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After leaving the Galápagos, the umbral path continues on a northeastern course. The instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 17:28:23.2 UT about 600 kilometers west of Colombia's Pacific coast. At that moment, the length of totality reaches its maximum duration of 4 minutes 8 seconds, the Sun's altitude is 76°, the path width is 151 kilometers and the umbra's velocity is 0.592 km/s. The axis of the Moon's shadow passes closest to the center of Earth (gamma = 0.239) at greatest eclipse.
Fifteen minutes later (17:43 UT), the umbral shadow enters South America and follows the border between Panama and Colombia (Figure 5). Stretching across the Isthmus of Panama, the path crosses into northern Colombia where the center line duration drops below four minutes. In spite of a 25 second penalty for its position 20 kilometers north of the center line, the Colombian city of Valledupar still experiences a generous 3 minute 29 second total eclipse. After climbing the Andes, the path sweeps through northwestern Venezuela (Figure 6). The semi-desert vegetation of this region is a testament to its arid climate. Although Maracaibo lies 50 kilometers south of the center line, it manages to enjoy nearly three minutes of totality. The eclipse occurs here in the early afternoon with the Sun 65° above the horizon.ñ
The Moon's shadow leaves Venezuela via the Peninsula de Paraguaná and sweeps across the Caribbean where it encounters five major islands of the Lesser Antilles. The center line passes directly between Aruba and Curaçao (Figures 7, 8, and 9), but both islands experience as much as 3 1/2 out of a possible 3 3/4 minutes of totality. Aruba's capital Oranjestad witnesses a 3 minute 6 second total phase while the duration in Willemstad, Curaçao is 1 minute 58 seconds. Both Netherlands Antilles islands make good locations for the eclipse since they share similarly promising weather prospects. Nearby Bonaire is just outside the 143 kilometer wide path although its northwestern coast will witness a grazing eclipse with perhaps a dozen seconds of totality.
The track continues across the Caribbean where it engulfs the Leeward Islands of Montserrat, Antigua and Guadeloupe (Figures 10 through 13). Here, the umbra's velocity increases to over 0.9 km/s and the path width drops to 136 kilometers. Occurring in mid afternoon, the Sun's altitude is 49° at maximum eclipse. Although the center line passes between Guadeloupe and the other two islands, all locales enjoy as much as 3 out of a possible 3 1/4 minutes of totality. Since the southern extremes of Guadeloupe actually lie outside the umbral path, most observers will want to position themselves on the north and west coasts in order to experience the maximum duration possible. Nevertheless, some may choose a site several kilometers inside the southern limit in order to witness the prolonged views of Baily's Beads and chromosphere afforded by such locations. While not as promising as Aruba and Curaçao, the weather prospects of this region are still quite favorable.
Leaving the Caribbean Sea, the umbra races across the Atlantic towards Africa. About 1000 kilometers west of Morocco, the path ends along the sunset terminator as the shadow falls back into space (19:09:57 UT). Over course of 3 hours and 23 minutes, the Moon's umbra travels along an approximately 14000 kilometer long path and covers a region comprising 0.3% of Earth's surface.
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