Saturday we woke up around 10, ate breakfast, and walked down to the beach. The weather was beautiful and while we walked around, I realized that I absolutely love the ocean. We watched the huge waves crash against the rocks below for almost an hour and lit candles at the Virgen del Suspiro (Virgin of the Sigh) sanctuary (see photos). As we walked along the sand, watching the little kids avoid getting soaked by the coming waves, we decided that we are going to buy one of the many old, abandoned homes in Cartagena and fix it up. We picked one on the top of the hill looking out over the ocean. I can see it now when we are done. I think it will give Pablo Neruda a run for his money! (See photo and read on!).
Calli’s mom and dad picked us up and droves back to the house where we ate almuerzo then drove to Pablo Neruda’s third house, Isla Negra (Black Island). This was his favorite house and I can see why. As I wrote before, Neruda was absolutely obsessed with the sea and built his homes to resemble boats. This was the only house Neruda designed himself and the quirky genius-ness of the poet is evident. Every view from the house paints a new picture of the immense Pacific Ocean. He also adamantly collected all types of crazy objects: glass bottles in all shapes, sizes, and colors, pipes, masks, ships in bottles, porcelain, glass cups (Because “Even water has a better taste when drunk from a pretty glass”), exotic shells, maritime equipment, statues, on and on. We spent a really long time wondering the house and the beach. I bought some postcards with poems and sayings by Neruda that I hung up on my wall. They are worth sharing, although they aren’t nearly as beautiful in English. Enjoy the Chilean poetry:
- Hoy es hoy, ayer se fue. No hay duda. Today is today, yesterday is gone. There is no doubt.
- Mi deber es vivir, morir, vivir. My duty is to live, to die, to live.
- Yo vine aquí para cantar y para que cantes conmigo. I came here to sing and for you to sing with me.
- Para mi corazón basta tu pecho. / para tu libertad bastan mis alas. / Desde mi boca llegará hasta el cielo / lo que estaba dormido sobre tu alma. For my heart, your chest is enough. / For your freedom, my wings are enough. / From my mouth will rise up to heaven / that what was sleeping over your soul.
- And my personal favorite: En mi tierra desierta, eres la última rosa. In my desert earth, you are the last rose.
After falling in love with poetry, we went to mass in Cartagena. We are all Catholic, but Calli hadn’t been to mass in months. But since Natalie and I both wanted to go, we all went together. It was probably one of the most beautiful masses I’ve ever been to. At 8 pm Saturday night, the church was packed with people of all ages. The priest spoke clearly and slowly and they even sang the Our Father. During the homily the priest spoke about the importance of trying to live your life to reach the perfection of Christ. He said that we are all humans and we will continue to fail but that the important thing is to avoid things keep us from Christ. Then he talked about using our wealth for the good of the community. If we only use our money to try to make ourselves happy, we will end up alone with all our crap. I know I’ve heard homilies like that before, but the priest’s passion and the fact that I had to pay 100% attention to understand, I really enjoyed it. Calli, Natalie and I even talked about it afterwards because we all enjoyed it so much. During the sign of the peace, Alejandro showed up, which was a pleasant surprise.
After mass we went ate dinner (which finished about 10 pm!) then got ready to go out. We went out with Alejandro, Sebastian (my buddy from last time), and two of their other friends. When Sebastian saw me he gave me a big hug and said, “Mi amor!” to which I quickly reminded him that I still have a boyfriend at home. He told me he hadn’t forgotten and after that, everything was cool. One of their other friends, Raphael, was born in Chile but raised in Miami. He enjoyed speaking English with us and told me that I was very excited to see a true blonde again. Calli and Alejandro (Ale) despite the fact that they are “cousins” are pretty much in love and the whole night Natalie, Sebastian, their other friends and I had a great time making fun of them. We danced the night away (at the same club we went to two weeks ago) and came back and crashed around 5:30 am.
1 comment:
Kayla, Of course you LOVE the ocean! How could you not? Dad living so close in Eureka and me skipping high school to go to the beach. It is in your soul. Enjoy it as much as you can. We must have had the same readings at Mass because Fr. Jim gave a beautiful homily similar to the one your priest gave. Very moving. Mom
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