Santiago's Mercado Central

Fish for sale. Lots of fish.

I heard that there were a lot of great places to eat in Santiago's Mercado Central. I wasn't hungry, so that would not have been a reason for me to go. I also thought I might be able to do some souvenir shopping, but it turns out that this market is almost exclusively a fish market. And fish make poor souvenirs.

But first a walk across the Plaza de Armas to take a look inside the Basilica de la Merced.

I saw online that the church closed for the day at 1:30 p.m., so I backtracked, not wanting to take a chance on not getting a look inside.

That sculpture pretty much is the entirety of the Plaza de la Merced, across from the Basilica de la Merced.

Inside:

This is the display to honor San Expedito.

Yes, there is a San Expedito and he is -- I would not joke about this -- the patron saint of urgent causes. He also is the saint to whom you ask for intercession for success in lawsuits. San Expedito! Where have you been all of my legal career!

Then there was a walk past the Iglesia de Santo Domingo.

The Church of St. Dominic. Founder of the Dominican order.

And somewhere in between the Iglesia de Santo Domingo and the Mercado Central was this fountain.

Which means:

We have arrived at our destination.

The Mercado Central consists largely of two things: fish and restaurants. I'm going to guess that if you eat at one of the restaurants in the Mercado Central -- and there are a lot of them -- and the staff is nonstop hectoring you to come in and eat -- if you eat here, and you order the fish, you can VERY confident that the fish is fresh.

There were a few stalls selling vegetables, but they were substantially outnumbered by the fishmongers.

Lots of restaurants.

But even more fish!

It is a nice-looking building on the north side of Santiago's historic core.

Or, if you prefer a more antiseptic view:

Whichever.

It's time to race home with your fresh fish and cook up a healthy dinner.

And we will end this part of the day's tour with this monument, on the north side of the Mercado Central: Monumento a los Héroes de Iquique.

The Monument to the Heroes of Iquique. And what is Iquique? It is a town in the far north of Chile. It is a mining town. A saltpeter mining town. Won by Chile in the late 19th Century. In a war against Peru. This is starting to become a theme of my journey into the respective histories of Peru and Chile.