Day 3: La Chascona

Now, we had been planning on going skiing, but were told it was going to rain, which of course it did. But that meant we got to go to one of the places I was really looking forward to!

La Chascona is Pablo Neruda´s third home in Chile. La Chascona translates literally as crazy haired woman, and was so named after his third wife, Matilde, who is generally considered the love of his life. She had crazy wild red hair, thus the name. He also has a house in Valparaíso, and one in Isla Negra as well, which are both on the coast of Chile. I have to admit, Dad was not so excited, probably because he had never heard of Pablo Neruda before, which I honestly find amazing, because of his nobel prize and the fact that he is considered by many the best poet ever, if not the 20th century, and is widely respected for his strong communistic ideals.

I actually have loved Neruda since we studied poetry in high school, where I was first introduced to the beauty of his poems. He is one of the reasons I chose to come to Chile, as he often wrote fondly of the beauty of nature, which was obviously inspired by his homecountry.

Neruda loved the sea, and his house reflects this. It is built with very short cielings and narrow corridors to mimic a ship, with portholes and secret rooms, and even creaking floors, specially built to mimic the creaking of a ship deck. He was a pack rat, and being an ambassador to so many countries he had quite the collection, from Russian dolls, to enlarged shoes, to paintings. My favorite painting was by the husband of Frida, who is Diego Rivera I believe? I´ll check after I post to make sure. It was of Matilde, but two forms of her face, one profile, and one face on, representing the two stages of their relationship, when she was his mistress and then once they were mairried. A profile of Neruda himself is hidden in her hair. It´s quite beautiful, and a little haunting.

Although my dad was skeptical at first, he really enjoyed our trip! He got into it, asking lots of questions, wanting to know about Neruda´s politics and Pinochet, and all sorts of interesting stuff. The rain didn´t allow us to do much for the rest of the day, but La Chascona was wonderful!