Our house in Tangará – second week
Saturday we went to our building site and we were a bit disappointed because nothing much had happened. The house was still there:
The workers had just started to remove the roof, especially of the two porches, but the rest was pretty much there. The septic tank (the concrete rings on the right side of the picture) was also where it was last time we’d been there.
But then, today everything was different. I was a bit shocked when I saw it:
The house was completely gone, and we were left we just a pile of rubble.
The first stage of the septic tank is installed (there are three stages), and now they are clearing the area where the new house is going to be.
And there is surely a lot to clear!
Next week we will have some of the pine trees closer to the house cut, in order to avoid future problems and also to have more sunlight getting to the area.
This is how the house is going to look like (hopefully!):
Tangará – our country house (under construction)
Some pics of the land we bought in December 2010 with an old house. These pictures were taken in July 2010, on one of the first time we went there.
View of the house when you come from the road
Other side of the house and porch
What used to be a home
The shed we are planning to keep
February 13th 2011 – we started to make some progress:
The newly cleaned road
Entrance to the house – where’s all that grass gone?
View from the other side
Steve after connecting the water pipes.
Foggy and Sushi
Sushi
Foggy
It’s not very easy to take a picture of the two together, but they were playing on the breakfast table this morning…
Sushi e Foggy
Chile: Northwards to San Pedro de Atacama
The journey from Valdivia to Santiago would be approximately 800km, but we chose to stop a little under 200 km before Santiago. Once again, we were worried about finding a hotel in the early evening, so we phoned a couple of hotels the previous night to check availability. The first was in the Santa Helena winery, but was fully booked already, so we called the Hacienda los Lingues who had vacancies so we made a reservation.
The drive from Valdivia was completely uneventful, however it was the first and last time that it rained on our trip! The journey probably took around 8 hours including a couple of quick stops for fuel and food etc.
Reception at Hacienda los Lingues
We arrived at the Hacienda and checked in. It looked beautiful and lovely place to stay and there were a lot of cars in the car park. After being shown to our room and ordering dinner (we had to pre-order), we went on an exploratory walk around the grounds and discovered that the vehicles belonged to a film crew shooting a pilot/preview for Chile’s next novella (soap opera). Perhaps we met Chile’s most famous actors, but didn’t know… We then met the manager and one of the owners of the farm. It is owned by the original family who still live there and run the hotel.
The unkempt vegetable garden at Hacienda los Lingues
After seeing more, we realised that the hotel wasn’t quite as nice as first appearances and various parts were a little neglected. The price was very for a luxury hotel, but the service didn’t really come up to this level. The dinner was ok, but my order was different from the menu. All in all, not a place I would recommend and the price they were charging.
Our room in Hacienda los Lingues
The next day we had to get to Santiago before midday to return the hire car and check-in for our flight to Calama (the nearest airport to San Pedro de Atacama and the city that supports Chile’s largest and one of the the world’s largest copper mines – Chuquicamata). We had pre-booked flights on Sky airlines, Chile’s second biggest airline after Lan Chile. The prices of Sky were much much cheaper than Lan. The only problem with them was that don’t except foreign credit cards on their website, so booking involved phone calls and emails. It all worked out well and I’d thoroughly recommend that others consider making the effort to do this.
The flight to Calama was about two and a half ours with one stop (different cities in each direction). Once again, this was uneventful and we were met by someone that was going to provide the 75 minute transfer from Calama to San Pedro. We had pre-booked this transfer, but I don’t think it was necessary with hindsight.
A typical shot of terrain around San Pedro de Atacama
The journey was through the desert on a good road. You leave Calama and go over a mountain range which takes you to height of around 3,400 metres before dropping down into the valley between these mountains and the Andes. San Pedro is at the foot of the Andes on the far side of the valley across the salt lake (more next post). It is a town based around a natural oasis whose water source is in the Andes mountains.
4 May, 2011 | Written by Eneida | Comments: 2 Comments