Botanical Garden and Neruda

After much Internet searching and debating, we decided to begin our adventure today at the Jardin Botanical Del Mar an hour or so up and around hilly mountains on winding roads through eucalyptus groves and pine trees…beautiful countryside.  We strolled through the park beginning in the flowers, particularly roses, section—over 110 different rose varieties.  They probably grow so successfully because of the cool climate, it has been 62 degrees (plus or minus 5) since we have been out of Santiago.

We continued along the dirt roads with the sounds of children enjoying the beautiful day and were stopped by a group of campers who wanted to chat.  They told us they were here with their professor and Allan asked if they were learning about the flowers and trees.  Of course, they told us, “No!  We are only playing.”  We chatted a while longer and took this photograph which they came after us to have sent to them.  So, now Allan has new pen pals as soon as he joins Instagram!

More birdwatching and quiet strolling among the trees and and we finally left the garden in search of Pablo Neruda’s amazing house and museum in Isla Negra.

More winding and some unpaved roads through similar countyside as before and we arrived at Isla Negra.  Pablo Neruda is a much revered Chilean poet and author. He loved the sea and purchased his small cabin here to live out his days on the Pacific. He added on to the cabin in stages, and the fish mosaics livened up each addition. Neruda collected many interesting objects, most to remind him of his childhood and the importance of keeping his curious and imaginative child self alive.  I was completely captured by his entertaining collections of ship mastheads, bottles, toys, madonnas, pirates and devils, pipes and a wood and paper mache horse. In the bar where he entertained his friends, he memorialized those who died by carving their names in the beams.  He positioned the Paris-like chairs so that current friends would also remember them. The house was amazing but apparently, so was Neruda.  I’m hoping that some of the books he wrote here, always with a view of the sea, are well-translated into English.

Neruda rang the bells in the bell tower whenever he came home to Isla Negra so that his neighbors knew he was here and a smaller version of the fish in a globe is also the weather vane on top of the original cabin.  I found myself smiling throughout the entire 1 1/2 hour tour.

What an awesome day!

Nancy