Isla Negra

Yesterday we had a paseo, basically a field trip, to the coastal town of Isla Negra. If anyone is planning on visiting Chile and doesn't know what to do for a day, I highly recommend this place, it was awesome.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to one of Pablo Neruda's three houses. He loved the ocean, but also got seasick easily, so his beach-front house was designed to be like a ship. Along with the cool architecture, Neruda collected things from all over the world and basically had a small museum in his house. There were African masks, pictures of famous writers he was friends with, instruments, maps, ships in bottles, shells, an insect collection, and one room just for a life-sized model horse with three tails. The living room was full of figureheads. In another room the entire wall was an undersea mosaic made of native Chilean rocks, including several fossils. Outside the house, overlooking the shoreline, is the place where Neruda and his third wife are buried.

Next we went to a restaurant called the Kaleuche, named after a legendary ghost ship. It was incredibly designed, with glass bottles in the walls, stained glass, shells, and a panoramic view of the ocean. Oh, and bread. I love bread. The main courses were pretty good as well. I ate caldillo de congrio, which is a kind of fish soup. Neruda wrote an ode to this dish, which was painted on a wall near his house.

When we finished eating we climbed around on the rocks for a while. It was really great seeing all of the sea-life in the tide pools. There were many-legged seastars, barnacles, snails, clams, bugs, and these weird things that looked like giant pill bugs. In one particular pool there were even red anemones! I was soaked by a very very large wave, and my pants were still damp when I got home in the evening.