Fiestas Patrias

On Thursday I got home around seven and although I could have gone to my friends barbeque, but I was so tired after my trip that I took a shower and went to bed early. The rest was well needed for the coming weekend however. When Chileans say celebration, they mean celebration.

On Friday I woke up at my leisure, did some homework, unpacked, cleaned myself up and went to a barbeque with my host family in Villa Alemania. It was a small family gathering, pretty relaxing with lots of the traditional Chilean dishes.

After the barbeque I called up a friend to see what she was doing. Well it was ten o clock and she was just leaving to meet up with some friends to go to una fonda in Quilpue, a neighboring city. Well the meeting point was across town in a grocery store parking lot, Jumbo, and I knew it would take at least half hour to walk there, so I rushed around to get ready and hopped on a colectivo. Now none of the colectivos (a taxi that runs a set route and picks up multiple people) run in between where I live and Jumbo, so i figured I could take a colectivo to Achupallas and just cross the river to Jumbo. Well there was no bridge, so here I was, running late and lost in one of the most dangerous sections of Viña del Mar alone at night. I ended up running as fast as I could the whole way to the bridge I would have walked across any ways if I had just walked.

But I finally made it to la fonda in Quilpue (that needs an accent on the e, but this keyboard doesnt work. It seems like every public computer has viruses and deformities.)and it seems to me like all fondas are a little bit different. This one was a huge concert with at least 3 or 400 people and a line up of bands untill 5 AM. I danced all night long. One can imagine what time i woke up the next day.

Saturday night was my second fonda experience. The first one, from my perception, was all about the music. This one seemed more like a fair back home, except bigger than I have ever experienced. There were hundreds of artisan venders and booths, a whole row of beer gardens, and tons of games and carnival rides. My friend, Felipe, and I stopped and for some chocolates and tried some chicha, a sweet liquor distilled from grapes only served during the fiestas patrias that we drank out of a carved bull horn. Then we went to the dance part which was more of a mixed age group than the night before, more traditional music, but equally as fun because I learned how to dance cueca and cumbia.

Las Fiestas Patrias for Chileans are an entire week of celebration. Chilean flags fly from every window and every where I went I heard shouts of "Vive Chile!" The trains were full of smiling families carrying kites and food to take to barbeques. Imagine the patriotism of the fourth of July, minus the fireworks and plus all of the country fairs and barbeques all at once continuosly for four days. For me, I found it a very enjoyable experience and a brief perspective into the essence of chilenismo.