Even amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people lifted their heads towards the sky to watch a solar eclipse that lasted around two minutes on Monday, as southern Chile and Argentina were plunged into darkness.

Even with the restrictions, almost 300,000 tourists had arrived in the Araucania region around 800-kilometres (500 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

Chilean authorities had been worried that the eclipse would attract large gatherings of people.

In July 2019, again some 300,000 people turned out in the Atacama desert in Chile’s north, home to several observatories, to see the previous eclipse.

There have been more than 570,000 coronavirus cases amongst the 18 million population with almost 16,000 confirmed deaths in the country.

Strict controls were announced for the areas where the total eclipse would be visible, with free movement banned both the day before and after.

While heavy rain had threatened to prevent star gazers in Chile from seeing the eclipse, at the very last moment, the clouds parted just enough for the phenomenon to be partially visible.

“It was beautiful, unique. The truth is that no-one held much hope of seeing it due to the weather and clouds, but it was unique because it cleared up just in time. It was a miracle,” an emotional Matias Tordecilla, 18, told AFP in the town of Pucon on the shores of Lake Villarrica.

“It’s something that you don’t just see with your eyes but also feel with your heart,” added Tordecilla, who travelled 10 hours with his family to see the eclipse.

In the last 18 months, this was the second total eclipse that Chile witnessed.

It occured at 1:00 pm (1600 GMT) as thousands of tourists and residents gathered, hoping the clouds would disappear in time.

“It gave me goosebumps all over,” said Pucon resident Cinthia Vega, AFP reported.

In Argentine Patagonia, several families and foreigners had set up camp between the towns of Villa El Chocon and Piedra del Aguila hoping to see the eclipse.

Dozens of amateur and professional scientists set up telescopes on the slopes of the Villarrica volcano — one of the most active in Chile — to observe the phenomenon when the moon passes between the sun and Earth.

The eclipse was due to be visible along a 90-kilometre wide corridor from the Pacific coast in Chile across the Andes mountain range and into Argentina.

This event was eagerly anticipated amongst Chile’s Mapuche indigenous community, the largest such group in the country’s south.

“Today we were all hoping for a sunny day but nature gave us rain and at the same time it’s giving us something we need,” Estela Nahuelpan, a leader in the Mateo Nahuelpan community in the southern city of Carahue, told AFP.

“In Mapuche culture, the eclipse has different meanings: they talk about ‘Lan Antu’, like the death of the sun and the conflict between the moon and the sun,” she said.

“It refers to the necessary balance that has to exist in nature.”

In another tradition, an eclipse signifies the temporary death of the sun during a battle between the star and an evil force known as “Wekufu.”

Indigenous people used to worship the sun “like a God,” astronomer Jose Maza told AFP last week.

According to indigenous expert Juan Nanculef, the people would light bonfires and launch “stones and arrows into the air” to help the sun in its battle against the Wekufu.

Nanculef actually performed a ritual as the eclipse began to ask nature to bring an end to the rains and make it visible.

“Previously it was 100% effective,” he said.

Even this time, the rituals seemingly had worked well enough to give people a glimpse of the much-anticipated eclipse.