Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

I was first introduced to the poetry of Pablo Neruda in the Italian film Il Postino. I was imediately drawn to the way he mixes down to earth with mystical images. From the film I learned a little about his biography, but until I visited his houses I didn´t really know much about HIM - a man who surounded himself with art, nature, science, history, color, and friends.

The first of his houses that we visited was in Valparaiso - La Sabastiana. It´s on one of the many hillsides overlooking the port. It´s a duplex (the property shared with some good friends), a tall thin homey place with panoramic views and a beautiful round fireplace the center of his living room. Kepfram didn´t like all the narrow stairways or the abundant collections of objects, but I loved them, probably for the reason Kepfram didn't - whimsical, fanciful, impractical at times.... You aren´t allowed to take photos inside the houses (the sale of souvenirs helps to fund the foundation set up by Maltilde Urrutia, his third wife), or I would have taken MANY.

We then took a bus down the coast to the town of Isla Negra (which is NOT an island despite its name). Neurda's house is on a cliff above a rocky beach with hard breaking waves. The house is huge and rambling. A collection of buildings with each room different in purpose and atmosphere from the next, many rooms filled with various collections of all sorts of objects - wooden statues formerly fronting ships, shells, masks, musical instruments, colored glass balls.... You can appreaciate the beauty and power of the sea while strolling the grounds or happy and warm inside looking out.

Our final stop on the Pablo Neruda tour was La Chascona (Neruda's nickname for his then mistress, later wife Matilde Urrutia - he was referring to her crazy hair). The property is in a lovely neighborhood of Santiago full of gorgeous houses, but Neruda´s is the most impressive - small in scale by grand in scope. Of all his housed this one seemed the most lived in. A small dining room for private meals, a large dining room for dinner parties, a bar, several spaces for work quite relexion, more collections of beautiful things, books, art, warmth, light, history, modernity, peace.

Neruda died shortly after Pinochet's takeover of his beloved country (of a broken heart it's said). But he lived a full and inspiring life, and I'm glad to have had the chance to see where he lived it.

Ellie