House Tour

After a few months of hard work, we are finally done with the house. We finished most of the unpacking within the first few weeks, but we've finally put the finishing touches on and we'd thought we'd give you a tour...so come on in!

View of the living room upon entering

Living room/dining room

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Office and Library

Master bedroom

Guest Bedroom (+ 1 free cat)

Second guest bedroom

My craft room

My Office

Just a short post today. I finally got my desk completed sorted out; all my books are on the shelves and I have a temporary computer in place (I'm waiting on a brand new one). I thought I'd post a picture of my new office and the view from my chair.

Pretty sweet view!

Dakar Rally

David has always been a big fan of rallies and in particular one of the premier rally races in the world, the Dakar. The Dakar is an annual race usually starting in Paris, France and ending in Dakar, Senegal. The route traverses the deserts and rough terrain of Africa and usually lasts about two weeks. The fun part is that cars are not the only racing vehicles - quads, motorcycles, and giant "service" trucks also take part.

During one of our weekly meetings at Gemini, someone mentioned something about the Dakar passing through La Serena. Given the normal venue of the race, I thought that they were either mistaken or that their was a copycat race by the same name in South America. As it turns out I was wrong. Given the political climate and threats of terrorism in Africa the race this year was moved to South America and indeed, the drivers were planning to race outside the city in the desert and end up here after one of the stages. I found all this out on the internet and then casually called David and asked him "would you like to go to the Dakar". The reaction when I explained it to him was totally worth it.

David and I tried to find the exact locations of the rally stage itself, but not knowing the roads around town very well, it was nearly impossible. In the end, we went downtown to where the major highway into town (Ruta 5) intersects the Parque de Valdivia. We weren't the only ones with the same idea, the streets were packed!

The streets were lined with cheering onlookers

A motorcyclist pulls a stunt for the crowds

One of the few brave quad drivers in the race

As it turned out their was a giant procession of the racers into town and a good number of people turned out to wave and shout them into the city. It was really fantastic! We had an amazing afternoon cheering all the racers and got a ton of pictures. We also found where the cars were parked overnight, and although we couldn't get particularly close, managed to stand near the turnoff to the bivouac area. Many of the drivers were taking the opportunity to slow down and shake hands with the crowd out their windows.

Near the turnoff to the bivouac

Another cyclist near the bivouac

Later that night we decided to go out for a quick dinner at one of our favorite little restaurants on the beach, a small Falafel stand near El Faro, or the lighthouse. We didn't think we would run into anyone particularly famous, since it was not near the fancier restaurants. We were wrong! It turned out that the driver currently in 10th place had his car parked right off the road and was digging in to some middle eastern faire. David even wished him luck (although that apparentlly didn't work, he rolled the car the next day and had to pull out of the race).

All in all it was a pretty neat and totally unexpected day.