Museo Palacino Cousinos

Today was a museum day or I should say it was a 2 museum day. When I was researching for the trip the best rated museum was a lesser visited one known as the Museo Palacio Cousinos. The story behind the museum was that it was a beautiful ornate mansion which had been built in 1884 by Luis and Isadora Coucinos who were a wealthy Chilean couple. Luis never saw completion of the mansion as he died of tuberculosis at age 38 while visiting Peru. Isadore took over the family coal mining industry and under her rein turned it into a large conglomerate of silver and coal mines, large ranches, shipping, wineries and hydroelectric. She became phenomenally wealthy. The guide said that her wealth surpassed that of the Americans robber barons such as the Rockefeller s and the Carnegies. This was reflected in the ornateness of the house. The finishings of the house such as the wood floors, ceilings, paintings woodwork, marble work had all been done by French artisans brought from Europe. The curtains and tapestries had all been sewn by French nuns. The staircase was made from every color of marble including a yellow marble from Italy that is no longer attainable. There were sculptures, vases and 19 century French furniture. The place felt like a mini Versailles. What was even was more crazier was that the family had even larger more beautiful houses elsewhere in Chile. It was an incredible tour and one of the more beautiful houses I have been in. Only some parts of the inside were photographable.

After a steak sandwich lunch at an anime decorated restaurant we walked through a very pleasant university studentish part of town and a part of town with a very large street market selling knock offs of north American clothing. We made it to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. The MMHR tells the history of Chile under Augustus Pinochet and the campaign of terror inflicted on individuals suspected as being enemies of the state. 3200 people disappeared and 44000 were imprisoned many of which were tortured. We did an English audio guide tour but it would have been better had I known Spanish.

I misgauged how far we had walked from our Airbnb and it took us an hour to walk home and we were pretty tired arrived home. Tomorrow we fly to Calama in the north and rent a car to dry to San Pedro in the Atacama desert.Baca lagi