Cloud chasers paid a fortune to miss Spain's solar eclipse
Those who swapped the plateau for the coast paid dearly: clouds, mountains and a hotel room at gold prices. Back on the plateau, the sky was clear.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The eclipse paradox: paying to see clouds while the plateau stayed clear
The anecdote doing the rounds these days says it all: a driver rushed off towards León and ended up watching the phenomenon from the motorway. On the plateau, hundreds of kilometres of clear open land at zero cost. In Asturias, the destination chosen by many, they were met with cloudy skies and a landscape hemmed in by mountains. Geography doesn't care about showing off.
The cost of the decision wasn't just meteorological. Those who booked a night in the Principality of Asturias paid gold prices for their rooms. Those who stayed in Valladolid, Medina del Campo or La Sagra enjoyed an "impressive" spectacle with nothing more than the cost of a reasonably priced dinner and no crowds. There's an argument for calling it a lesson in the economics of experience: visible consumption beats rational calculation.
The price of showing off in empty Spain
The plateau, with its historic heritage, still isn't "cool". Many need their obligatory beach photo, even if the sun hides behind the clouds. The result: stampedes to the coast in search of a snapshot, while those who stay in town get the whole sky. The individual choice is free; the collective outcome, a waste.
One question remains open: how much is a photo worth when there's no sun in it?
The anecdote doing the rounds these days says it all: a driver rushed off towards León and ended up watching the phenomenon from the motorway. On the plateau, hundreds of kilometres of clear open land at zero cost. In Asturias, the destination chosen by many, they were met with cloudy skies and a landscape hemmed in by mountains. Geography doesn't care about showing off.
The cost of the decision wasn't just meteorological. Those who booked a night in the Principality of Asturias paid gold prices for their rooms. Those who stayed in Valladolid, Medina del Campo or La Sagra enjoyed an "impressive" spectacle with nothing more than the cost of a reasonably priced dinner and no crowds. There's an argument for calling it a lesson in the economics of experience: visible consumption beats rational calculation.
The price of showing off in empty Spain
The plateau, with its historic heritage, still isn't "cool". Many need their obligatory beach photo, even if the sun hides behind the clouds. The result: stampedes to the coast in search of a snapshot, while those who stay in town get the whole sky. The individual choice is free; the collective outcome, a waste.
One question remains open: how much is a photo worth when there's no sun in it?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (15 replies).
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