Coastal Chile - Part 1: Isla Negra & Viña del Mar

Hanging Out at the Beach in Isla Negra


As we were planning our trip to South America, my parents kept saying that they wanted to visit the coast of Chile and see the city of Valparaíso, which is coincidentally the name of the street they live on in Florida. Initially I wasn't too excited about seeing the coast, but I have to pleasantly admit, this day trip from Santiago was one of the highlights of visiting Chile.

Prior to departing the United States, we had arranged for a private tour to the coast through Latin Destinations, the tour operator we booked our lodgings and transportation from. The day excursion that we chose included visiting three coastal cities: Isla Negra, Viña del Mar, and Valparaíso. During our excursion, we would have an opportunity to visit two of the three Pablo Neruda homes that are open to the public: Casa de Isla Negra and La Sebastiana. (Please be sure to read my separate blog entry on the many houses of Pablo Neruda for more details.)

After a small mix-up in the morning at our hotel (the tour guide showed up on schedule...we thought it started later), we were off to the coast. Our tour guide Patricia was very knowledgeable and as we drove to our first location, Isla Negra, she provided us with a great history lesson on Chile, its people, politics and economy.

Isla Negra Beach


After about an hour's drive west of Santiago, we found ourselves in the sleepy, middle-class beachside resort town of Isla Negra. The tiny village of Isla Negra (which isn't really an island) was put firmly on the map when poet Pablo Neruda moved into a half-built house on the beach in 1939.

Pacific Ocean Waves Crashing

Flowers by the Sea

We spent about an hour or so visiting Neruda's home and paying our respects at his seaside grave. Then it was off to our second coastal city, Viña del Mar, Chile's largest and best-known beachside resort. Viña del Mar literally translates to Vineyard of the Sea. The city is also known as the Garden City, due to its many beautiful trees and flowers. Our first stop in Viña del Mar was to visit the much photographed Flower Clock.

Viña del Mar's Reloj de Flores

As you can tell by the time on the clock above (1:40 p.m.), it was time for lunch. Patricia had made arrangements for us to dine by the Pacific Ocean at the Castillo del Mar. The views of the Pacific from our window-side table were absolutely spectacular.

Castillo del Mar


The Menu


The restaurant's speciality is seafood. We started off with an appetizer of King Crab from Antarctica. It was absolutely delicious!

King Crab Appetizer

For our main course, my dad had the conger eel, my mom ordered the reineta, and I chose to have the Chilean seabass. By the way, I learned that in Chile, Chilean seabass is just called seabass. We also had a very nice bottle of Leyda 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from Leyda Valley, Chile with lunch.

Oceanview Dining

The lunch was quite good, and although it was a little on the pricey side (about US$120), the view was worth a million dollars. In addition to seeing the ocean, from our table we could see the Sheraton Hotel and the neo-Gothic Castillo Wulff, which was built in 1906. After lunch, my parents tried to pretend that they were Chileans by donning ponchos and gaucho hats.

Castillo Wulff and the Sheraton Hotel


The New Chileans

With our stomachs full of fresh and delicious seafood, it was off to see more of Viña del Mar. The city reminded me somewhat of being back in Monte Carlo. And just like that seaside town, Viña del Mar has a Casino, too.

Estero Marga Marga

Casino Municipal

Another surprise in Viña del Mar was that we had a chance to see a moai which was located in front of the Museo Fronck. This giant stone moai is just one of six that exists outside of Easter Island.

Museo Fronck and It's Moai

Moai Profile

Our final stop in Viña del Mar had to be the beach. We took a walk along the boardwalk at Playa El Sol and Playa Acapulco. Along the beach were vendors selling trinkets. Nearby were many high-rise condominiums with stunning ocean views.

Playa El Sol

Curvy Soda Bottles

Along the Beach

Contemporary High-Rise Buildings

Playa Acapulco, Viña del Mar

The Many Houses of Pablo Neruda

You Will Always Remember
By Pablo Neruda

You will remember that leaping stream
where sweet aromas rose and trembled,
and sometimes a bird, wearing water
and slowness, its winter feathers.
You will remember those gifts from the earth:
indelible scents, gold clay,
weeds in the thicket and crazy roots,
magical thorns like swords.
You'll remember the bouquet you picked,
shadows and silent water,
bouquet like a foam-covered stone.
That time was like never, and like always.
So we go there, where nothing is waiting;
we find everything waiting there.

Neruda's Window on the World


Pablo Neruda is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century. Without a doubt, he is certainly one of the most famous Chileans. Among Neruda's works are poems that range in style from love poems, surrealist works, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos. Neruda always wrote in green ink because he said it was the color of hope.

Neruda also served as an elected senator for the Communist party in Chile and, due to shifting political winds, beginning in 1949 the poet spent three years in exile in Europe. While in exile, a Chilean singer named Matilde Urrutia was hired to care for him and they began an affair that would, years later, culminate in marriage (Neruda's third). His 1952 stay in a villa on the Italian island of Capri was fictionalized in the popular Academy-award winning film Il Postino (The Postman) in the mid '90's.

Amid controversy due to his political activism, Neruda was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature. Two years later, Neruda, who was suffering from prostate cancer, died of heart failure.

Neruda's Grave at Isla Negra


Neruda owned three houses in Chile. The Fundación Pablo Neruda wouldn’t have been possible without the determination and efforts of Matilde Urrutia, who organized and expanded the poet’s legacy before and after his death. After Matilde's death in 1985, the Foundation restored the homes to how they were when Neruda lived in them. Today, they are all open to the public as museums: La Chascona in Santiago, La Sebastiana in Valparaíso, and Casa de Isla Negra in Isla Negra, where he and Matilde Urrutia are buried.

Casa de Isla Negra

Since 1939, Neruda spent forty years of his life (on and off) here at Isla Negra ("Black Island"). During this time, the poet enlarged the house and filled it with strange and beautiful objects that he collected and gathered from every possible corner of the world. Inside, you'll find winding passages and odd-shaped rooms crammed with fascinating and exotic objects like ships in bottles, butterflies, colored bottles, seashells, African masks, and much more.

Neruda's Beachside Home


The location of Casa de Isla Negra is breathtaking: it overlooks a small beach on the Pacific Ocean. The windows in the home were oriented to provide the poet with expansive views, which provided him with inspiration. Small groups of no more than a dozen people are led through the home by well-knowledged docents. (English speaking guides are available.)

Pablo's Fish Sculpture


Video of Casa de Isla Negra


Black Island in Black & White


An Ornamental Sea Creature


A Sleeping Cat

Bells of the Pacific

One of the Towers

Reading Up on Neruda

La Sebastiana

Of Pablo Neruda's three houses that are open to the public, La Sebastiana in Valparaíso offers the most informal look at the poet. At La Sebastiana, visitors can take a self-guided tour (with a portable audioguide) of the five level home.

House in the Air

Looking Up to the Bedroom Window


Blue Light

La Sebastiana served as the poet's residence at the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Neruda was so greatly inspired by his dwelling that he penned a poem in her honor,

I established the house.
First I made it from air.
Then I hung the flag in the air
and left it hanging
from the sky, from the star
from clarity and from darkness…

Lines of Artistry

La Sebastiana in Black and White

Perched high on the aptly named Cerro Bellavista, La Sebastiana has one of the most amazing 360 degree views over all of Valparaíso and the Pacific Ocean beyond. It's no wonder that these dramatic views inspired Neruda to call this house the Casa en El Aire ("House in the Air").

Valparaíso View


Casa en El Aire

La Chascona

Located on a quiet dead-end street in Barrio Bellavista in Santiago and at the foot of Cerro San Cristóbal, La Chascona is the house that Pablo Neruda shared with his third wife, Matilde, from 1955 until his death in 1973. The name La Chascona means messy hair; Neruda named the house as a tribute to Matilde's thick red hair. This was the only Neruda home that we didn't have a chance to visit on the inside.

La Chascona


Street Scene in Santiago


Neruda's Santiago Retreat

Tucked Into the Hillside