Yes folks, fast forward to end of scene, we both got certificates last week. After a week's hard work on a training course in solar energy at UNAM (the national university in Mexico), Sofia and me both got our little pieces of paper. It was an eye opener. A smattering of astronomy and meteorology with lots of physics. I gave up physics at 14 years and didn't expect to be doing it again through the Spanish language nearly 30 years later!
The course was at UNAM's Centre for the Investigation of Energy, itself an impressive piece of eco architecture with its pleasant mixture of breezy, leafy courtyard spaces. Our 50 or so fellow students were an interesting mixture of students and solar salespeople. It was an inspiring and exhausting week. In the end I was relieved my Spanish was good enough to make use of of the course.
This is the very impressive solar clock designed by Dr Carlos Perez Rabago (one of the course lecturers). With the benefit of a correctly positioned schema on the ground, the pointing finger of the sundial and a chain strung between two obelisks at either side it also serves as a solar calender - identifying the solstices and equinox.
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