Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Chile National Days


I have to say that Chile's National days rival China's New Year celebrations. We partied for five days here taking advantage of all Santiago had to offer for their Independence day. The 18th was the National day, the 19th was Military day, and because these fell on a Tuesday and Wednesday we also celebrated a 'sandwich' day  on the Monday. Around 2 million people actually left the city to vacation in coastal towns like Vina del Mar or head south into the Lake District, and as unpatriotic as it sounds many went into argentina for cheap eats and sleeps. For us it Santiago was unusually tranquil....the streets were quieter anyways.
Bridge Linguatec had a party on the Friday leading into the long weekend. They had food, drink, dance and karaoke. 
On the weekend we spent time 
with our Brazilian friends Daniel and Fabiana, and their friend Paula visiting from Brazil. We walked around the central market and main plaza and into a cultural museum underneath the presidential palace. We also went into other cultural neighborhoods like Barrio Bellavista for food and entertainment. The highlight was finding a little restaurant at the end of the day and sitting down for beers and empanadas, while being entertained by traditional dancers dancing the cueca, Chile's national dance.

On Monday we had people over to our apartment building roof-top for a barbecue. It was a nice time with lots of food, pisco sours and beer, that reminded us of summertime in Canada. 
The next day we had refueled our tanks and went to party at a nearby Fonda. We went to 
Parque Inez de Suarez for live music, dancing, food and wine and had a great time celebrating Chile's Independence days.

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