicuna, is your ticket to starry-eyed enlightenment. Arguably the astronomical capital of South America (sorry, Atacama, you can't always be prom queen), the Elqui Valley boasts crystalline skies so clear they seem Photoshopped. Reserve your spot a few nights ahead-unless planetary alignments or eclipses are involved, then book weeks in advance and brace for astronomical groupies. Arrive after dark, armed with layers (desert nights chill faster than your uncle's beer cooler), a flask of local pisco, and your most philosophical questions. Tours run around 10 USD per person, absurdly affordable considering the billion-dollar views of Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings. Even if your telescope skills start and end with trying to spot Orion's belt (and failing), an evening spent staring into the abyssal beauty of a trillion stars is the kind of humbling, brain-rattling experience worth retelling-ideally over another round of pisco sours-because nothing elevates your dinner-party cred quicker than casually dropping, "Did I ever tell you about that one night under the clearest sky on Earth?"