Blogs from Valparaíso, Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 5

PABLO NERUDA’S ROLE IN SOCIALISM Today I visited Pablo Neruda’s second home, called La Sebastiana. I discovered far more about Neruda’s political life and I take back my previous comment that he was a dilettante. Dilettantes dabble in different hobbies but often don’t finish what they start but Neruda took on some very important political roles. The house itself really reflects this. However, for me it isn’t as elaborate as his house La Chascona in Santiago. In 1936 he lived in Madrid and Barcelona and during the Spanish Civil war he rescued Spaniards from the regime by bringing them to Chile using the Winnipeg boat. There is a portrait of Lord Cochrane, a British seafarer who worked at rescuing Spaniards from Chile. To show Neruda’s gratitude to the sailor, he put Cochrane’s picture in his dining ... read more

I got lucky finding a nice, local restaurant with a decent price for Menu del Dia. I had bread with pizca?, bean soup for starter, salmon and salad for main and a scoop of chocolate ice cream for dessert, all accompanied with a tutti frutti fresh juice. Menu Del Dia here works a bit like Menu del Dia in Spain but here they don’t give you any options- they set the menu, you sit at the table and eat what is given to you. Luckily I like most food so I eat everything. I love trying out new food, looking at what waiters are bringing other people, seeing if their portions are bigger and smaller than mine, savouring every taste, watching the local news on the TV whilst eating, or thinking about the food, how its ... read more

Don’t ever judge a town solely by the amount of dog poo in the streets but be aware that a lot of dog poo does mean that there are a lot of stray dogs roaming around. This is one of the less problematic issues in this town. After doing two tours with two different companies, one in Spanish, and one in English to make sure I understood the details properly I found it was a port steeped in history, but a port not to relax in. The morning weather was foggy, drizzly with sea mist, cold with a dark sky. There is dog dirt on every pavement, stray dogs follow anybody who gives them food, signs to the nearest Tsunami evacuation sites are found everywhere (if there is an earthquakes in the ocean it automatically sparks ... read more

Two types of immigrants came and settled in Valparaiso - the rich and the poor. The rich brought paintings from Europe and the poor got rich by finding resources such as copper and generating profit from this business. A? good example of a ?rich immigrant is that of a Yugoslavian architect, who built the Palacio Barburizza and whilst he was getting treated for TB in Europe he brought lots of paintings with him. Now the Palace has been bought by the public, and it forms the Bellas Artes, a famous art museum with a very expensive copper roof, which displays the paintings he brought from Europe.... read more

In 2003 Valparaiso became part of UNESCO, a world heritage site, mainly because of a famous modern building called Çubo de Vidrio. Since then several other art galleries were established and Pablo Neruda’s museum hosted visitors. These events lead to more and more hostels being built to cater for tourists. The immigrants at first were reticent to welcome tourists, but when UNESCO threatened to invest all their money in their rival port San Antonio, Valparaiso soon welcomed tourists because it desperately needed the money.... read more