I was part of the magical canvas

Would you say the picture is from Greece? Yes, it could definitely be but no.
A picture from somewhere in Lanzarote? Yes, it could also be it but no.
Want to take a guess? You would never guess, I’m sure.

This is a photograph from Casa Pueblo, a magical place located in Punta Ballena,
Uruguay. Why magical? Because one there you get caught in the stories from Carlos
Paez Vilaro, the person who constructed it. It was his summer house and workshop.
It took him thirty-six years to finish it. Although he already passed away, his family
still live in a part of the house. The rest is a museum and a hotel.

It’s situated by the water, this gives it a special enchantment. Every sunset you can
enjoy the Sun ceremony. Carlos Paez was in love with the Sun during all his life. Nowadays, every sunset, you can listen to a poem written by him to the Sun, his eternal friend and love.That moment is special, it is just so relaxing and full of pure, silent joy. When I visited it, I also felt like the white walls were a canvas for the colours of the setting sun, and I was part of it.

His son was one of the rugby players who was flying to Chile in 1972, when the Uruguayan
plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. When he received a call asking him to write the names of the survivors, he wrote:

“Carlos Miguel Páez Rodríguez! My son! Carlos Miguel Páez Rodríguez! My son!
My eyes fill with tears. Pain and joy mingle with the list, my voice, the radio, Uruguay and the world. I get over myself and try not to let anyone in Montevideo notice my tears. And I continue giving the names of the surviving boys, while imagining the joy of their parents. When the list is finished, I realise that, by revealing the names of the boys who came back to life, I also end up pointing out the death of those who are no longer alive.”

One of the rooms in Casa Pueblo is a cinema where you can see films about some of the stories of his travels and also a film about what he had to go through when his son was involved in the plane crash.

Casa Pueblo started as a small house but with the years, it’s become bigger and bigger, full of pieces of art, full of different stories, making it unique.

Each of us are like this house. We are tiny when we are born, then with the years we get bigger and taller, as time passes by we all have a bunch of different stories which shape the work of art that we become. We can also stop each day, enjoy the sunset and say a few nice words regarding the beautiful view, although we may not always have a nice day, we can look for the good things that made the difference in our day and why not, in our lives?