Hacienda Laguna Torca

This past weekend I went on a little trip a few hours south with my parents and my Tía Maria and we had a wonderful time. I took hundreds of pictures and there are many things I can think to write about, so I might have to split it up into a few separate posts.

The first thing I want to write about is the place we stayed. I enjoyed the place we stayed at so much and I was very impressed and pleased with the hospitality and friendliness of our hosts that I must give them a bit of a promotional moment. We stayed at Hacienda Laguna Torca, a beautiful farm tucked up in the hills of wine country, close to the ocean and the serpent shaped Lago Vichuquen, which I would describe as a sort of less commercialized Lake Tahoe. If you ever find yourself exploring the VII region of Chile, I would definitely recommend staying here. For one thing, the location is absolutely beautiful and peaceful. After following several bumpy dirt roads, you arrive to Hacienda Laguna Torca, which consists of a field of olive trees, tree covered hills, and colorful flowers everywhere. The Hacienda is home to two gentle horses, a dog who is very friendly albeit a bit timid, and four curious llamas.

Not only is location itself worth seeing for it's peaceful and simple beauty, Hacienda Laguna Torca is owned by some very welcoming, friendly, and accommodating people. We enjoyed chatting with Charles, Soledad, and her mother, all of them kind and interesting people. Charles is from England and has been in Chile for the past ten years after falling in love with and marrying his wife, Soledad. A gringo married to a Chilena named Soledad, hmm sounds familiar, doesn't it? What really struck me about these people however, is how happy they seem to be living where they are living, doing what they are doing. And their happiness and pure love for their land and their lives they are living on it is contagious. Who doesn't like to be surrounded by content and positive people?

Okay enough with the advertising. Seriously though, I am genuine in my praise, I throughly enjoyed my time there. I was able to just let go and enjoy myself in the moment, something that is sometimes hard for me to do.

Time for some pictures! As I said, I took so many, so I will continue to post more the next few days from some of the different places we went to. These are all from the Hacienda.

I took several pictures of these flowers, I just thought they were so pretty.

Hiding behind all those trees and flowers is the lodge we stayed in.

My mom's new friend is sneaking up behind her.

We all fell in love with this dog, although he always seemed a little scared of us.

The view of the farm from the porch.

The lodge we stayed in was built into the hill so the rocks are very much a part of it. This is the view from the living room. One of my favorite parts of this lodge was one of the bathrooms, the wall of it was entirely rock. It kind of felt like showering outside, and I loved that.

We hiked to the top of the hill and the view was breathtaking. I tried to get a good picture, but the sun was shining so brightly, I couldn't do the view justice. You can't really tell, but this picture was taken from pretty high up. The hike up the hill wasn't easy, it reminded me that I've been eating a bit too much bread since being in Chile and maybe not exercising enough.

This is Violetta, she's a workhorse, so strong and beautiful. We all took a turn riding her right before we left, she was very gentle and easy to ride.

This is Laguna Torca which is just down the road from the farm, what's special about it is that is home to black necked swans. I think they look fancier and more elegant than regular swans, like they are wearing tuxedos.