El SurReal - Day 2 in Chiloé

Today was a fabulous day.  It started with a free breakfast of green eggs.  I couldn't help but think of good ol' Dr. Suess while feasted on these scrambled gems that are from a Mapuche breed of chickens in the south of Chile.  Unfortunately, ham was nowhere in the picture, but the eggs were quite good.

This was the beautiful view from our hostal, 13 Lunas.  It was a super nice building with wooden floors and a very cool staff.  

We took an excursion with them today to see the penguins that the island of Chiloé is fairly famous for.  It was fascinating to see penguins in nature, along with other native bird species, sea lions, and even two sea otters!

Magellan penguins hangin' out on a rock! The grey one at the bottom is the bebe

Two li'l pengies swimming in the surf

After the tour, we settled down for lunch at the only restaurant on the beach to try some quality seafood.  Rachael and I shared some fresh salmon ceviche, which was delicious.  Ceviche is, essentially, uncooked seafood that is safe to eat because it is cured by the citrus juices and onions that give it a strong, fresh flavor.  Rachael and I also shared an empanada whose contents were cochayuyo - a type of tubey-looking seaweed that is abundant and often found on the beaches of Chile.  It tasted bland, and that's all I can say about that.  We slathered aji (hot sauce) onto the empanada so that it would taste like something.

Playa de Oro

Later, after exploring the town of Ancud for a bit, Rachael and I went to the mercado with a guy we met from our hostal, Chad.  We got to try a free sample of a shellfish called piure.  The woman at the market stabbed a spongey clump of sea-thing with a knife, and after prying it open, plucked a slippery, slimy pink thing from its center.  She squeezed a lemon over the thing, and said, "pruebalo."  Try it.  Somehow, we choked them down, but we chose to buy salmon for dinner instead of the strange shellfish.

Just carrying a slab of frozen salmon through town

 We prepared salmon, rice, zucchini, carrots, and red peppers for dinner and had a great evening of cooking followed by wining and dining.  Later, I learned the blessing/curse of a hostal that gives out endless free piscolas and how dangerous of an offer that can be.  What a great last day in Chiloé, y qué lata es irse.

The fruits of our labor!