Isla Negra & Casablana Valley

Isla Negra, Casablanca Valley & Arrival to the Viking Jupiter

January 24, 2020

A full day of Chilean culture was planned - poetry and wine.   We had ILoveChile pick us up at 10 am so we could leisurely enjoy another delicious breakfast at our Inn.  This day we had both Fran and Sebastian as our guides with Seba driving  their personal vehicle.  It seated 8 people with all our luggage piled in the back and was quite a squeeze for us and the bags.

We said adios to CasaSur and Santiago heading West out of the city through the Maipo and Casablanca Valleys.  The plan was to visit the seaside home of Pablo Neruda, have lunch with the locals, and taste wine at a local vineyard.  The drop off at our cuise ship, the Viking Jupiter docked in Valparaiso, would be in the late afternoon.

Driving in this direction, we saw a much different terrain with major grape growing regions sprawled in the valleys between the Andes Mountains and the Cordillera de la Costa (Coastal Mountains) along the Pacific Ocean.  The climate in these near coastal regions was cooler and boasted of the best white wine varieties in Chile.

Our first stop was by unanimous request and necessary to relieve us of our earlier morning coffee intake.  Hay un problema aqui!  We needed Chilean pesos to use the toilets.  As we rooted through our change purses, our guides offered to donate to the cause by augmenting our coin shortage.  This was our first experience of "pay to pee" as other necessary breaks were at businesses we patronized rather then a highway rest area.   Before we loaded back into the van Fran & Seba offered us sweet treats covered with powdered sugar, the first surprise of the day, from their bag of goodies.  We were glad to eat them outside the car as the powered sugar blew all over.

La Casa Isla Negra

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is known as the National Poet of Chile.  Although his father opposed the son's interest in writing and literature, he received encouragement from others.  His first work was published at age 13.  In 1923 he published Twenty Love Poems & a Desperate Song, a collection of love poems that was controversial for its eroticism especially considering its author's young age.  It became his best known work and still retains its place as the best selling poetry book in the Spanish language.  He wrote in a variety of styles including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos and prose autobiography.  Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

In addition to writing, Neruda had a long political career, many diplomatic postings and was a left-leaning intellectual of his generation.  He served as Senator for the Communist Party of Chile (1945).  When communism was outlawed in 1948, he went into hiding among friends who facilitated his escape across the Andes to exile in Argentina.  Years later Neruda was nominated for the Chilean Presidency.  However he ended up giving his support to Salvador Allende who became the first democratically elected socialist head of state in 1970 until General Pinochet assumed power after the United States backed coup d'etat overthrew Allende in 1973.

Pablo Neruda has 3 homes in Chile all preserved as musuems  - La Chasona in Santiago, La Sebastiana in Valparaiso and his oceanside home at Isla Negra.  Our destination was the home located on the shores of Isla Negra.  Built in 1937, this house was Neruda's favorite and his most intimate piece of work.  It was a place for isolation and inspiration for the poet.  Here he enjoyed the company of his third wife, Matilde Urrutia, and the peace that the ocean brings.

Neruda loved both boats, trains and everything maritime - the house is exactly that:  narrow passageways and staircases, low ceilings and creaking wooden floors.  Today it is packed with collections and ornaments from his worldwide travels - bottles, ship's figureheads, maps, ships in bottles, butterflies, insects, navigational instruments as well as an incredible shell collection housed in its own addition to the house.  One of the bugs in his collection was identified as having been found in Southern Patagonia.  It was huge and I hoped we would not encounter one on our travels South.

The Bar Room

Narrow boat-like doorway

Following photos are of the ship's figureheads and were taken off the Internet as we were not allowed to photograph inside.

The mosaic surrounds this fireplace inside the house

Each room had a magnificent view of the sea whether it contained one of his numerous writing desks, their bedroom, dressing room, a dining area or the bar.  We enjoyed the very informative narrative on the personal listening devices as we wandered around the grounds and through the house.   However we were disappointed that we could not take photos inside the house.  There was a mosaic mural covering the walls and ceiling surrounding a fireplace inside the home.  It contained much lapis lazuli, the Chilean national stone, and was absolutely gorgeous.

This photo of mosaic surrounding the fireplace was taken off the Internet.  Not a good representation but all I could find.

 Both Pablo Neruda and his wife Matilde are buried here overlooking the sea.

In the wave-strike over unquiet stones

the brightness busts and bears the rose

and the ring of water contracts to a cluster

to one drop of azure brine that falls.

O magnolia radiance breaking in spume,

magnetic voyager whose death flowers 

and returns, eternal, to being and nothingness:

shattered brine, dazzling leap of the ocean.

Merged, you and I, my love, seal the silence

while the sea destroys its continual forms,

collapses its turrets of wildness and whiteness,

because in the weft of those unseen garments

of headlong water, and perpetual sand,

we bear the sole, relentless tenderness.

- Pablo Neruda

Here on the Pacific Coast it was much cooler then where we were in the Andes Mountains thanks to the on-shore West wind and some light fog.  Sweatshirt was the garment of the day.

Your Windblown Author

Departing Casa Isla Negra, we passed through the busy town.  Not surprising given the dual attractions of the Neruda home and spectacular Pacific beaches as well as being a Friday afternoon in Summer.  We soon turned off the main road and headed through a forest of Eucalyptus trees.  It was very dry but still lovely.

Sorry for the windshield shot but its our only sample.

We arrived at El Mirador Restaurant in Totoral which was situated on a hill overlooking the Eucalyptus forest.  It was a lovely wooden building and the kind of place Chileans would bring the whole family for a meal.

We took the recommendation of our guides and ordered Pastel de Choclo for our main course.  This is a South American dish based on sweetcorn or choclo.  We had it filled with ground beef, raisins, black olives and onions.  Very tasty.

Pastel de Chocla

Dessert was a familiar dish but called and cooked differently.  Leche Asado, a Chilean dessert, is similar to Flan because it is made with the same ingredients.  It has a less smooth texture and is baked directly which creates a toasted layer on the surface.  Wowie, it was GOOD.

I questioned our guides about the Spanish language as spoken in Chile as many words which I should have been able to translate were unknown to me.  Here are some translations which may interest my bi-lingual friends at home.  Avocado = palta, Corn = choclo, Pumpkin = zapallo, Party - carrete , Beans = porotos and Alcoholic drink = copete.

After our lunch break we headed North to our last stop of the day for a wine tasting at Indomita Vineyards.  The visitor center was at the end of an impressive driveway at the top of a hill  with sweeping views of the vineyards and valley below.

Casablanca  Valley with the Coastal Mountains in the Background

We were able to choose 3 different wines to taste.  I chose the Indomita Chardonnay and the Sparkling Wine as well as a Zardoz Premium Cabernet from their facility in the Maipo Valley closer to Santiago.  Those of us who made the same choices unanimously named the sparkling wine the best, the Chardonnay very good, but the Zardoz not "premium".

Three choices each makes for many glasses

Day-colored wine,

night-colored wine,

wine with purple feet

or wine with topaz blood,

wine,

starry child

of earth,

wine, smooth

as a golden sword,

soft

as lascivious velvet,

wine, spiral-seashelled

and full of wonder

amorous,

marine;

never has one goblet contained you,

one song, one man

you are choral, gregarious,

at the very least, you must be shared.

Excerpt from Pablo Neruda's Ode to Wine

All of us are in this photo including Ray taking the picture in the background.  The front of the building is mirrored  so you can see us seated with our view displayed in back of us.  Lovely place for a wine tasting.

Our guides Fran & Seba.  Smiling but not drinking.

I think we all bought a bottle of the sparking wine in their store.

We were also able to look into their fermenting facility.

We were very relaxed tourists by now as we headed on to the highway for the final leg of our journey to Valparaiso.  As we neared the city, traffic became very heavy.  We were glad that the cars were heading to Vina del Mar, the popular seaside resort, for the weekend as the traffic became lighter after that exit.

We needed to be dropped off at VTP or Valparaiso Passenger Terminal which was about a mile down the coast from where our ship was docked.  The problem was we could not find the port entrance.  Second time around all eyes were focused on finding the turn off.  Still no success so we drove back along the water where Sebastian pulled into an entrance gate right in front of our cruise ship.  No access allowed for passengers, said the guard.  It was crazy like a Chinese Fire Drill except we did not all get out of the car, run in a circle around it and jump back in, but we were of good humor.  After all there was our ship and we would get aboard somehow!   We were happy to hear that Seba gave the guard the secret handshake and secured directions to the previously hidden entrance to the passenger terminal.  Who woulda thunk to look for a tunnel entrance!

We finally found our way into VTP, which involved a bit of a drive through a deserted looking industrial terminal area, to find the passenger terminal.  We were determined to stay in the vehicle until we saw a Viking sign or a person wearing the red Viking jacket or some identification that we had arrived in the right place.  When we spotted a person sporting a Viking name tag, we unloaded our luggage, hugged our good byes, and gave our hearty thank yous to our great guides.

This leg of our days' journey was not yet over as we still had to drop off our luggage for delivery to the ship, surrender our passports, secure our passport receipts, answer the check in questions to get our room key card, and go through security with our hand baggage.  Whew!  It was a fairly quick process and we were soon on board our personal limo to the ship.  (Read bus empty but for us.)

Soon we were boarding the magnificent Viking Jupiter, our home for the next 18 days.  It was nearly 7:30 PM and most passengers were on board.  At we reached the top of the gangway and presented our key cards I said, "what no champagne welcome drink?"  The flustered staff member quickly looked around and hailed a waiter carrying a tray of champagne glasses.  Ah, now that's like it.  By the time we made it to our stateroom past the cleaned up and nicely dressed crowd going to dinner, our bags were in our room.

Here are some photos of our Deluxe Veranda room and spacious bathroom located on the Fourth Deck  forward.   We had two arm chairs with a coffee table, a desk with refrigerator, and a balcony with two chairs and a table.

It was a long day so we unpacked a bit, ordered room service for dinner and crawled into our very comfortable King size bed.

Bathroom has a heated floor to keep the feet toasty and heated mirror so it never fogs from showering.

Yay, I have finished this chapter of Tomko2Travel and I believe I will go have a Copete.