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Palomino, La GuajiraNiumoon

The place

Forty metres by ninety, between the Palomino river and the Caribbean, on sand with a clay layer two metres down.

What was built

Two blocks, single storey, reinforced concrete frame with block infill and flat slabs. Palm thatch over the slabs on a timber frame, replaced every four or five years by the same two men from Mingueo. The pool is 16 metres, unheated, and sits between the blocks where it gets sun from ten until four.

What the sea has taken

About eleven metres of beach since 2009, measured from the first fence post. It goes in storms and comes back slowly, and over seventeen years the trend is one way. The north fence has been moved twice. We are not going to pretend this is not happening.

Power and water

  • Mains power since 2014. It fails about once a fortnight, usually for under an hour.
  • A battery bank runs the lights, the fans and the pumps when it does. Not the air conditioning.
  • Water from a well at 34 metres, filtered, and chlorinated for the showers. Drinking water is filtered separately and is on the table in jugs.
  • Hot water is solar, on the roof of the south block. On a cloudy morning in October it is lukewarm and there is nothing we can do about that.

What is here and what is not

There is no safe in the rooms. There is one at reception and it is used. There is no road noise, because the lane ends at us. There is no wifi in the rooms by design; there is wifi in the dining area and at reception and it is slow, because everything here is on one line.

The people

Nine of us. Two at reception, three in the kitchen, two on the rooms and the grounds, and two on the gaming room door and counter. Seven are from Palomino or Mingueo. Two of the nine speak enough English to handle anything; the rest will get one of those two.

The thatch

It is palm, laid over a timber frame with a gap below the slab so air moves through it. It lasts four to five years on the weather side and six on the other. It is also why there is no open flame anywhere on the property, including candles in rooms, and that one is not negotiable.

Site plan between the river and the sea Two long blocks of rooms stand either side of a pool. Reception and the kitchen are in the block nearest the lane. The gaming room is at the back of that block. The river runs along the west boundary and the beach is sixty metres north. the beach, 60 m North block six rooms South block six rooms Reception, kitchen Gaming room pool the river the lane, Calle 3
The plot, with the river on the west boundary.

The only gaming on this property is in one room of it. The Niumoon Room runs no game online, keeps no account open and moves no payment across this website.