Carne!

Woooff... The last week was by far the most indulgent I have had so far in Chile. It was the week of Fiestas Patrias, centered around the 18th of September which is more or less Chilean independence day. Imagine the amount you eat on thanksgiving and the amount you drink on new years, put those two together in the same day, everyday for a week. Heres a quick blow by blow of the action.

Friday the 12th was "18th at the university." They have this early because everyone travels home to be with their families on the actual day. At the school were set up "ramadas" which are booths that vend food and drink. The food consisted of "choripan" (sausage on bred), "empanadas," "sopapillas" (fried bread), and "a name i don't remember" (kabobs). The drink consisted of "ponche" (white wine with sliced peaches and aguardente), "chicha" (a strong wine combination with carbonation, i think), "cerveza," and "pisco." The food and drink cost between 200 and 500 pesos (0.40 - 1.00 USD) each.

The scene consisted of a band playing music and about 5000 students overindulging. We arrived at about 4pm and stayed until the chicha and choripan ran out.

The next thing I knew it was monday and I was on a bus headed north to Talca. I was invited to the house of one of my roomates for a couple of days before heading to Curico (a city an hour away from Talca) for the remainder of the week. In Talca we went to the University of Talca to check out their ramadas. It was considerably less exciting, so we decided to take a tour of the campus. During the tour we somehow found ourselves joining a game of soccer. I was wearing sandals, so I played barefoot. This was ok because it was on grass, and it was only 5 vs 5. The game then grew to a full field and 11 vs 11. I decided I would play goalkeeper so that I wouldn't lose any toes. This turned out to be a lot of fun, and reminded me of the old days when I was just a boy.

After a couple of non eventful nights out on the town, I was off to Curico to my other friends house. The grandma of my friend lives in a little town of about 2000 people in the country side close to Curico. Here is where we would spend the remainder of the week. At grandmas house was all of my friends family (about 30) from great grand kids, to great grandma, and me.

The first day we had an asado (BBQ). The grill was a 55 gallon drum cut in half. It was filled with meat, two layers thick, 3 times. I could barely move afterwards. They had bought a full cow for the celebration, 130 kilos worth of meat (286 lbs). Later that day we climbed up the little hillside and enjoyed the view. Many people on the hillside were flying kites, a very popular activity in the pueblo.

That evening began the drinking and to my pleasure and suprise, a bottle of Jim Beam surfaced. The uncle whom had the bottle let me drink away on it as i pleased as the rest didn't really like whisky. I haven't had that flavor in my mouth since I was in the Atlanta airport waiting for my flight to come down here. Later later in the evening we went to the ramadas where there was folk dancing, games, food and drink. One was a gambling game, so i decided to try my luck. There were 9 pins set up in a diamond. One person throws a ball at the pins and trys to knock down an even number. If he does so twice in a row, he doubles his money. Meanwhile all of the people standing around are also making bets that he wont knock down an even number. I threw the ball on about 5 occasions. After winning and losing, I finished 2000 pesos behind (about 4 USD).

The remaining days consisted of basically more of the same, however with the menu changing slightly. One day we ate empanadas and had more asado and another day we had a "discada." The discada was a large metal disk like platter (kinda like a metal garbage can lid, see fotos) that was filled with clams, oysters, beef, chicken, potatoes and sausage covered in cabbage and cooked in white wine over a fire. This was delicious.

Its hard to explain how interesting this experience was. I was with a Chilean family on the most important holiday of the year in the country side. Its interesting enough to witness all of the family dynamics of families from your own culture, so this was extraordinary. Apart from enjoying the opportunity of partaking in this celebration, I really liked the little pueblo. It was a place where the road is shared by bicycles and horses with the occasional car. Houses are not locked up and bicycles are left in the street. These are things that could never happen in the more populated areas of this country.

Back in Curico we took advantage of the final afternoon and went to the stadium for a soccer game. This was a smaller stadium than the one in Concepcion, but the fans no less passionate. I will say it once again, they do not stop singing, banging the drum, waving the flag once during the whole game. After that it was back on the bus and back to reality and to my running shoes to shed some of the weight.

It was a really special experience to be in Chile for this holiday, and to be able to share it with a family in a traditional way.

My birthday is this Friday, so there will be one more party before a nice cleansing period.

I hope all is well in Gringolandia.

The pictures can be found here under the album "Fiestas Patrias" http://picasaweb.google.com/shirleydan

Abrazo
Dan