After our Christmas Eve hike, we entered our new accomodations in the centre of the village. It was an apratment in the small building opposite the serpentarium, actually owned by the same people.
On the up side, we were told we could hang-out at the serpentarium's restaurant balcony, lounge on the hanging rope seat and use the wifi. However, the apartment turned out to be one big room stuffed with bunk beds, having an extra bed roughly walled off. There was the smallest 'kitchenette' I'd seen, with very little in the way of plates and dishes, a small gas stove set on the counter and a little bathroom. After the Hacienda Encantada it was admittedly a depressing sight - no sofa or dining table. Just two wooden chairs. And to top it off, no water - the entire village was out. This happened more regularly in the village we were told.
Had it not been the place we would be staying for Christmas through New Years Eve and had we not had two teenage girls now in our group, we would have made the best of it. But given the holidays and our bigger family, I called our fixer, Nancy, to ask what could be done. She is a star and soon had managed to contact friends who own a two-story farm-style house up on the next ridge and made an agreement for us to move into this home at a very good rate --- on the 26th.
So we had a couple of days to stay at the Bunk Bed Palace. I fgured this would be fine. Having no place to sit and hang out, we wandered over to serpentarium where we found our guide Juan and others we had met there. Sam fell head over tails, erm , heels, for the serpentarium dog, Peluche. We had coffee on the balcony, gazed at the amazing view and caught up on wifi with our iTouches and iPhones. The kids wandered freely from the apratment to the serpentarium and we all had chances to walk through the village, stopping at the little church and supermarket to chat with locals.
When I mentioned that we were moving on soon, the boys were devastated. NO! they said. We like the village, the serpentarium, Juan, Peluche. And we had also met our new neighbours from Alaska, Chris, Mimi and their 22 year old son Alex. All of a sudden I wondered if we had made a mistake and should adjust our standards a bit. The girls and I discussed this for awhile - but we jointly decided that the novelty of the village would wear off as soon as the 3 boys, the girls, and Justin and I were stuck in the house with a bit of rain and no privacy at all.
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