Valdivia, Chile

Valdivia, Chile, for us, will always be remembered as the place where barrel chested, greedy sea lions gorge themselves at the riverside market. These market sea lions are a species to themselves. They have a symbiotic relationship with the fishmongers. They get fed, and the fishmongers get free trash bins - big ones. Of course we are always weary of relationships which place animals in such a dependence upon humans. The denouement of this scenario should be interesting. The question we had, which time did not afford opportunity to answer, was: Can a sea lion ever be full? It seems unlikely.

These gluttons took fish heads to the side of the face without flinching, like André the Giant might receive a punch. Their downfall is their lack of neck mobility. They wore fillet fragments on their manes like war medals until swooping gulls pilfered the phocine pantries. Fish slop has to land pretty much in their mouths to be successfully ingested. And so like a sport, this charade, this spectacle, continues at the Valdivia fish market for any and all to watch.