Day 7- Free time

After trips back and forth across the city, trying to meet up with the elementary school teaching group (long story, involving some combination of Saturday Night Fever-style dance floors, cell phones, time zones and plastic conical tubes -- really not worth going into detail here), our free day started around noon.

We hung around the apartment for a while, leisurely eating some breakfast, and waiting while some other people brought over bags to leave for a few days while they went off on adventures. Following the end of the conference, our once tight group bound to Santiago has exploded, sending UCSF students and faculty to various parts of Chile.

Hoping to get to see a bit more of Santiago, we went out to visit El Mercado Central, a little bit north and east of downtown. We covered some new ground on the Metro, and got off at Plaza de Armas, where we'd had coffee 6 days ago. This time, though, we strolled around a little bit more, looking at some of the nice artwork that was for sale, and wondering how we'd be able to get home a nice oil on canvas work (deciding that there weren't really any better options than shipping it, we decided against buying anything).

Arriving at the Market, we were greeted by dingy stalls, smelly cheeses, and knockoff shoe stands. Turns out we were at the wrong market.

Crossing the river and walking a few blocks more, we found the right market. There, things were much nicer, and there were many Chilean fish options. Not too surprisingly, given the coastline, Chile has a lot of seafood. There were some great looking fish that we'd not seen whole before. Corvina, reineta, salmon (aquaculture of which is a very important resource here), congrio (the same that we'd had at Galindo), and the generic 'pescado'. The fish was certainly the focal point of the market, with wholesale being conducted in the outer perimeter, and retail at nice looking restaurants in the interior. Although raw fish doesn't usually stimulate your appetite, we were getting a bit hungry.

We had picked out our dinner restaurant from a book called 'Santiago Bizarro'. Written in spanish, it describes a number of the bizarre places in Santiago. We'd been a bit underwhelmed by the club from the previous night, which was also found in the book, and were doubting our reading comprehension a bit. This place (Ocean Pacific's) blew away any description that can be written.

The whole huge restaurant had various nautical themes. A submarine room, a belly-of-the-whale room, a pirate room, etc. It was hysterical, and really fun. I'm really not sure how best to convey the feeling of this place, so I will refer you to the pictures (uploaded to the Santiago section), saving myself many thousands of words.

As impressive as the decor was, the food was even better. Although we were some of the only people there (who but a pair of gringos would eat dinner at 6pm?), everything was incredible, and still pretty reasonable. The meal: Ensalada Griega, a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts mixture of corn, onions, olive oil, olives, tomatoes and feta-like cheese. Crema de Espinica, literally creamed spinach, but in reality more like cheesy goodness with spinach mixed in. Corvina Relleno Austral, a piece of fish with a ham and cheese secured with a leek (clearly better tasted than written). And of course the house white wine was fantastic.

We then went home to see our friends off. Brad, Joy, Megan, Jenny, and Niels were flying to Puerto Montt to embark on a bike trip. Paul, Mark, and Curtis were going to catch a bus toward the Lakes district. Buen viaje!

I must repeat. Check out the pictures of Ocean Pacific's.
http://community.webshots.com/album/555170599QJdOoD?start=36

Ciao!