LA SERENA, Chile (AP) — Tens of thousands of tourists and locals gaped skyward Tuesday as a rare total eclipse of the sun began to darken the heavens over northern Chile.

Tourists from around the world gathered to witness the cosmic spectacle, which began at 10:24 a.m. local time (1824 GMT), crossing over a tiny atoll in the South Pacific. Chile and Argentina are the only places that the total eclipse was seen aside from the uninhabited island.

The eclipse made its first landfall in Chile at 3:22 p.m. (1922 GMT) in La Serena, a city of some 200,000 people where the arrival of more than 300,000 visitors forced the local water company to increase output and service gas stations to store extra fuel. Police and health services were also reinforced.