Boots Abroad: Lota and Coronel

Alright. Last full day of our trip we wanted to drive out to this town called Lota. It's known specifically for the mine there, which tourists can go into (that extends out under the ocean), but a) I specifically promised friends and family at home that I would not enter a mine in Chile, and b) you couldn't pay me all the money in the world to go down an elevator shaft into the deep earth underneath an ocean. No way in hell. So we did not go to the mine! Instead we went into this little museum that had a lot of old mining stuff and little ceramics and fancy things and then meandered around a park. But it was a really cool park because it's the gardens and grounds of what used to be the fancy estate of this super rich family whose name is all over everything in Lota. Oh and it extends out onto a cliff over the sea, where the still-functioning lighthouse beckons Lota boats. There were topiaries and fountains and funky little statuettes of Greek mythological characters everywhere. Fan-cy.

not sure what this is, but it's under construction

fancy peacocks

fancy birdhouse

fancy greenhouse that's also under construction (thanks, earthquake)

where the big house used to be- it made a lovely maze for pushing
host sister &cousin around in host dad's wheelchair really fast

host fam!

the sign seems unnecessary

vultures! how not fancy

look mom! I told everybody about how you like weird fungi : )

The other car full of people went to see the mine, but we took off instead for Coronel, on the way back to Concepción. We stopped off at the fishing beach so that I could see it (the gritty underbelly of the fish market in Conce!) and my host mom could buy some fish. I don't really know what I expected, but it was not this. First of all, came into contact with a sea lion again! Not just one, either, but a whole flotilla. They had parked themselves on the beach to eat the fish scraps that the fishermen threw to them. There were also a lot of stray dogs running around, and when I first walked up it was general mayhem so they were trying to get the sea lions to back it up a bit.

apparently pretending like you're going to throw a rock at them works pretty effectively. remember that.

this big fatty on the right seemed to be the kingpin

they flopped down like this and made puppy eyes to beg for fish

So the general operation here seemed to be that the fishermen bring in all the fish they caught in little rowboats, and then they just throw them in flat crates and then there are ladies set up to gut/filet them on planks laid out right there. Then they had an entire semi-truck full of ice bags, to pack the fish in ice and drive them off somewhere to sell. But you can just walk up there and buy they fish out of their hands, and watch them gut it for you (which is what my host mom did). They were moving a hefty amount of fish, and it seemed remarkably unsanitary between the stray dogs and trash on the beach and sea gulls swooping everywhere (they must also be pooping everywhere, am I right?). Is this how all little fishing industries are run and I just didn't know? I mean there's something to be said for immediacy, but these crates of fish are just stacked on the sand, next to buckets of guts and dogs and trash. It was very interesting to see! Kind of cool, in a way.