Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25036
waiting the sun to disappear. Truck windows were soaped with names different hometowns, music was blasting from car stereos and every couple of beers would peer up at the sun through their little silver eye shields. A sudden ing of shouts and pointed fingers announced the first little dent in the sun. heers went up and horns blared. As the bites out of the sun got bigger we followed a sand track along the passing a garden of tripods and telescopes set up by a French astronomy club. we were approaching a profusion of road-tested travelers meandering rposefu lly forward like ants to the hill. Around one last bend and in front of us was n expanse of 40-foot high sand dunes forming a beautiful little U-shaped mphitheater butted up against the ocean. People were pounding drums, a silver- girl was dancing and spinning batons. Crowds of people in beaten, billowing clothes were convening on the crests.of the dunes like modern nomads at the end "fO a pilgrimage. I swept my gaze across the panoramic view of the plain, from where the shadow would approach, past the crowds of travelers with black disks and orange halos painted on their foreheads, and all the way out to the huge blue table of the ocean. This was the spot. A professional sound system was set up in the trough of the dunes, and on the other side of the peak was an encampment of small tents, fire pits and psychedelic tapestries f lapping from stunted, arthritic-looking trees. This was not an impromptu gathering. It turns out that this party had been planned for two years by a group of tranceheads hailing mainly from the Goa trance music scene in India. Adrenali n, a German DJ who defected here from the Patanemo group, told me about Simon, a prominent DJ in this electronic music microculture, who organized this gathering and traveled the path of the eclipse for four months to find an appropriately dramatic location. Word went out mainly via the traveler grapevine. The time was fast approaching. It was noticeably dimmer, but only slightly. A look up through the shades surprised me. The sun was almost completely gone. How could there still be so much light with barely even a cuticle of sun left? And then we saw it the shadow. Off toward the horizon of the plain a hazy darkness appeared, moving toward us imperceptibly at first, then picking up speed. Behind us in the other direction was regular daylight. Looking back over the plain, this shadow was moving fast. A giant black bird raced toward us, desperately flapping its wings like it was being chased by Satan. I was starting to understand how eclipse superstitions came to be. As --'''''