eldiablotranquilo

Well we have been open for 10 days and things have slowly been coming together. Now we have electricity, hot water, and internet; we have had on average about 20 people per night. It has been so amazing. The first night Dan, Lucia, Brian, and I were standing on the entre piso looking down at the lobby with all the people truly enjoying themselves, and I honestly felt like I was going to start to cry. It was such a beautiful thing, which was amplified even more being with other people who had put in an extraordinary amount of time, thought, and effort. We opened up a bottle of wine and took it all in.

The bar is moving along quickly, they laid the floors, the ceramica is going on the walls, they are painting, and the base of the bar downstairs is up and dry. They still have the same style of construction; one day have no one there, and then the next day have 20 people working away.

A week ago our second employee arrived… Ani. She has come to us from a bed and Breakfast in Alaska to help us start things out and get through January. She is very energetic and with all the experience she has from very seasonal small town in Alaska, she has been a huge help. This picture was from our time in Montevideo roaming about last Sunday.

Up until about a week ago we were planning on having a very neutral color on the outside of the hostel, but after seeing the red inside we decided to go for it and do it all in red. We might change the tone a little bit, but other than that we are sticking with it…

This weekend was a 3-dayer for the people of Uruguay, many of whom came right on down to our decks to chill out and enjoy the great weather. Brian and I were pleasantly surprized how many people were out and about. ( I counted 27 surfers at one point!) Makes me extremely anxious to open our doors!

At the site they have started painting and they have finished the entre piso. The color behind Brian is my favorite, it is the color of the main wall in the lobby…opposite the doors, in the four person, and in the big 10 person dorm. The other colors are gold, a goldish orange, a beautiful strong blue, light blue, forest green, and a vanilla. It looks good.

After all the problems with our fireplace in Beatris,  Brian made sure that the fireplaces in the hostel were 100 times better. (This winter our fireplace fell apart and never got it together again. When we lit it, smoke would pour out and no matter how big the fire was, it did not heat you up unless you were right in front of the fire.) He designed a fireplace with iron in the back to absorb and transmit heat and also little tunnels inside to push hot air out. I am pretty excited to try it out in a week or so when we get to move in.

The bar is really starting to take shape. These are the stairs that go from the entry to the entre piso. In this area there will be a pool table and little lounge.

I would like to start off by saying that we should all be grateful to Brian for painstakingly getting ahold of yahoo and having them move my blog. (I guess when they erased he old investor’s site, they also wanted to shut down th blog with it, but Brian wouldn’t have it.) So, if he didn’t care so much, you wouldn’t have been stuck in the past…always wondering. Like that time you were reading a good book and you had finally reached the part where everything will be revealed, but then you loose book and you are left alone.

On that note though…. da da da daaaah! The website is up and running if you want to take a look. www.eldiablotranquilo.com !

 Anyway, the hostel is looking so great. Friday some chairs and tables arrived, today we picked the colors, and Monday the beds are supposed to be delivered. The fireplaces are going in, the doors are varnished, and this week they are putting in the entre piso! (loft) Cool beans huh?

Everyone we now officially have decks to bring all the people down to us to eat and drink to their hearts desire. Our friends,Ramiro and Victoria, have been working on it with their crew and have done a great job. We have had a few people remark that it is the nicest thing in Punta del Diablo! I think it is really starting to sink in to the locals here that we aren’t messing around! It goes from the top of the hill, goes over a little creek, (which means we are helping the environmental agency here by giving people a way down to the beach that doesn’t have such a large effect on the sand dunes) past the bar, and eventually ends at our little beach hut. Looks good, don’t it?