Santiago reprise: poets and humility

In Santiago, I was lucky enough to have a friend to stay with and friends of friends who were able to take me round to see the sights. We went to Neruda's lovely house nestled beneath the mountain. It is built on three levels connected by outdoor staircases festooned with greenery. There are outside terraces and a high bar just outside the poet's library. On the ground floor is a long thin dining room with windows onto a shaded courtyard. Every room is decorated with wonderful pictures and sculptures. What a place to write in, meet one's friends and live with a beloved partner! 

Neruda was and is very much loved in Chile. He was a long-time friend of Salvador Allende, and died very shortly after Pinochet came to power. This did not stop the regime ransacking his beautiful home but it has been painstakingly restored. He loved houses, having two others which are said to be just as lovely. Maybe I will visit them next time I come to Chile. Recognising the start of this sea journey, here is an extract from his poem of the sea, Forget About Me

Among the things the sea throws up,
let us hunt for the most petrified,
violet claws of crabs,
little skulls of dead fish,
smooth syllables of wood,
small countries of mother-of-pearl;
let us look for what the sea undid
insistently, carelessly,
what it broke up and abandoned,
and left behind for us.

...
but nothing more moving
than the vestiges of shipwrecks—
the smooth abandoned beams
gnawed by the waves
and disdained by death.

Let us look for secret things
somewhere in the world,
on the blue shore of silence
or where the storm has passed,
rampaging like a train.
There the faint signs are left,
coins of time and water,
debris, celestial ash
and the irreplaceable rapture
of sharing in the labor
of solitude and the sand.

...

but nothing more moving
than the vestiges of shipwrecks—
the smooth abandoned beams
gnawed by the waves
and disdained by death.

Let us look for secret things
somewhere in the world,
on the blue shore of silence
or where the storm has passed,
rampaging like a train.

And we climbed up to look at the view. Not so simple on a smoggy day but here is Santiago at the foot of the mountains. This is a city prone to earthquakes but they are very thorough both in the building standards and inspection regime, so these tall skyscrapers have already been through magnitude 8 tremors with nary a scratch.

The last evening in Santiago we went out to dinner. I posted this picture at the time (4 March) but here it is again for friends who know both Elisa, an ex-colleague from when we worked in New Zealand, and me. With two other friends we went to a Uruguayan restaurant and ate a lot of meat. I asked what was special about Uruguayan meat, expecting an answer which touched on sauces, cooking methods, breeding or even the charcoal on the fire. Instead I got told about the Uruguayans - the admirable behaviour of ex-President Jose Mujica and the charm of its people. All I know about the special popularity of Uruguayan meat is the country's humility. I find that utterly wonderful.