feliz bicentenario Chile!

Last weekend was the bicentennial celebration of Chile's independence. We kicked off the long weekend celebration by going to see the first night of the light show at La Moneda on Thursday night. Walking to the venue you could feel the  energy and excitement from the masses of people walking there. When we arrived the sea of people already there was ridiculous. We spent the show being pushed and shoved around as people jostled for the best view. What I did see of it looked pretty cool. The papers estimated the next day that 70,000 people turned up to watch the show. 

Earlier in the week my Chilean house mate Vero had invited me to go away for the weekend with her friends to Maintencillo. When I woke up on the Saturday morning she informed me there was a change of plan and that instead of going later in the evening we were leaving in half an hour. After throwing a few things into a backpack we met Vero's two friends Rafael & Anaris a few blocks from the apartment and we drove to their house in Melipilla. It was wonderful enjoying the scenery along the way. Chilean flags were flying everywhere and we saw many people celebrating in their backyards, children flying kites and playing football. There is such a sense a national pride here, and even the poorest shanty towns we passed had their flags flying for their independence day.

When are arrived at their home, we were joined by both Rafael & Anaris's extended family and some friends. I'll tell you now the language barrier really made it so the whole weekend I never really knew hour to hour what our plans were or what we would be doing next. It actually made it quite fun. I for one didn't know I was in for a Chilean family gathering with all the relatives! I felt very lucky to be invited into their home to celebrate with them. It was lovely to meet them all and every one of them tried to converse with me and find out more about me and why I was in Chile etc. Together they decided what they knew about New Zealand. We have good wine, many sheep and 'Lord of the Rings.' I guess that is nothing I haven't heard before. My favourite person of the day was Anaris's elderly mother who tried very hard to speak slow Spanish to me (Chileans really do not know how to speak slow!) She was so cute.

The four of us set off again, now joined by another friend of Vero's called Javier. Three hours later we arrived in the beach town Maintencillo. Maintencillo is 40 minutes north of Viña del Mar on the coast of Chile. We all stayed up late chatting and drinking wine. I have never had so much fantastic wine in my life as Rafael is quite the wine connoisseur and made sure Chile's reputation for great wine met my expectations. After Vero and Javier went to bed I stayed up with Rafael & Anaris and they wrote down lots of funny Chilean slang and sayings for me so I can sound just like a local. We'll see about that. My favourite saying they taught me was 'Pasarlo Chancho'  which is a expression to use when you're having 'too much fun' as they said. The word 'Chancho' means 'pig' so essentially I think they were trying to explain how it refers to a pig having fun rolling in the mud or something. I thought it was pretty funny.

The next day we walked to the beach taking in all the beautiful scenery along the way. We walked through a fish market and then to a rocky area of the beach that had a statue of St. Peter the patron saint of fishing which was surrounded by many Pelican birds. Next we stopped at a restaurant to have amazing Empanadas (a traditional Chilean food) that had shrimp and cheese in them. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuum. After lunch we went and laid on the beach. Vero and I being brave decided to go into the water which was freezing! Needless to say we didn't stay in long. We headed back to the house and I tried my first glass of Chicha Cocida a type of Chilean alcohol that tastes a little like cider. We played a trivia pursuit board game which was definitely a challenge for me. It's hard to try to answer a question when you have to first understand specifically what you're being asked, then answer that question in Spanish, even if you know what the answer is in English. They were very patient with me though and made me read out most of the trivia questions to help me practice my Spanish. I do have to add here that my team won both of the games we played!

In the morning we cleaned up the house and headed back to Santiago. I had such a wonderful time and felt very lucky to be invited so warmly into Vero's group of friends. It has left me with great impression of Chileans already and their friendliness and hospitality. 

Rafael, Javier, Analis, Vero y yo

Saint Peter

Maintencillo Sunset

Empanadas

Proof I went in the water!

Shore side

View from the house

That night myself and a few others decided we would try go see the light show a La Moneda again in the hopes that there would be less people than last time. We went an hour and a half early and managed to get a great spot almost in the center. I could see much better than last time so I really enjoyed the show. I'm glad that I went again. I will try post a video that my friend took so you can get more of an idea of what it was like but here are some pics for now.