Tuesday: Neruda & a pool

I'm assuming no one's actually going to read this anymore, but for my own OCD-related reasons, I'm going to talk about our last few days in Chile..
On Tuesday, we had pretty much all day at Pablo Neruda's house. That guy had a good thing going: he had an absolutely FABULOUS view of the ocean! His house was set up to be kind of like a ship based on the things that he collected and a few touches around the outside like a big anchor and a helm-like lookout along with ropes instead of railings on the inside.




Our tour guide also informed us that the house was set up to mirror the geography of Chile. It was really long and narrow with the ocean on one side! A poet would do something creative like that. It was a little freaky looking at all of his things knowing that he had been there and used them, but he's dead now. Actually, he's buried right outside on his helm lookout that I mentioned with his last wife, I believe.




We got to eat in the restaurant attached to the house (I'm assuming it wasn't there when Neruda was alive). We had nice fresh "Reina" or lady fish, I think! ..and steak for the fish-haters. We had lots of beach time, too.


Daniela suggested we swing by the world's biggest swimming pool while we were in the area, so we got to take a 15-minute bus ride to a neighboring town. When she said it was the biggest pool in the world, I'm not sure if everyone really understood how big it would be. It was GIGANTIC. It had to be at LEAST half a mile long. From what we were told, people put boats on it and go scuba diving because it's so deep. It's right on the beach and filled with salt water because that section has waters that are too dangerous (major undertows), so it feels like you could be swimming in the ocean, but you're safe and sound in the huge pool!

For dinner, I had my first and only "completo", which unfortunately I didn't take a picture of, but the main idea is that it's a hot dog with tomatoes and usually sauerkraut (this one didn't have any) then it's smeared with mayo and guacamole. I couldn't really handle the mayo, so that came off, but I feel like it's kind of necessary to try one once while you're in Chile. Checked that off my list!