Escape From Disaster

Tuesday 6 February

Surprisingly we both had a good night’s sleep. When we had gone to bed, celebrations of some kind were taking place in a marquee in the grounds of a nearby hotel – lots of loud banging music and “wailing”, but it must have been soothing, because we went to sleep quickly. This morning I had time to read through a couple of the blogs I had previously written, so that I would be able to publish them if there was time before we left for the Hacienda. We made breakfast by 09.00 (in plenty of time before our transfer arrived at 10.00), and found more than three-quarters of the tables occupied – obviously there were far more people in the hotel than we had realized. The food was not at all tempting and I ended up with just some green melon, a weeny piece of goats cheese and equally small slice of ham. The bread was dry – not quite curling at the edges, but not far off. Colin managed to find some cereal in the form of chocolate shells, and some finely chopped tinned fruit salad, followed by a slice of bread and marmalade and a banana.

There was just enough time to publish the blogs I had edited (I published one entry that was already on the blog, so had to do a bit of deleting as well, which all takes time when you are watching the clock). There was just time to finish packing our bags, again, clean our teeth and get down to reception before Daniel – our new guide – arrived to take us to the Hacienda. When he saw our luggage, he gulped! He then told us that he had been shopping for food for our stay, so that room in the boot of his small Hyundai 4x4 was limited! He juggled the different cool boxes, a whole large water melon, plastic containers of water (we later found out that he was having problems with the head gasket in his car, and this supply of water was emergency rations in case of disaster!) and trays of eggs, with our six pieces of luggage – two large cases and four smaller hand luggage bags – until they all fitted – only problem was – would there be room for us? We squeezed ourselves in – with room to spare – Colin in the front and me with the eggs and other packages in the back, plus the lap top. Daniel, aged late thirties, was from Switzerland originally, but has been in La Serena now for four years and is married to a local lady. I think he does a lot of the transfers for the Hacienda and helps out with the tours as required. He said that he wouldn’t ever go back to the bustle and rat race of European life, and as we drove along we had a conversation about how you actually don’t really need a lot to survive quite happily – Colin and I had previously discussed between ourselves, how our concept of what’s important in life had changed since coming on this trip (although Colin’s philosophy that the luckiest people in the world are those who wake up in the morning and hear the birds sing, still goes) and that more than half the clutter we have at home is totally unnecessary, and may have to go, once we get back to England.

The drive to the Hacienda took 2 ½ hours – out of La Serena and along the coast until we turned into the Hurtado valley penetrating the tall mountains inland. The river has its source high up in the Andes, and the valley gently rose, cutting its way round the bare, craggy-topped mountains, through a green oasis on the valley floor, full of vine plantations, vegetable fields and small villages. At one point there was a large dam across the river creating a lake the width of the valley, and farmers are only allowed to take water from the river when this lake is at a specific level. The road, although metalled part of the way, and two lanes wide – just – often took us to the very edge of the cliffs and in many places large metal barriers had been installed to prevent traffic crashing over the top – and we saw a crew making much-needed repairs to a broken band – it was at the foot of a hill, on a bend, which apparently lorries take too quickly and end up smashing through and losing all their cargo – in this case, wooden trays for packing fruit and vegetables– two men were desperately trying to salvage the load further up the road - last time it was tomatoes. About 30kms from the Hacienda the road became unmade – making the ride in the back very jolty – I had to save the eggs – but traffic was still bounding along in both directions.

Around 12.30 we turned off at the sign to the Hacienda and came face to face with long line of yellow painted single storey buildings on either side of a steep cobbled driveway. A pure white horse was watching nervously from the shade of a tree. A man named Clark came bounding down the hill, hand out, to greet us, closely followed by his wife, Manuela. This couple were both German, and the Hacienda had been Clark’s dream. Manuela took us around, showed us to our room – a largish room with just a bed and side tables, a tallboy and another small flower table. The wardrobe was a system of horseshoe hooks on the wall. The room had tiled floors, wooden shutters at the windows, white walls and mellow woodwork. Outside the gardens were beautiful, with lots of seats and hammocks in shady corners of the gardens. Manuela told us about the hiking trails – most seem to lead up into the mountains - showed us the dining room and then explained our programme for the next couple of days – 4 x 4 exploration tomorrow with Daniel, and an expedition, riding horses on Thursday! Perhaps my lesson on Sunday will come in handy after all! (I did not ache at all yesterday, but my thighs are a bit tight today!)

Manuela then made us some lunch whilst I perused the small library for a book to read – I was getting desperate now as I had to leave my last book at the Explora – saving another few precious grams in my case. We ate home made brown bread rolls, with local goats and cows cheeses, salami and ham, with tomatoes and cucumber (they grow huge cucumbers here in South America, with giant pips through the centre, almost small marrow size – they are always served with the skin shaved off). We drank freshly made fruit juices – apricot for me and plum for Colin. The lunch was all very delicious, even more so as we could sit on the patio, under an umbrella where the only sounds to be heard were the birds singing, the fountain tinkling on the nearby lawn and the river rushing by in the valley below us. After lunch I blogged for a couple of hours in the garden - surrounded by bougainvillea in shades of pink and coral, and lots of tubs of greenery - while Colin snoozed the afternoon away – he said he was listening to his book, but by the sound of him zzzz’ing, coming from inside the room, I doubt he heard much of his book.

Around 17.00, thinking it might be getting a little cooler, we decided to investigate the River Bank trail. We followed the path round the back of the buildings and down the hill, past channels of water rushing headlong down the mountain to the river below. The track was loose grey dusty soil with lots of pebbles and rocks, but it was well signposted. There was only one small uphill section – for which I was grateful – and most of the time we were walking in the shade of the dense foliage of the trees. In a couple of places a “rest and relax” sign led to the actual river, where thoughtfully placed wooden seats had been constructed out of old tree trunks. The river was flowing along at a fair speed, but was crystal clear as it bounced over the rocks on the bottom. We continued along the track for about half an hour - sometimes deviating from the river to cross over fields and skirt paddocks along the way. We were looking for Noodie Island, where supposedly Clark had diverted the river a little to form a small pool for swimming (out of the main current). But the track turned, crossed two streams (which we could just about jump across) and then flowed into a field which was completely flooded. We decided it was time to turn back. We retraced our steps and arrived back at the room with plenty of time to shower (I had been wearing my sandals and my feet were now covered in a thick layer of grey grime). I rested for a while in the hammock at the side of our room – it was very peaceful watching some local insects – not bees, having a long, more waspish body, with large wings and fine droopy legs that trail below as they fly – building a nest on the verandah ceiling. Four of them were very industrious, creating hexagonal hollow shapes in a grey waxy substance, in which to lay their eggs. The insects must then desert the nest – they are much too big to fit into the holes they have made – and start again. Presumably the pupas hatch, and flee the nest, which is then abandoned. Another empty nest is further round the ceiling, and it appears now to be becoming detached – just hanging by a thin strand. We have been told the insects are harmless, but they look too much like wasps to me, and I am not convinced they won’t sting.

Having showered and changed, we made our way to the dining room, where we met a Canadian family, motoring through Chile – Steve, Anne and their two girls Rachel and Sarah. Manuela called us to dinner and separate tables had been laid. We decided that we would all sit together for breakfast. Food here is very home-produced, with no choice. We had a very refreshing tomato and basil soup, white fish fillet (I haven’t been able to ascertain yet which fish it was exactly – but it was meaty, with largish flakes and no bones, and tasty – even for fussy me), with rosemary potatoes and herby carrots. This was followed by a sundae dish of stewed apricots. After a glass of beer, we decided to try the wine made here at the Hacienda. They buy in the grapes from the local vineyard and turn them into a red wine – quite light in colour, but with a strong aftertaste of blackberries, a little like a Rioja. It was very drinkable, and I think quite potent. We didn’t manage to finish all the contents of the glass jug.

Although it was only 21.00, there was little else to do but go to bed. I read through the rest of the blogs I had written while Colin sat outside with his binoculars, star gazing. Chile is particularly renowned for its clear skies and there are many holidays with an astronomical theme centred around here.. The sky tonight was amazingly cluttered with stars – some only small pinpricks in the dark heavens, others, larger and brighter, and even recognizable like Orion’s Belt – running on the opposite diagonal to what we see at home! Apparently it is possible to see the Southern Cross from here, but not until late in the evening – around 23.00 or later, and hopefully we may be able to stay awake long enough tomorrow night to do some more star gazing and see it.

The bed here is a very narrow “double”, but has two single duvet covers – one will stretch across the bed, but there is no hangover – so it is very difficult to decide how to arrange the bedding – I will probably be too hot under a duvet anyway, but would like a bit of cover, so there is a good chance that the duvets will take up most of the middle bed space, if my feet, at least, are to escape. The book I had chosen – a Kathy Reichs novel – sounded ok on the back cover blurb, but the opening preface seemed somewhat complicated and boring, so don’t know if I will persist with reading it. But it was enough to send me to sleep anyway.