Quite nice actually. There were avocados laying on the ground, and a small hedge maze. That was free, and worth the 5 minutes I took to step in and out. Then I went next door to the Artisan Fair of Los Dominicos:
Of all of the Artisan places I have seen (and I have seen a few), this is one of the nicer. There is the typical gamut of Chilean touristy stuff:
Lapiz Lazuli: A kind of stone that is unique to Chile, it is blue and pretty. It is used to make lots of jewelry and is also carved into all manner of figurines.
Stone figurines: Pretty nifty little carvings of animals in a variety of semi-precious or pretty stones. I can remember once I took a bunch of elephants my mom had to show and tell and broke some in transit when i must have been in kindergarten. I felt sooo bad, I remember still today.
Indio Picaro: It is a little wooden carved indian, and when you try to pick him up, his phallus pops out. They are not classy, but it is definitely something that Chileans world wide recognize as their own creation.
Wood Cuttings/carvings/sculptures: There is no shortage of artisans in Los Dominicos, where you can see the people actually making their stuff. I got these pictures of a few people working and their wares-
Fun story about the mermaid. First, there is a legend in Southern Chile, a place called Chiloe, where they say that the fisherman who don't return are entranced by mermaids. This is probably common to lots of sea towns, but still interesting. Also, the lady who told me about her mermaid works, also does replicas of the bow ornaments that Pablo Neruda used to have in his house (or I guess that are still in his house, since it is a museum now).
Alpaca and Wool Products (although I would imagine that most of these come from Peru or Bolivia): These are ubiquitous in any artisan market anywhere. I have seen so much that it hardly elicits a second glance anymore. But everyone eventually drops some money for some nifty scarf or something, as I did. I might spend some money on this guy's scarves though, since they are, as I said, pretty nifty.-
COPPER Stuff: Plates, jewelry, cups, key-chains. All kinds of stuff. Chile is famous all around the world for its copper. I bought a plate this time, and I have seen some copper etched plates of the LDS Temples in random corners if you can believe it. I guess the merchants have realized that the missionaries are suckers for that kind of stuff. (As am I).
Clay stuff: This stuff is everywhere. When I was 19 and came with my mom, she made me carry back about 30 pounds of it I believe. You can make pasterl de choclo in the earthen bowls and it is nifty. Traditional stuff.
Instruments: I dig instruments. I would love to buy a bombo (big wooden drum with leather hide on both top and bottom) right now. Alas, I cannot carry such a thing back with me. Here are some interesting instruments that my new friend Diego showed me-
This is a Chilean guitarron, and it it looks like it might be crazy hard to play.
Oh, and there were animals everywhere in Los Dominicos. Some for sale as pets such as parrots and such, and some dogs and cats just hanging out. -
After all of this fun, I went to a large park and a mall next to it, both called Arauco (name of indigenous tribe).
