Chilling in the sunshine in the amphitheater outside Pablo Neruda's house, La Chascona "the messy haired woman", named after his mistress & later wife, Mathilda.

Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet, politician & communist party member, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971, built the house in 1953. He is obsessed with all things nautical so the house is designed like a ship & filled with crazy, colourful knickknacks from all around the world.

After the coup of 11th September 1973, the house was raided & destroyed internally by the police searching for communist material. None was found.

Neruda died on 23rd September 1973. Although he was suffering from prostate cancer prior to the coup, there are two trains of thoughts that it caused his death. Either that he was so shocked by the coup that it hastened his death or, more juicily, that he was poisoned to hasten his death.