Tim had class in the afternoon today, so we took the opportunity to sleep in, then get in a run around the park in front of our building. We then took a long metro ride to the Mercado Central, a huge open air building with fresh seafood stands and restaurants. It really is a maze! The middle portion is a huge market for herbs, plants, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. The outer rows are all seafood - chilean sea bass, salmon, octopus, crab, clams, mussels, oysters, sea urchins, and many creatures we couldn´t identify! Amongst these markets were sandwiched seafood restaurants - you can imagine how fresh the food served is! The annoying thing about this place are the owners or workers there who approach you as you are walking around, trying to get you to come in and eat at their place. Many straight out spoke english to us . . . hmmmm . . . do we look American? Anyway, we chose one that wasn´t too close to the raw fish and had a second floor so we had a bird´s eye view of the guys hawking the visitors and customers. The picture above was the view from our table.
As they were out of sea bass at this particular restaurant, and many of the other things we couldn´t identify with a menu and a spanish-english dictionary, we stuck with the salmon. We split some reinado ceviche (a cold salad made with fish) which looked like oatmeal but tasted very good. Both of us had salmon, I had salmon ¨a la plancha¨ (which I thought meant from the grill but it came out lightly fried) and Tim had salmon parmesan. He said it was absolutely the best salmon he had ever put in his mouth. I had to agree!
From here, we walked to the Plaza de Armas. Pedro de Valdivida, the Spanish conqueror of Chile, founded this as the civic center of the country in 1541, with the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Royal Court of Justice (now the Museo Historico Nacional), and the Governor´s Palace (now the post office). Unfortunately, Tim had class, so he took off for La Catolica, while I stayed to see the National History Museum. It was very well laid out, better than the art museum we saw last week. It traced the country´s history and development from the original native inhabitants (America´s not the only country that totally disregarded the native population) all the way up to the 20th century. Interestingly, it does not (at least to my understanding of the displays of the last exhibition) delve into the history of Pinchocet, the dictator whose reign from 1973 to 1989 was of terror and corruption. It is our understanding that this time in Chilean history is silent - currently it is rarely acknowledged and not discussed. However, interestingly, many policies that were put into place during his reign are the cause of Chile´s present-day economic success and proliferation.
After this, I found the post office (in the former Governor´s Palace) to buy some stamps, then just wandered around the plaza and did some people watching. This place is sorta a little Franklin street and ¨The Pit¨ all rolled into one. Lots of people hanging out, a ¨pit preacher¨with long white hair ranting and raving, street entertainers, kids playing in the big fountain, hombres cooling off in a side fountain splashing their face and smoothing their hair, folks selling ¨helados¨(ice cream) from cardboard boxes they carry around (still don´t get that one). Next I ducked inside the Metropolitan Cathedral - a different feel from others I´d seen. Don´t know quite how to describe it, I guess it´s the Hispanic/Latinamerican influence. Lots of flowers, real and fake around the different saint statues. Some priests were out at very open booths taking confessions. A side chapel was open set aside in honor of what I think was the ¨canonization¨ (?)of a local priest? Could any of my catholic friends help me out with this?
After stopping to watch a few more street performers, I decided to come back to the apt. to wait for Tim after class - and fill you guys in!
Later I met Tim and a few classmates - Jorli, Lindsey, and Dan - at a small bohemian bar in Bellavista, the same neighborhood as Neruda´s home. Nearby was an outdoor play going on that we weren´t quite close enough to see, fortunately as there were things being thrown and glasses broken - but the real finale was the male streakers who, in running away from the stage, ran right by our table! Whoa - thank goodness we were done with our food!
We continued the theme of the evening with dinner at place called La Boheme. A typical late evening, but a great time with friends.
Thanks for keeping up with us! Love ya! Miss you all!
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