Waterfront Market (Mercado Fluvial)

The Mercado Fluvial (River Market) on the Valdivia waterfront is one of the finest food markets in southern Chile, and the sea lion colony that has established itself below its wooden stalls is the most entertaining urban wildlife encounter in Patagonia. Each morning, fishing boats arrive with freshly caught congrio (conger eel), merluza (hake), centolla (king crab), and whatever else the rivers and the coast have yielded, and the stalls fill with locals and cooks buying their day's fish.

The market is at its best between 8am and noon, when the catch is freshest and the activity most concentrated. Vendors at the edges of the stalls sell fresh fruit, vegetables, and regional products from the Los Ríos countryside. The view across the Valdivia River from the market steps, with the wooded hills of Teja Island opposite, is one of the characteristic Valdivia scenes. Come early, buy something, and spend time watching the sea lions negotiate with the fishermen over scraps.

things to do sight market
A story
The sea lions that camp beneath the fish stalls of the Mercado Fluvial are not managed or fed by the market — they simply moved in. At some point in the 1990s, a colony of South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) discovered that the scraps thrown from the market were an easy food source and established a permanent presence. They now number in the dozens, and their barking is audible from blocks away. Fishermen largely tolerate them, and the sea lions largely tolerate the humans. It is one of the more remarkable wildlife spectacles you will encounter in a South American city.

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