In Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, as well as in the north and center of Chile, adobe houses are still the heritage of many families, who have preserved this tradition since ancient times. Mixing dry grass with the mud allows a correct agglutination, great resistance to weathering and prevents the blocks once solidified from cracking. The blocks are then bonded together with mud to erect walls. Besides being economical, it is a good bioclimatic construction element for dry and desert environments, since it has great thermal inertia: it absorbs heat during the day and expels it on cold nights. So it has been a common building material in the desert.
Antonio traveled from Barcelona, Spain to San Pedro de Atacama in August 2013 and he shares his impression with us: “Whenever I travel and see buildings and houses that are so different from the usual ones in my country, I think about what they will be like inside and how to live in them. This happened to us when we saw the adobe houses of San Pedro de Atacama during the arrangements for our trip to Chile. We chose to stay at Terrantai and check the tranquility and positive energy that emanate from the natural materials used in this type of construction. We found it a beautiful and very romantic place. Seeing the bell tower of the church of San Pedro rising above the walls makes it a magical place that we will always carry in our hearts. Too bad we are far away!!”
That energy captured by the adobe combined with the silence of the desert, achieves a calming and retrospective effect towards the origins.