PHASE ONE APARTMENTS @ TERRAZAS

For the photographs taken from inside the apartments, from above the resort and for the gardens at blocks 10-17 I am indebted to Howard A.K.A. "El Don -The Godfather" for sending his collection to me.



I am taking this oppportunity to invite everyone to send any photographs which might help in assembling a decent record of Terrazas taking shape. If you have anything which might be useful leave a comment and I will contact you. Thanks.




















This is an early view of the apartments taking shape. The "U" shape facing onto the golf course is the area where El Don's photographs were taken.






















The exterior photographs of the garden area look excellent to me and as the golf course develops the spread of greenery will enhance it.

The interiors have the same doors, kitchens and bathrooms as the properties currently on show at Condado de Alhama. I have several photos taken in both the Jardines show house as well as the Penthouse which I understand are exactly the same as the Terrazas Penthouses will be so I will be posting a piece on Condado.

The floors are the standard Polaris World type that you will have seen in any dwelling you might have rented, visited or owned!

I was not aware that any radiators were included and I see that they are electric powered.







Units in the kitchen are a pale wooden shade with the worktops in a pewter look against shiney white rectangular tiles.

Doesn't sound overly attractive but having seen it at Condado I can say it is not at all bad and I can see a run on the stainless steel look of electrical appliances by all you fashionistas.


My updates on the exterior views will be posted soon but I am posting some of the views from between the apartment blocks which will give some idea of what can be seen from the ground floor apartments.



Past the skip & tree the group of
palm trees are the roundabout
which will be at the town centre.









Further along there is a similar view,
strange that!

In the back ground the hill is the
one which we pass on the C3319
road to San Javier. No doubt
you will have seen that is being
quarried but hopefully it will
survive for a few decades yet.










Next, a view of the Country
House, soon to be a drinking
den near Las Islas and the
Town Centre.










This final view appears to show
a large mound very close to the
apartments. Doubtless there is
a reasonable space as photos
always foreshorten the view.






Thats about it for now but hopefully I can leave you with a smile. The following notice was on a homemade for sale sign at La Torre. Now I can assure you that I am not one to mock our hosts and wish my Spanish was half as good this persons English.

The "Better Half" & I are starting a Spanish course in 2 weeks time and congratulations to El Don for passing his GCSE - who's a clever boy then?!!

That said, I couldn't resist sharing this with you. The message may be a little lost in translation I suppose but I'm not sure I could cope with one of those strutting around my apartment as if she owned it and polishing off all the corn! I bet there is just no talking to it.

Photos from on high at Terrazas

I have quite a few recent shots at Terrazas and will post them shortly but I want to organise them so that I can give a little meaning to what they represent so check back in a few days and they should be there.

Meantime I have 4 stunning shots of Terrazas from on high thanks to the generosity of Howard A.K.A. "El Don, The Godfather of Las Islas de las Terrazas " who sent me these shots.

This was an early shot of phase one as El Don swooped over the site in his helicopter and here you see blocks 1 -18.

This next shot shows El Don sweeping down from the west towards the "Old Country House" and it is clear that the shaping of the lake has been done and to the top right you can see the southern end of the resort and just over the dark strip, the outline of the smaller lake.

Don't you wish you could have a helicopter like El Don?


The next shot is taken by The Godfather from high on top of Block 13 (unlucky only for the security guard had he refused the unrefusable offer that was made to him by El Don.) This shows the communal pool and garden area with distant views of the soon to be "Chill-out Bar" and to the right of that the island outline again. There is also evidence of some work on the golf course .


This final shot shows the pool area in front of Block 13 and it looks attractive to me. I had thought that the apartment buildings looked a bit "blocky" compared to the La Torre apartments but when seen with the planting and the more finished look to them I am very encouraged that Terrazas will be just as good as La Torre.

Thanks again to The Godfather for these photographs, top man Howard. If anyone can add to these please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Come back soon and take a look at my latest batch of photos, I have the show houses at Condado including some interior shots which I understand will be the same as Terrazas in terms of sanitary wear , kitchen style and internal doors. Also external views including the "penthouse" style buildings which will feature at Terrazas. These will be uploaded no later than the coming weekend.

The Great Fire of La Torre

I was at La Torre last week, relaxing on the terrace with a glass of Spain's finest to sweep away the cares of another tough day in the sun. Sharing the bottle was the better half who happens to have a nose like a bloodhound - no not pronounced with a wet shiny tip, just very sensitive, quite cute actually.

Sniffing the air she announced "FIRE!" We sprang from our chairs and darted to the edge of the balcony and there 20 feet below was the start of a small fire. "Go and phone someone" I was quickly instructed and lumbered off to obey.

We had stayed on La Torre at the end of June and the owner had left all possible information on the entire Polaris organisation but this time all I could find was the number of the bar, well the owner is a Scotsman (that's one for my nephews) so I called Pino's.

I tried to explain the issue to the young lady who answered. "There is a fire near the apartments beside the first green" I advised her calmly. "Sorry Sir, you have phoned the bar" she helpfully advised.

Before I could launch into my best Manuel impersonation with a shout of "Fuego,Fuego" the missus told me that the Vigilantes had arrived and were attacking the fire with mucho gusto! I arrived back to our vantage point to see that the fire was spreading rapidly along the greenery outside the bunker.

The smoke began to thicken and we began to cough and splutter (more than the usual wheezes) it became clear that the only wise course of action was to beat a hasty retreat to the safety of the bar.

More help had arrived in the form of a brave youth who decided to tackle the inferno with a few well-aimed swipes of a bunker rake. Full marks for selfless endeavour but.........well about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.


Meanwhile in the bar we worried for hours as to where we would sleep that night should the catastrophe engulf our apartment block in flames (OK I'm just being silly here but you have to grant some artistic licence) and to ward off our fears we enjoyed several of the many offerings from Pino's Bar.


A long evening turned to black night and we decided to return to base. Just one more obstacle was in place in the early hours, the golf course sprinkler system. As we sauntered down from the clubhouse hoping to follow the cart path home there was a deluge of water for 50 or 60 yards and we had to make a trip down the practice range stumbling through the undergrowth of the heavily planted mounds of palm trees and grasses.
Having scrambled through the scrub we arrived back to find the vigilantes had recruited a small fire truck and to my surprise they were still tackling the aftermath of the fire.
What drama!!

One of the vigilantes told us they had beaten a confession out of a couple of young Spanish kids - OK they didn't actually beat them - who were out walking with their parents or grandparents and had casually asked to borrow a lighter so they could play with the nice bushes, what fun.


The following morning the carnage was apparent. I spoke to one of the ground staff who advised that Polaris were taking no action against the arsonist family despite the fact that whilst the grasses will probably recover and the trees just had some scorch damage, in excess of 1000 feet of the watering system had to be replaced. The good news for golfers is that the cost is not coming out of the greenkeeping budget.

Oh well, at least we survived the Great Fire of La Torre

WHERE TO SEE VIDEO

Have not been able to post video here but I have posted on another blog with all 63 photos and an initial unedited video which is not great quality but I wanted to find somewhere I could post video before bothering to edit.

Hope to get a more watchable video up before long.

http://www.travelpod.com/members/dchodgins

Response to a comment posted anonymously about mounding on the golf course:

I am not sure if that is the finished height as I was unable to see the mounding from the other side to see what is being done.

What I can tell you is that the camera foreshortens the distance and I don't believe it will be anything like as close to the apartments as is suggested by my photo. Nevertheless I would say that the ground floor properties will certainly not have a view over the resort.

I don't know if you are a golfer but flat courses are uninteresting in general and I feel it is unlikely that very many properties will take in a view of the entire site.

Could I advise people leaving comments that if they have any queries that I can help with I am more than happy to respond. Obviously I can't if you don't post your email address however needless to say all are welcome & if you prefer to be anonymous so be it. Thanks for your comment.

Unsuccessful try to load video of Terrazas so here are some more photos

Bad news I'm afraid, I tried to upload one minute of video but after an hour and a half when it was apparently loading the video I gave up. Will try to find an alternative so in the meantime here are some more photographs.
















These are taken from the west side of phase one.

Slightly further round to the right of these is where I see most progress and expect that will be where the first completions will be.






I have no idea of block numbers so can't shed any light on who can expect to be amongst the initial residents!









































These were taken from just outside the perimeter fence as close as I could get to the apartments.





Since I returned on Saturday it has hardly stopped raining so we have booked another week in August and I will try to get some updated photographs then.





The following are assorted shots from around the site.




This is taken from about a third of the way down the eastern side of the resort and shows the middle of the first phase.


If you expand the photo you will notice a line of trees across the photo and that is where the road is that will lead down to the town centre.






The building is the "counrty house" which will be the "chill-out bar."

The lake will start to this side to the building and continue to the left of the picture. To the right will be the town centre.

The cranes in the background are sited all the way down the western side in readiness for the building of the penthouses.







That is it for now, I will see if I can post the video somewhere and post again to advise where.

Again any comments or contributions will be welcome.

Home again to rainy Bangor (with photographs!)

Arrived into Belfast International Airport in heavy rain! Bit of a shock to the system having left San Javier in 80 degrees.

I took a trip around the perimeter of Terrazas and took quite a few photographs. This one is the first I have seen of how the apartments will front onto the golf course rather than the street behind it.

The main thing I discovered when out there was that all the building on phase one is complete although there will obviously be substantial work involved in finishing the interiors.

Parts of the phase look readier than others, namely those to the west side of the resort. There were plenty of men & women at work on the sight although as it was around lunchtime when I visited so there were several workers like these - "laid out like a fish supper" as some of us Ulster folk would say.




There is a good degree of landscaping around the entire phase and it was just about possible to see pool areas between some of the blocks.



These photos are of the same area, which would be to the west side of the phase where it makes a slight turn.








The last of the blocks were being painted whilst I was there.





I was staying at La Torre for two weeks and tried to rent a property which would give me some idea of how things might look from the islands at Terrazas.

It was also good to get a feel for the facilities at
La Torre because I think it is likely that that is where many people who are in the early completions will rely upon for many of their requirements in terms of supermarket and restaurants.

I paid a visit to Hacienda Riquelme and although it appears that the building is largely complete the facilities are few and far between. There is a small temporary supermarket and a temporary bar as far as I could see and no sign of work starting on the "Town Centre". I would be open to correction on this but that is how things look to me. I was lucky to see a few apartments whilst there and if they ever find this blog, many thanks in particular to Jenny & Dave for allowing us to see your beautiful apartment.

If that follows through on the Terrazas development we will rely heavily on La Torre and I am pleased to report that facilities there are quite good with a decent range of restaurant choices at a range of prices. There are 2 bars where you could happily while away an hour or seven plus a large number of pools. The facilities should be greatly enhanced when the hotel opens and I understand that this is expected around the end of this year - the building appears to be at an advanced stage.


This is the only landmark that I could see which you can identify on the plan. It is the old "Country House" which will be renovated and will be the chill-out bar mentioned in the brochure.



To the left of it, the east side of the lake will start and on the other side of it the smaller of the islands will be built. In the foreground the "town centre" will be built and it will extend far beyond the right hand end of the country house.


I have several more photographs taken on my trip around the perimeter which I will eventually get around to posting. I also took 20 plus minutes of video although as much of it shows locations around the site I feel that it would be pretty boring in its entirety so I will try to edit it into something more watchable, the only problem being that I have never edited video before!! If anyone feels they would like to suffer the full video let me know and I will try to post it although I am not sure what size this blogsite will permit.

I would be grateful for any comments and indeed any information that others may have to share.