Friday 8th November

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CHILE:
 
Though it felt a long way from home as we came into land 
on the flight from Madrid & the first eight hour sleep in 
over a year, as soon as we’d touched down it felt instantly 
good to be back in Santiago. The light, the idiosyncratic 
colour pallet of low rise architecture, like something familiar 
from a Europe memory & yet not. We walked funky back streets,
photographed marks on walls, dripping paint, painted railings,
in districts of breezy student bars, simple restaurants & 
street cafes, tanning in the blissed out heat of high Spring, 
feeling the pressure drop.
A love of the arts is evident everywhere you look. 
Paintings on walls, intricate iron work, delicate graffiti 
& a national love of poetry that drew us to the home of 
Pablo Neruda where we lost ourselves amongst his eclectic rooms
stacked up the side of a hill crammed with his collections of 
world travelled souvenirs. 
The last time we were here in 2008 I bought a quatro & Rick & I 
recorded with it in our hotel rooms whilst the rest of the crew 
went white water rafting up in the mountains. This time I bought 
‘Residence on Earth’ a book by Pablo Neruda, digesting it in 
my room with the A/C off & the dubious luxury of a window that 
opened above a terrace where a mobile disco sprung into life.
This is a beautiful country, filled with gentle & inspiring people, 
a long way from home perhaps but so welcoming you could imagine 
home was just the other side of the hill.
 
(K)

2 thoughts on “Friday 8th November

  1. Wellcome to Santiago de Chile, Karl. I’m glad to know you like our country. Here we are many who recognize the influence of music and art in the United Kingdom. Beyond the inequality of opportunities here, we try to get ahead in our lives.

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