Tuesday, May 18

Today we went to Isla Negra (not really an island but a town right on the ocean) to see one of the homes of the famous Nobel poet Pablo Neruda. The museum is one of his three houses--this one built with a nautical theme and where he spent his last years (early 1970s) with his third wife, Matilda. Neruda had amazing collections and it is always disappointing that we are rushed through the tour. One could spent an hour in each room of the house. One tour was in English and the other two in Spanish. Usually I am the best Spanish speaker in the group, but not this year. Lots of the students and Ben Pilcher have excellent Spanish skills (much better than mine)and the others are improving as well. After the tour we had lunch in the museum restaurant looking over the ocean. Following the visit to Isla Negra, one of the Chileans suggested we go up to the coast to the town of Algarroba where we visited the largest pool in the world, at a development called San Alfonso del Mar. The pool is almost a mile long, ten or 11 feet deep and quite wide (though I can't remember the dimension). It is right above the ocean and it is a salt water pool. It is so large that people sail boats in it. Facing the pond and the ocean are huge condominium buildings, which apparently have their own pools for swimming. Only people who own the condos can use this pool and it seems like these are summer or weekend apartments since the place is not that near to Santiago. It was really amazing, but apparently Dubai is building a bigger pool.