San Antonio, Chile (3rd time)

This is our third time in this port. First time we went to Valparaiso, second time to Santiago. Both cities are a long drive. This time Erin arranged something different.
We met with our group of 11 people at 8:30am, took a shuttle out of the port and met with the guide at 9:00am.

Our first stop was Pablo Neruda house.
Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature, Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems.

Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party.

Neruda died at his home in Isla Negra on 23 September 1973. Neruda is often considered the national poet of Chile.

Casa de Isla Negra was one of Pablo Neruda's three houses in Chile. It is located at Isla Negra, a coastal area of El Quisco. It was his favourite house and where he and his third wife, Matilde Urrutia, spent the majority of their time in Chile. Neruda, a lover of the sea and all things maritime, built the home to resemble a ship with low ceilings, creaking wood floors and narrow passageways. A passionate collector, every room has a different collection of bottles, ship figureheads, maps, ships in bottles, and an impressive array of shells.

The audio tour was very informative and we enjoyed going through this unique house. After the tour we went to see Pablo Neruda and his third wife grave and then to the coast.

Our second stop was San Antonio valley winery. It is a small winery producing good wine. The winery starter by a woman and now continues production by her children.

We had an extensive introduction to the operation and history of this winery. After that we tasted 5 different wines and purchased three bottles.

A little drunk and happy we returned to our ship.Read more