A poet's house of happiness.

• Author: Agosin, Marjorie
• Position: Home of Pablo Neruda in Valparaiso, Chile; since 1991, a popular tourist attraction

Pablo Neruda's soaring residence in Valparaiso, recalls the vibrant spirit of its owner and his strong ties to this eccentric port

Pablo Neruda loved not only the exaggerated geography of Chile, his long and narrow, windswept homeland, but all of its cities north and south. He wrote about them with pleasure and amazement. One of his favorites, Valparaiso, was one of the most important Pacific ports during the past century. Called "the pearl of the Pacific," it made history with the arrival of Francis Drake, Lord Thomas Alexander Cochrane, General Jose de San Martin, and other legendary personages.

Located seventy-five miles from Santiago, Valparaiso occupies a privileged position in Chilean cultural imagery. There is no other place quite like it. Its setting is dramatic. Hills like precipices--with such poetic names as the Hill of the Happy Butterfly or Flowery Hill--drop sharply to the sea. Each morning the inhabitants of these hills wash and hang their bright clothing out of winged windows, like the sterns of abandoned ships, where fabric dances to the wind's whim--for Valparaiso is also known as the Windy City.

There is also the famed Belt Road, which crosses the sixty narrow, dizzying hills, scaled by ancient, narrow stairs leading up to the heavens. From their summits, one can see the port, its old warships at anchor and its sailboats that turn ghostly at night. Valparaiso too takes on a different character at night, when the hills are illuminated. Secret and mysterious bars open up and sailors dream of their love for this intemperate place.

Neruda loved the city and its New Year's fiestas, when the skies explode with music and fireworks. Even as a young man, he told friends that he wanted to live there. For him, "Valparaiso was a city full of movement and of seafarers, imponderable murmurings."

Many years later, in 1961, Neruda was able to realize his adolescent dream and buy a house that he arranged to suit himself. It is a house enveloped in secret stories and anecdotes. The first owner, the architect Sebastian Collado, died before finishing his construction, and in honor of that poet of architecture, Neruda called the house "La Sebastiana." Curiously enough, the poet wanted a place for parties rather than a place for meditation and work. For those purposes he used his house on Isla Negra. He bought the house--situated on top of the Hill of Happiness--together with his friends Francisco Velasco and his wife, sculptor Maria Martner...