La Sebastiana (written by Caitlyn Linden)

        For the second half of our Sunday we visited La Sebastiana, one of three homes of Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda. His home has now been turned into a museum for visitors to pay and walk through, listening to a recording of someone describing the life and house of Pablo Neruda. When we got to the destination, we had to wait a short amount of time to start the tour so we were able to visit the gift shop. Once the museum was ready for us, we walked inside, grabbed an automated tour guide and began our tour of the home. 

        On the bottom floor we listened to a recording that welcomed us to his home and gave us some background on how his house came into existence. We figured out he called it La Sebastiana in honor of its builder, Sebastian Collado, a man who passed away after beginning to build a house with the purpose of living there. With the house still unfinished, Sara Vail and Marie Martner, dear friends of Neruda’s, introduced him to the home in 1959 and Neruda immediately knew it was meant for him.

        The poet took three years to completely finish decorating the house. I found it amazing how each room was thought out and decorated with a special intention. Nothing in Neruda’s house was just for show or just happened to be there, it all had special meanings to him which we learned through the recordings. When walking up the first set of stairs on the left side wall there is a stone mural which was created by Martner himself, inspired by an old map of Patagonia. When you climb the winding staircase you begin the enter the first part of Neruda’s section of the house, the living room. The first thing I noticed upon entering was the large carousel horse within the circular entrance of the room. With this being a unique decoration, Pablo Neruda claimed to have designed his home like a toy house with all of the objects and blue and pink colored walls. One of his most famous quotes is “a child who does not play has lost forever the child who lived in him.” Neruda considered his real profession a builder and his love for different objects was expressed in the recording.

        When walking over towards the left passing the fireplace, we entered the dining room. I could confidently say this was my favorite room. I spent so much time standing right next to his cloud arm chair, which was his favorite place to sit for obvious reasons. From this chair I was able to see almost all of Valparaiso, and it was absolutely breathtaking.

        Not only was the view jaw-dropping, but the decorations in this area were also very pretty. One of my favorites was the Coro-Coro bird handing from the ceiling inside a giant glass bubble, with a poem close by on the wall. There was also a dining room table which was set up with six place mats. We learned that Pablo Neruda never liked to eat alone because he thought it was equivalent to “eating in a tomb”. When he invited guests over he would have a menu created with a few of his dishes and he would always be able to provide Chilean wine, his absolute favorite. Also on top of the table was a glass pig as the centerpiece which I thought was a nice touch.

        Another room could be entered from a door attached to the dining room. This small area kept a bar, which Neruda was only allowed to stand behind to prepare drinks for his friends. Also inside were many shelves of colorful glass bottles, a musical box, a private bathroom, and a recipe for his most famous drink.

        Upon leaving this area we climbed another long staircase to reach an area which had his bedroom and bathroom. In the bedroom lies a brass bed and near it is a chest of drawers from a ship. From the window, Neruda had a panoramic view of all Valparaiso where he could see ships set sail. He did not enjoy physically sailing but he loved to watch the boats from land. Another thing that caught my eye in the room was his bedroom door made of beautiful colored glass. Neruda himself loved this room because he enjoyed sleeping and taking naps a lot, as I’m sure we all do. It was mentioned that guests would occasionally get frustrated with him because he would be asleep when they visited, which I thought was funny. The bathroom on this floor also possessed a lot of color, as the tiles were green, white, and light blue.

        The final room that we were able to visit was the study, the highest point of his house which allowed another amazing view of the city. In this room was his desk, where he spent time writing poetry. During our tour, the poem La Sebastian was sitting on his desk in Spanish with the English translation next to it. In this room there were also many books in a book shelf, and his first type writer which I found really cool to look at. After finishing in the study, we made our way down to where we started, handing our device back, and had the option to watch a movie which summarized what we had just previously heard about Pablo Neruda.

        After we completed the tour and were standing outside. I talked to Ailene about what she thought of the museum. “She stated, I’ve always been a fan of Neruda after studying him in high school. Getting to see his house helped put things in perspective and was an incredible way to spend the day.” Angelina also had an insightful comment when she said “I liked how it was very interactive and I could spend more time in the areas I really liked”, which I fully agreed with. Lastly, Zach “loves how every room has a view of the ocean.” He said “I wish I could live in a house like this someday”. The view was truly unbelievable and I’m sure we all captured enough pictures of Valparaiso to share this experience with friends and family. This was an overall great experience and was definitely a key destination to visit.