Time is Ticking

On Tuesday I realized that there are only 2 weeks of classes left. After classes end I will be heading to Patagonia and to Buenos Aires and will only have a few days in Santiago. Where has time gone?? I am not ready to be done in Santiago!! With that in mind I made a list of everything I still wanted to do and got down to business.

Tuesday after dance I walked from downtown to Bellavista with several friends. We ate at a wacky Peruvian themed restaurant and then explored the neighborhood before touring Pablo Neruda's house. I am very familiar with Bellavista at night- it is the clubbing district of Santiago. But by day it is a tranquil, tree-lined neighborhood full of restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. There is a lot of street art and it is easy to imagine why Santiago's small number of poets and artists live here.

Pablo Neruda's Santiago house (he had 3 houses) is on a hill in Bellavista. The house is built in several sections on the side of the hill and has great views of the city framed by the Andes. The house is not as eclectic as his house in Isla Negra because a large section of the house and several of his collections were burned during the coup in 1973 but it is still full of unique and thought-provoking items.