We set off along Avenida Alemania winding along the middle of the hills to Pablo Neruda's Valparaiso house yesterday morning. There's a photo of the house 2 postings down. Pablo Neruda is one of my favorite poets and his house reflected his personality. He had the upper 3 floors of the 5 story house and on every story are large windows overlooking the city and the Bay. The living room/dining room/bar floor had some great objects like a carousel horse, plates featuring hot air balloons, funny signs in the bar, a glass that Czar Nicholas drank out of, and a leather chair Neruda named "the cloud". We used the audio tour which was very well done and discussed many of the objects in the house and associated them with his life and poetry. His study was on the top floor and had many paintings of ships and a big poster of Walt Whitman.
From there we caught a local bus to Caleta los Membrillos, a fishing port downtown that has several good seafood restaurants. Jake had fried congrio (Conger eel, a very firm white fleshed fish) and I had reinata, some other kind of fish. Fish and meat usually come with a dish of pebre, the Chilean equivalent of salsa. After lunch we strolled along the coastal promenade to one of Valpo's beaches. It was not a very attractive beach though, so we caught a bus back into town.
After a rest at La Nona, we strolled through our own neighborhood admiring the "graffitti" art and Victorian buildings covered in corrugated tin painted bright colors. We had "onces", coffee, a sandwich and a slice of chocolate cake, at a little cafe/bookstore called Cafe con Letras and then moved on to a glass of wine and some mild black olives served with crushed walnuts and lemon juice at the Brighton hotel overlooking one of the cliffs (see photo). Later for dinner we stopped at a tapas restaurant, Poblenou, for brochettes of meat and zuchinni and a small dish of shrimp and scallop curry served with bread.
From there we caught a local bus to Caleta los Membrillos, a fishing port downtown that has several good seafood restaurants. Jake had fried congrio (Conger eel, a very firm white fleshed fish) and I had reinata, some other kind of fish. Fish and meat usually come with a dish of pebre, the Chilean equivalent of salsa. After lunch we strolled along the coastal promenade to one of Valpo's beaches. It was not a very attractive beach though, so we caught a bus back into town.
After a rest at La Nona, we strolled through our own neighborhood admiring the "graffitti" art and Victorian buildings covered in corrugated tin painted bright colors. We had "onces", coffee, a sandwich and a slice of chocolate cake, at a little cafe/bookstore called Cafe con Letras and then moved on to a glass of wine and some mild black olives served with crushed walnuts and lemon juice at the Brighton hotel overlooking one of the cliffs (see photo). Later for dinner we stopped at a tapas restaurant, Poblenou, for brochettes of meat and zuchinni and a small dish of shrimp and scallop curry served with bread.
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