La Chascona

This guide to La Chascona in Santiago follows Pablo Neruda's hillside house above Bellavista, built in 1953 around a mountain stream he diverted to run straight through the garden so guests would feel almost at sea. You'll hear how Matilde Urrutia, the secret lover the house was built for, planted every tree and plant herself, and how the place took its tousled name from her own wild red hair. For years, almost no visitor knew whose hideaway it really was.