La Sebastiana

We finally made it to Pablo Neruda's third house in Valparaiso. Chile's most famous poet spent a lot of time in his 5-storey house overlooking the colourful tin city and the Pacific Ocean.

A statue of Pablo Neruda in Plaza de los Poetas, outside his house

La Sebastiana: Neruda's study is the single room on the top floor

View from Neruda's house over the hills of Valparaiso and the sea

The house is situated on Cerro Florida, just behind Cerro Bellavista and Cerro Mariposa. On our steep trek up the hills, we passed through the Museo de Ceilo Abierto - Open Air Museum - and saw some new and unusual murals.

Mural of an "ascensor"

One of the famous hummingbirds of Valparaiso

Mini murals of the city

La Chascona

In April we visited Isla Negra, the site of one of Pablo Neruda's three houses. He also had a house in Santiago in the Bellavista neighbourhood called La Chascona. As expected, we found a very quirky little house, which is well worth a visit!

Isla Negra

Pablo Neruda is arguably Chile's most well-known poet. He was a diplomat and a politician, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. We visited his favourite house (of three), Casa de Isla Negra, situated in a small coastal town about 100km west of Santiago.

Neruda is known for his quirky collections of ships' beakheads, shells, coloured glasses, globes and compasses, ships in bottles, butterflies, you name it! Neruda loved all things to do with the sea and he built his house to resemble a ship, with low ceilings, creaking wooden floors and narrow passageways. He received ships' bells as gifts, and even bought his own boat - which never saw the sea! Instead, Neruda would enjoy a drink in his boat in his garden while looking out over the ocean.

The house overlooks the sea and we went for a stroll along the beach in front of the house. From here we could see the house and the graves of Neruda and his third (and favourite) wife Matilde, built to resemble ... a ship!