We hope you were in the path of the last total solar eclipses that moved through the USA or South America. If so, you got quite a treat. If you were out of the direct path, however, you probably saw a whole lot of nothing. If you want to be in the right place at the right time for a future one, you’ve got a long wait ahead of you. The next solar eclipse in Latin America won’t be until November of 2031.
A solar eclipse viewing may only come along once in your lifetime since you need to be in the right location. Everything gets booked up way ahead of time too. If you wait until the last minute to see it, you may be sitting beside the road in a car since all the places to stay are reserved. So it pays to plan ahead.
That’s especially true for this next one because the part of the Americas it’s going to hit is a narrow section of land separating North and South America: it’ll mostly have totality in Panama. There will be a bit of viewing area in southern Costa Rica and the very north of Colombia, but the Darien Gap is in the mix there and that’s all jungle. Scroll to the end to see the map. First, here’s what came through in a good run before this next gap.
The Most Recent Eclipses in Latin America
I started planning a year ahead and got to experience the last solar eclipse in April of 2024. One of the viewing areas was Mazatlan, which had several minutes of darkness. Our group hired a boat to take us out to Deer Island, so we got to see it all while lying on the beach. It was a freaky experience since it looked like sunrise and sunset were happening at the same time.
This was one of three that went through parts of Latin America in recent years. Two were annular solar eclipses, which means the sun is too far away to completely block out the sun. So you get a ring of fire around a black center. You need special eclipse-viewing glasses if you want to view it at all (and you should have one for all but the peak time for any event where you’re looking at the sun). The other is a total solar eclipse, where day turns into night for a while as the sun gets completely blocked out.
The total one was April 8, 2024 and it went across much of the USA too, starting in Texas and ending in upstate New York before heading through eastern Canada. Read on for the next one you can catch, many years from now, but there were a few before that last one that we covered on this blog.
The Total Solar Eclipse of July 2, 2019
The July 2019 total eclipse of the sun took place in the late afternoon, with the band going across Chile and Argentina. It didn’t hit any urban areas, but was an easy drive north of Santiago in Chile or an easy drive south of Cordoba, Rosario, or Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The San Juan Province is just 90 miles north of Mendoza, so that presented a great opportunity to combine a wine region tour with a rare total solar eclipse viewing. Some travelers with time to spare probably headed north to the Salta Province.
Total Eclipse of the Sun on December 14, 2020
The “Umbraphiles” reserved their spots in the shadows for the last eclipse in South America, though the pandemic put a big damper on travel since most borders were closed. The Chileans and Argentines had it all to themselves since it went through a low population zone of gauchos and farmhouses on the northern edge of Patagonia. This coincided nicely with socially distanced camping.
It was too bad with the timing since there are some great lodges that were close to the 2020 eclipse path in Chile, in Pucon and Villarica—like andBeyond Vira Vira. In Argentina, however, there weren’t a lot of hotels in the path.
Yucatan to Brazil on October 23, 2023
Some travelers found an excuse to head to Latin America in 2023 for an annual eclipse, which means a partial covering of the sun, usually with a ring of fire still lighting up the ground. The October 23, 2023 eclipse viewing area was especially long, starting around Eugene, Oregon and then cutting through parts of the USA before departing Texas and heading to the Yucatan Peninsula.
Merida was out of the path, barely, but nearby ruins and the city of Campeche was right in the prime zone. Then it was most of Belize, including Ambergris Caye, the islands, some of the jungle lodges, and Placencia. See our reviews of the best Belize resorts and hotels.
After that it went through the mainland of Honduras and hits some islands where I would have love to hang out and watch, like the Bay Islands of Honduras including Roatan and the Corn Islands of Nicaragua. It then skirted the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and crossed the middle of Panama, just to the west of the capital and over El Valle and Boquete.
From TimeandDate.com
After departing Panama, the path hit a narrow band of Colombia, south of Medellin but right through Cali. Then the path goes through a long stretch of Brazil, but a lot of that will be jungle areas and the Amazon River (south of Manaus) until finishing just past the coastal town of Natal, north of Recife.
A Total Solar Eclipse in Mexico: April 8, 2024
As mentioned at the beginning, the last total eclipse passed through a sliver of Mexico that was in the direct path, with Mazatlan and Durango in the mix, before it headed up to the USA for a longer trip.
Many of the areas in the direct path of the 2024 eclipse were rural, so the rancheros herding cattle in the states of Durango and Coahuila got quite a treat while they were calming down their animals. Here’s what it looked like with a viewing filter on my camera lens, right before the sun got obscured by the moon:
If you’re an RV traveler or camper, you had plenty of other choices to pick from. This covered a path all the way up to the Finger Lakes of New York and southern Quebec below Montreal.
Chile, Argentina Eclipse With a Surprise: October 2, 2024
The eclipse passing through Patagonia was an annular one, so it wasn’t total, but people probably find a place to have all to themselves since once again, it was passing through a sparsely populated section of Chile and Argentina. The best bet was to find a way to view the eclipse from the pampas of Argentina where they could be relatively sure of clear skies.
A few select travelers got quite a treat: Easter Island was right in the path! Imagine how cool it would have been to see the eclipse effects above the heads of giant stone statues. Hopefully they followed our recommendations and stayed in style at Nayara Hangaroa or Explora Rapa Nui.
The Next Eclipse in Latin America: November 14, 2031
As I put up this article, it’s November of 2024, so anyone reading this soon is going to have plenty of time to make eclipse viewing plans. They next time the sun will be totally obscured in Latin America is many years from now, in 2031. Some of the hotels you could make reservations with might not even be around then. If you want to try though, see our recommendations (which will be updated as the years go by) in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica and the country of Panama.
You may be able to get an eclipse experience in Medellin or Cartagena, but it’s a little more iffy based on that map above. It looks like the eclipse is predicted to peter out once it passes over Panama.
If you really wanted to make this a vacation to remember, you could combine an eclipse viewing trip with a Central America cruise that includes the Panama Canal. You could see that, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and a blocked sun all on one trip.
Or stay in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica and you’ll get a bonus experience: seeing how the wildlife reacts to this rare event in nature. Creatures with wings and legs will both get a little freaked out by the sudden nightfall in the middle of the day.
