Picorocos and Donde Agusto

The fresh seafood that attacks you.

The selection of shellfish and fish available is astounding.

Donde Agusto greeting everyone that walks in.

A body-less shark eating fish heads. Off color fisherman's humor.

It might seem strange to dedicate an entire post to one thing when I dedicated the previous post to an entire week, however, anything less would not do the Mercado Central justice.

The Mercado Central is, without a doubt, the best place to buy and eat seafood in Santiago. Americans, especially ones like me who live in the Midwest, have no concept of what fresh ocean fish and shellfish taste like, since most of what we receive has at one time been frozen. When you walk into the Mercado Central, housed within a building designed and built by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, you enter a completely new world. The smell of the sea immediately invades your nostrils and the sight strung up sharks stops you in your tracks. Vendors eagerly harass anyone walking by to either buy shellfish or holler out catcalls to the girls. When I mentioned fresh seafood before, what I really meant is that everything there was either caught that day or the day before, or actually arrived there alive. All the shellfish were definitely still alive- at one stop I touched a crab thinking it was dead only to nearly lose a finger to the bastard. 

After walking around and seeing all the different and weird seafood, we went to the most famous restaurant at the market, Donde Agusto. Because of my gringo appearance, he immediately side-stepped my uncle and greeted me, asking me where I'm from. After a response in spanish, he seemed taken and took us upstairs to a table with an excellent view of the whole market.

For lunch, we all dined on a variety of appetizers: seafood ceviche, sea urchin tongues, abalone (a large shellfish that must be beaten to become softer), centolla (South American king crab), and my favorite- picorocos (sea barnacles). For the main course we all had fried Congrio, or conger eel, with fries and a few bottles of wine. Easily the best meal I've ever had in Chile, Donde Agusto is definitely the place to eat in Santiago, and for cheap. All this food for six, plus two bottles of wine was $120, a deal considering Alaskan King Crab is $25 a lb. now. 

Please enjoy these pictures, and I hope that they don't discourage any of you from visiting me, because if you come, I will make you try these things and I guarantee that you'll like them. 

Karaoke, Early Halloween, and Picorocos

Me attempting to dance salsa, mildly well if I don't say so myself.

After taking the highest score ever on karaoke, singing Grease.

Gotta represent the west side.

First, I would just like to clarify that I have many images to show, but because Blogger only lets me upload five images per post, I'm going to write on this one, but then there will be several posts after with more pictures. 

This past week has been both fun and extremely difficult. The process for my citizenship application has basically come to a screeching halt due to a terrible bureaucracy here and now a crippling strike. Otherwise, I've been working on looking for a job. Though there are many things I can do, I'm trying to find the right fit. Basically now I think that what will best is working at one of the universities here. There, I will work with leaders here in public policy, economics, or political science. The advantage for me is that I won't just be sitting somewhere doing data entry, I'll be working closely with some of the leaders in their fields here in Chile. The bad part is that I'll only get paid enough to cover my subway or bus rides and lunch. Fortunately, it appears that English lessons are greatly in demand, and I can tutor privately with people during the week to make some cash.

In regards to my social life, this weekend was the first weekend I truly went out, or as they say carretear. Friday night, Hans had some of his friends over to drink. We ended up drinking, singing karaoke, and salsa dancing until 5am. His friends were great and all were so friendly and engaging. They were thrilled to meet me, as I them, and we're all smoking hookah together next Friday at one of the girl's houses. Last night, Saturday night, we went out with a different group of people to a bar and then the discoteque until about 5:30. It was also very fun, though it still is hard for me to stay out and dance until that late. 

More posts to follow this one with pictures and explanations, including a post about my trip to the famed Mercado Central and my interesting experience there. Thanks and enjoy!

My Birthday y una fonda

These are pictures from my birthday and from a fonda that we went to on Sunday. Also included below is a video of these crazy dance acts going on there. This fonda is located in a nice part of Santiago called La Reina. The difference between this one and the others is that I could walk around taking pictures while at the other ones I can't even wear a watch or take a cell phone with me. It was pretty crazy- lots of people and tons of food and drinking. Very dramatic considering the beautiful Cordillera, or mid-range mountains, in the background. The big thing to eat are those shish kabobs and to drink is chicha which I have explained. While there, I bought a cacho which is a silver plated bull's horn that you use to drink the chicha out of. I hope to bring it back to the states and begin a new drinking phenomenon- say goodbye to the boot and hello to the cacho. Enjoy!

Here are some pics I've taken so far. Just of my family and their dog, Chewey (pronounced Che-wee). Also included is a photo of the mountain of which they live on the foot along with another photo of their lovely home.

Arrival in Chile

Sunday I arrived in Chile to my cousins who were waiting in the airport. It's odd because most people who go abroad have never been to the country they're going to live in, but I've been through the airport six times now, and even this time it felt like a vacation. At my cousin's, I wake up when I want to my aunt who is making me breakfast. I try to take the dishes in or do my own laundry and am shot down. It's basically like being at a hotel. I suppose I'll have to take it all in before I get started working and get my own apartment.

These past few days I've just been hanging out around my cousin's home, eating a bunch and sleeping. This week is what they call "una semana feriada" because the 18th is their independence day. It's pretty wild. They have these huge parties called "fondas" where you eat all this food, and everyone is wasted from chicha which is unfermented wine. The stuff is gross but I'm pretty sure they all love it just because it's Chilean and they try to do all things Chilean. They're much more patriotic than we are, all very proud of their little country stuck between the mountains and the sea. I wanted to go to this fonda by the Estadio Nacional, the infamous soccer stadium, where there was this huge one. However, no one would go because it was for the "lower class" people, but those people seemed to be having the most fun.

In any case, tomorrow is my birthday so we're all going shopping in the morning, for dinner to this chinese place, and then out with my cousins who are coming back to town for it. 

In regards to this blog, I'm not under any illusions about consistency or readership. I hope to post here about once a week and will try to be consistent but I know that that will go with time. Check back when you feel like to see if I've posted anything. I'll also put up pictures when I remember to bring my camera along.

Thanks y muchas gracias,

Derek