Isla Negra and Pomaire

The weather here has been absolutely stunning of late. Thursday was blue skies, sunshine, & 28 degrees. So not a bad day to bunk off school then! The day off was really beneficial & I am feeling much better now. I didn't wake up until about 11am, so my body obviously needed the rest. Above & below are a few pics of the house I am staying in. As you can see, it's not a bad wee pad... There are stunning views out over the Pacific from the deck, & I also get great wifi signal there, so it's one of my favourite places in the house. In fact I am writing this from there as we speak... Thursday afternoon I went for a walk for a couple of hours along the coast. There are loads of pelicans on the rocks which I find fascinating. I have also seen lots of teeny little humming birds which are very cool. On Friday we had another full day excursion. This time it was a visit to Isla Negra which is the house that the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda lived in with his third wife, & where they are buried together. The house had a beautiful location right on the coast. I think that if I lived with that sort of view even I might be inspired enough to write some poetry! The house was amazing, chocka-block full of all kinds of treasure. He was an obsessive collector & lived in the place with a view to always eventually leaving it as a museum. The living room was one of my favourites, filled with over a dozen ship figureheads. You are not allowed to take pictures inside the house but I 'lifted' this one off the internet... The house from the outside There is a nautical theme right throughout the place, & even his grave is designed to look like a ship's bow. I like to think the dogs casually lounging on his grave below are keeping him & his wife company... Some more pics of the place. The model steam engine was one of his prized possessions.We then travelled an hour or so to the village of Pomaire where we had a very nice lunch in a restaurant, accompanied by some traditional Chilean singing & dancing.

Pomaire is famous for its pottery & after lunch we had a bit of free time to wander around the craft markets. The girls bought bits & pieces for presents, & I bought a couple of things for the house. It was all really cheap & I would have loved to have been able to bring back loads with me. They had some amazing huge clay pots that people here seem to use for both cooking & decorative purposes.

After the shopping we visited a pottery place where the girls got to have a go at both creating something by hand as well as trying their hand at the potters wheel (with mixed results!). It was a superb day out & the girls really enjoyed it. They were pretty tired by the time we got back to Vina at around 7:30pm!

That night Lucy & I (as well as our hosts) were invited to dinner at the Headmistress' house. She had also invited most of the heads of school & it was a most enjoyable evening. We got home just after midnight & Consuelo headed off to ANOTHER party, whereas I turned down the invitation & headed off to bed instead...