Neruda/Bellavista

The morning of Saturday we met at 11, although with no rush since our professor routinely seemed to show up at least half an hour late herself. We walked to the Metro in staggered groups, as Neruda's house wasn't big enough for the entire group to tour. Subway passes were purchased for us, with a colorful "Bip!" labeled across the front of my card. People would like the Boston subway system more if there was a funny word on every CharlieCard...ok maybe not but hey not the worst idea...

Anyways, we ended up in the Barrio Bellavista, the artsiest/most bohemian neighborhood in Santiago, about 5 stops only away from our subway stop, Tobalaba. The neighborhood seemed bustling, with a giant park near the stop as a contrast, complete with flowing river nearby. Santiago was definitely an interesting city as I would learn, with such a varied amount of architectural styles and influences fused together. It reminded me of Boulder, CO, which I briefly visited, with the omnipresent power of the mountains constantly visible in the horizon. Someone made an interesting point several days later while on the bus, that almost all of the buildings in Santiago ended before the snowtops, suggested as intentional so that Chileans can always have a good view of the mountains. Definitely a possibility...

So after walking through the nieghborhood (myself excitedly grabbing shots of street art with my 3 day-old camera, a gift from the parental unit prior to departure), we arrived at La Villa Pablo Neruda. I have heard of his name before, but knew extremely little about him otherwise, and was expecting a rather boring, predictable tour. However, our guide was an extremely talkative, outspoken individual, who started with explaining Neruda's signifigance. Going beyond a famous author, Neruda was closer to a rock star in his time, serving as a senator of Chile, drinking comrades with such early 20th century luminaries as Hemingway, Picasso, and Dali among others, as well as being Chile's best loved author/poet. He wrote 48 books during his lifetime, as well as a wide assortment of smaller poems, in a wide range of styles from surrealist to observational to odes in praise of common items. Our tour guide's passionate description of his style and methods made me very interested in reading some of his work, a small sample of which I have perused online and indeed enjoyed highly.

That being said, Neruda's house turned out to be quite interesting. He maintained a large collection of random objects like cups, dishes, books, and essentially anything non-collectible (he did NOT collect stamps for example). His collections had been ransacked during the military coup of the 70's, but the remnants alone served as a memorial to ridiculous collections. His entire house was designed to evoke a ship as well, complete with portholes, rolling decks, and marine equipment everywhere. What a trip... The view from his balcony was quite nice indeed...

Following Neruda's house, we absconded for a group lunch at a nearby Chilean restaraunt. Shellfish with cheese were ordered as an appetizer, since the Chileans have an impressive reputation for high-quality seafood. I did not partake myself, being the strange vegetarian I am (shrimp is allowed, vegetables not so much...) Wine flowed profusely at the lunch, including a fruity white wine complete with fruit in the pitcher as well as a uniquely Chilean type of vino, a Carmenere. I had an extremely enjoyable talk with my professor about life, food, and meditation, among other topics.

After lunch, the majority of the group went back to the hotel, but me and a few friends went exploring, since the professor had told me that gente spin fire in the parque across from the subway. Being a complete and total fire spinning fanatic, this needless to say got me very excited and determined to find out more about this. I had my sock poi that day in my bag, so as we strolled through the park I was spinning the whole time, a sort of badge on my shoulder if you will. Sure enough, we saw a woman after a while spinning flag poi, and she directed us to the Museo, where she said people spun fire at night.

We saw some knife jugglers at an intersection busquing for change, and went over to talk to them about it. Very friendly folks, who informed us that on Domingos (Sunday), the next day, there was fire spinning in the parque after dark. It had taken me all of 24 hours to find the fire spinners, go figure...Since there were none that day, we said goodbye and headed back to the hotel. I felt exstatic that the next day we would be (hopefully) hanging out and spinning fire, something I have an addiction for and need to do multiple times a week. Fire spinning is a drug just like anything else, and an addictive one at that...