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| poet Pablo Neruda's gravesite at Isla Negra, Chile |
Poet Pablo Neruda’s former home on Chile’s coast is located in an area that is similar to Carmel in California, with windblown pines, rustic walkways, and the constant sound of waves breaking over the rustic rocky shore. Getting there from Santiago takes you through the lush Casablanca Valley, where grapes, avocados, lemons, and almonds grow. My tour bus took a scenic eucalyptus-edged shortcut past a 1,000-year-old cemetery.
Neruda was a big collector “of things” and they are well displayed throughout: toys, bottles, ship figureheads (seen in the stone living room), piano leg supporters (though he never owned a piano), colored glass (Pablo thought everything tasted better from colored glass), wood carvings, model ships in bottles, 2 hummingbirds on pins. An entire room is devoted to a shell collection.
Neruda bought the land with a small house in 1939, then, according to guide Phillipe, built out buildings to his “decide.” He included many arched doors and barrel-ceilinged rooms, including a dining room where his placemat indicated he was “the captain of his ship” (though he never sailed). The bedroom has a stunning ocean view and a bed with a white popcorn-stitch crocheted bedspread; his desk overlooks the sea (he wrote with green ink because of its closeness to nature).
This was the most beloved of his houses “basically because of that ‘big pool’ (the ocean) outside.” Neruda passed away in the Santa Maria hospital by the Sheraton in Santiago, but is buried here—his grave looks like a stone ship’s bow—where he lived out his life with his third wife, Matilde.
Videos that depict the house, described in Neruda's own words in Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbEqInBpHts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Paeqg_ZuaM
More things to do in Chile.
More ideas for exploring South America.
image depicts Pablo Neruda's gravesite
Neruda was a big collector “of things” and they are well displayed throughout: toys, bottles, ship figureheads (seen in the stone living room), piano leg supporters (though he never owned a piano), colored glass (Pablo thought everything tasted better from colored glass), wood carvings, model ships in bottles, 2 hummingbirds on pins. An entire room is devoted to a shell collection.
Neruda bought the land with a small house in 1939, then, according to guide Phillipe, built out buildings to his “decide.” He included many arched doors and barrel-ceilinged rooms, including a dining room where his placemat indicated he was “the captain of his ship” (though he never sailed). The bedroom has a stunning ocean view and a bed with a white popcorn-stitch crocheted bedspread; his desk overlooks the sea (he wrote with green ink because of its closeness to nature).
This was the most beloved of his houses “basically because of that ‘big pool’ (the ocean) outside.” Neruda passed away in the Santa Maria hospital by the Sheraton in Santiago, but is buried here—his grave looks like a stone ship’s bow—where he lived out his life with his third wife, Matilde.
Videos that depict the house, described in Neruda's own words in Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbEqInBpHts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Paeqg_ZuaM
More things to do in Chile.
More ideas for exploring South America.
image depicts Pablo Neruda's gravesite
image copyright 2009 Carole Terwilliger Meyers
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