Semana de la Chilenidad

September 18 is Independence Day in Chile.  Roughly one-third of the population uses the long holiday weekend to travel somewhere.  We were invited to the Semana de la Chilenidad, which is a large Fonda (fair) by the Policía de Investigaciones de Chile (Chile's FBI).  This was the first time we went somewhere with someone from Chile in the two months that we've been here other than something sponsored by the Fulbright Commission.

The event takes place in Parque Padre Hurtado, which is in the Los Condes/La Reina area of Santigo. As you can see, there is everything from bands to a large dance floor to a midway.

Of course, what I was interested in was the food.  They do BBQ right in Chile!

You buy a stick for $8.  The first chunk of meat is pork, then two pieces of beef, pork, sausage, topped off by bread on the end.  I have no idea what the marinade is, but the chef soaked some bread in it and then gave it to me.  He knew what he was doing as he made a sale.

The cow had been on the coals for 16 hours at this point.  It costs extra to get some of it.  Below is a terremoto (earthquake) - at least one version.  It is wine with ice cream.  

I tried to get a new BMW from the Carabineros, but it came sin llaves (no keys).  Several government agencies sponsored the event and used it as a recruiting opportunity.

The one thing you can't miss wherever you are in Santiago would be the Andes.  They are often obscured by the smog, but today they were stunning. Snow capped mountains and palm trees - quite a contrast.

There were multiple arenas.  This first one had terracing to sit on - ride a pony on - whatever.

We also went to a rodeo, but left after a short time.  The idea is to pin the cow between two running horses and then slam the cow into the wall and knock it over.  The cows were taking quite a beating and the event was quite violent.  One horse kicked out one of the banners above the wall when knocking over the cow.  Yes, there were PETA type protestors.  I think they had a point.

These two dogs were incredibly fast and very good at herding sheep.  The little one on the bottom is booking it around the pen to cut the sheep off on the other side so they have to go in the gate.

The white things are slices of apple.  The chocolate things are either apple or combination banana and apple.  Not sure what the red things were.

I'm not big on sweets - don't even have a birthday cake (rhubarb pie anyone?).  We did get some just to see what it was like.

The candy is 150 grams for three thousand pesos.  So guess how much this was?

How did you know it was $8?  Same as the meat skewer.  I see a pattern here.

One thing that caught my eye was the design of a baby jogger.  Being someone that has pushed one with one or two kids for about 10 years and thousands of miles, such things grab my attention.  The platform on the back was unusual - it even had steering casters.

The other thing that was interesting was the archery range.  Several targets were lined up in a row (note the spacing of the targets).  If you were young, you moved up.  If not, you stayed back.  Maybe it is just me, but it seems like it wouldn't be that difficult to skewer someone...William Tell?

Our host was very generous with his time.  His young daughter came along and was very good for the 5 or 6 hours the outing took.

Overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

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