Laughing with Laura: CHILEAN LAUGHTER TOUR DAY 15

We awoke to another beautiful, clear day in Chile. We were eager to go to Alagarrobo to stay at Tosha's apartment and explore that coastal area.

Here's the view from the upstairs window at Tosha's house.

Look! William felt so much better than he shot this self-portrait.

We took a walk around Tosha's garden and enjoyed the spring flowers.

This is the reflection in her swimming pool.

This is the back of Tosha's Santiago home.

Her neighbor's lemons, which hang into he backyard.

Here I am in the sunny backyard.

These roses were brand new when we headed south. Now they were looking a little worse for the wear.

Tosha and her maid, Vilma, getting ready for breakfast.

Tosha was showered but still looking tired (too early in the morning for her).

Her daughter, Denise, dropped by to bring the apartment keys. She and Tosha looked at the trip pictures.

Here is Denise walking back home as we set forth for Alagarrobo.

These are the scenes we past along the way.

This is inside one of the tunnels we went through.

You can see how the vegetation is looking more like the desert. That's because we were heading north, which is desert country.

We reached Alagarrobo and looked out at the coast from the car.

Here is our first look at Tosha's condo building, which is part of the sprawling San Alfonso del Mar Resort.

When we reached her apartment, we looked down to see the amazing view from the 10th floor.

Tosha and I are celebrating this glorious day.

Here is the view out to the deck from inside the apartment.

This is Tosha's bedroom where we stayed. The drawing is of her mother.

Tosha pulled out her stash of party hats. She's always prepared for laughter!

She put this one one me.

And we were set for laughter!

Pamela and I on the deck in our party hats.

William joined our big hat fun.

These are the lovely glasses in her cupboard.

I was happy to discover polka dotted pot holders.

Pamela demonstrated that she was laughter-ready by revealing her silly socks.

We hung out by the pool area and walked around to explore it. This pool was named the biggest pool in the world by Guiness in 2008. It is 3,323 feet long—that's more than 1,000 yards! It covers 20 acres and holds 66 million gallons of water (salt water rather than clorinated). It's so big, in fact, that they call it a "lagoon" instead of a pool.

There is also a smaller, indoor pool in this pyramid (since the lagoon is heated naturally, and therefore too cold to swim in during the winter season). We found them reworking the indoor pool.

Little desert flowers were blooming in the gardens.

There are docks in this pool so I went out "surfing" on one.

Doesn't this resort area look comfortable?

This is a view of the pool that shows its expansiveness.

This is where the indoor pool is situated.

Yes, they sail boats on this pool. Here is a stack of them.

This is the view looking up at Tosha's building.

The windswept artificial beach.

Pamela and I laughing on one of the docks.

These condos also sell separate maid's quarters in a downstairs dormitory. This is the view out of one of these small units.

Here I am returning the shopping cart we had used to haul our luggage upstairs.

Then we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. This is our friendly waiter shaking up a pisco sour.

Tosha enjoying her clams.

William and his lunch.

Here we are with some public art.

This is the pathway leading to Ilsa Negra.

This is the entry to Ilsa Negra, a home (and now museum) of Nobel Prize-winning poet and Chilean politician, Pablo Neruda. You can read more about Neruda at Wikipedia. It is one of 3 homes owned by Neruda, and reportedly his favorite. We took a tour through it.

This fish sculpture was Neruda's logo and it was used in decor throughout the home and grounds.

This is the beautiful coastal view from Neruda's house.

This is a tower on the house with another fish symbol.

This is another portion of the house. It was just a stone cabin when he purchased it but he expanded it a number of times to create a writing retreat and to house is many random collections such as ship figureheads, glass bottles, shells, masks, and nautical instruments. He had a great fascination with the sea and with ships. Therefore, each of the additional rooms was built to look like the inside of a ship. It was very unique but photography was not allowed inside.

Here's William in Neruda's back yard.

Another one of the things Neruda collected.

This is his dining room. You can tell what a stellar view it has to the ocean.

Here we are heading into the house.

Here is part of Neruda's glass bottle collection. Apparently, they have moved it into this glass-encased room because tourists used to bump into his bottles and break them. Now you have to look at them from a safe vantage point.

Here's our English-speaking tour guide.

This is the original part of Neruda's house.

Cactus blossoms in the yard.

Neruda and his third wife are buried on the grounds in an area that looks like the prow of a ship.

Aloe vera plants in the yard.

Another view from the Neruda property.

Tosha and I are standing in front of Neruda's downstairs bar.

The courtyard of Neruda's house. The white doors in the red part were put on especially so he could fit a life-sized horse sculpture into his house. Once in, he held a welcoming party for it and all the guests had to bring gifts for the horse. Three of them brought artificial tails for it (since it had none). Now all three tails are displayed with the horse.

Pamela and I were feeling the chill of evening as we left the Ilsa Negra.

We got back to the beachfront apartment just in time to watch the sun set into the ocean.

And I can balance the sun on my nose (much like a clown nose).

Here's William in action, capturing the sunset.

We walked around the lagoon pool.

This condo looks like it is on a lake from this view, doesn't it? But the water in front of it is all pool.

Here you can see how the buildings are arranged around the pool.

I posed in front of a green light we passed.

When we returned, Tosha did a special demonstration of Touch Drawing for us. Tosha is a certified Touch Drawing teacher and she has done many wonderful works of art using this technique. It is a way to create intuitively by combining print-making with hand drawing not unlike finger painting. Tosha begins her explanation by rolling the brayer in ink and spreading it across her special Touch Drawing panel.