LAST DAY AT ISLA NEGRA: LA CASA DE NERUDA

Yesterday I thought it appropriate to once again visit the famed house of the late, great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda during my last day in Isla Negra. The image you see above is of an elderly gentleman gazing out of a glass door that stands next to a large mural of Neruda, in the reception hall of the main building of the Fundación Neruda, next to the poet´s house. This building houses the offices of the Fundación, as well as the bookstore, a cafe, and the registration desk for tours of the house.


Now I didn´t go in for the tour, choosing instead to just walk the grounds and buy a book in the bookstore, Neruda´s Canto General, which includes one of his most famous poems, "Las Alturas de Macchu Picchu."
Now, the more I read Neruda, the more I am struck by the power of his imagery. And although I consider my command of Spanish to be limited, I have enough under my belt to appreciate how his Castellano can be so precise and carry such magnitude. Canto General is considered to be one of his essential works. It contains 15 chapters, beginning with "La Lampara en la Tierra" and followed by "Las Alturas de Macchu Picchu." These first two chapters embrace the majestic natural beauty of the South American continent before the conquest in some of the most expressive poetry I have ever read. But the third chapter is entitled "Los Conquistadores," which I finished reading last night in my cabaña. You can imagine that such a master of the language could lay out the most precise and chilling indictment of the conquistadors as one could ever expect to find, and in fact, he does so with such a natural skill that I, for one, was astounded. Neruda holds no quarter for the likes of Cortéz, Pizzarro, Valdivia and their fellows, so now I am anxious to begin my reading of the fourth chapter, "Los Libertadores."

Anyway, a short time ago I arrived back in Santiago, and I delivered that trusty Toyota Hilux that had carried me along across Northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina for these past four weeks to my agent here. This time there were no sorrowful incidents like that time in February 2006 when I had the collision with the llama in the remotest parts of Argentina´s Jujuy Province. . .this trip actually ended up being nearly flawless, for which I am certainly thankful.
Perhaps tomorrow I will try to post one more piece here, to put a final wrap on this third trip through the countries of Chile and Argentina. So check back, my friends.
Chao.