Fiestas Patrias

More than a month overdue, I am finally going to tell you about the actual day of Fiestas Patrias. For a history surround the most significant of all Chilean holidays, see the "Serenity Now, Part I."

Our return trip into Santiago from La Serena was via bus in what are considered full cama (bed) reclining chairs, that were surprisingly more comfortable than I expected. Still, the 3 hours of sleep I received on the bus was hardly enough to replenish my body after a full weekend of truncated slumber, and upon my arrival to the 'Go, I promptly zonked out in my bed for a few more hours.

Without any initial plans for the day, I ended up getting invited to a fonda (sort of like a fair) at a park near my house. There, I had a grand time watching the spectacle that is Chilean celebrations. For one, the fonda had all the interworkings of a North American Carnival - games, junk food, barn animals - only with their own little Chilean twist. For example, whereas at a theme park or real carnival, you might pay to toss a ball at a stack of bottles or try to land a ring around a peg, in Chile, you step up to toss an aluminum peg into a trough of dirt. The kicker is, if you make it, nothing happens, and if you don't... Nothing happens.

Needless to say, without any sense of competition or personal reward, I quickly lost interest in the games section of the fair. My next stop was to the granja (barn) section of the park, where several barnyard animals we cordoned off in their chicken wire pens. The funny thing was, there wasn't any element of interaction like in a petting zoo or anything. They were just there. Animals including cows and horses sat indifferently, thrilled by this grotesque invasion of privacy as pint-sized chileans laughed and hollered and threw pieces of straw at them in the midst of their bowel movements. Eventually the cocktail of BO, straw, poultry, and fecal matter got the best of me, and once again, I moved on.

Truth be told, while the fonda was quite an experience, I spent most of the time there looking for a bottle of water, which of course I never did find. My best estimate was that there were about 5,000 people milling about, and yet there were only a handful of vendors selling edible sundries to the crowd. Settling on a large corner stand that looked promising based on its long line and huge parilla layout, we waited in line until arriving to the point where the food was served. Alas, we were without our food ticket. The mind numbing and absolutely infuriating Chilean inefficiency once again outwitted me, and it never even occurred to me that the place where you would pay for the food would be around the corner at a little phone-booth like stand, where the food that you are ordering is nowhere in site... GREAT IDEA, Chile!

Either way, I went back, purchased my ticket, cut to the front of the line (no WAY I was going to wait twice), and got my kebob and a beer (still not bottle of water).

From there on out, I spend most of the time watching the cueca (a little cat and mouse type dance a couple just sort of spins around and stomps their feet in a feigned pursuit of the female by the man), Chile's national dance (and one of the many sources of pride for Chileans that we as gringos will never understand).

Having somehow managed to kill off 4 hours at the fonda, I decided to make my way out to the middle of nowhere, or as the Chileans say "donde el diablo perdió su poncho" ("where the devil lost his jacket"), for a parilla with one of the host families for another gringa teacher from another Duoc site (there was probably a better way to construct that sentence, but I am behind, and therefore need to be a little more liberal with my errors in grammar and syntax).

Crashing what clearly seemed to be a World Teach affair, I ended up having a great time eating terrific food, drinking good punch, partaking in a cultural interchange (which was mainly comprised of exchanging silly expressions in English and Spanish) and watching other gringos dance the cueca (rather successfully I might add) with the Chileans at the party.

I called it an early night around 2AM in order to recharge for one more day of Chilean culture and fun in the sun.