Saturday was horse fonda day!! We went to a big park on the edge of the city in one of the wealthiest parts of Santiago for the fonda La Semana de la Chileanidad. There was a big area of make-shift restaurants, mostly grills for chorripan (a chorizo type sausage in a frech roll), anticucho (steak, chicken, and chorizo kababs), and empanadas baked or fried. Typical drinks include the ever popular terremoto, which means earthquake, probably for the way it makes your stomach feel after a few too many (not that we have any experience in that department…) It consists of white wine, pisco which is the local version of a brandy, and pineapple ice cream. The other popular offering is chicha, a thick pink drink that is apparently wine that hasn’t been fermenting for very long and is unfiltered. What it lacks in alcohol it makes up for in sugar content.
There was also a stage for the various bands that played, and 2 dance floors for plenty of cueca action!
In the main arena we thought we were going to see some Chilean rodeo, but the schedule online seemed to be incorrect... Instead we saw some cool skydiving and parachuting skills, followed by a lengthy battle re-enactment, presumably between Spain and the soon-to-be independent Chile. It was put on by some military group and was complete with period uniforms, guns, canons, and a plywood set of a village. Before the show started the roof fell off the church, which was pretty entertaining.
It was hard to understand the commentary because the speaker system was a little garbled, so Tina and I made up our own, very historically accurate, version of what was going on. At one point it seemed like Spain had killed everyone on the other side and taken over all the territory. I turned to Tina and asked- “did Spain just win??” which she repeated “España gano?” which the woman in front of us thought was hilarious. Luckily for Chile, Mother Russia (or France, I can never remember which flag is which) came to the rescue, and after another 10 minutes of pretend fighting, the presumably Chilean side was victorious and the Virgin Mary was paraded out… or something like that.
(I was taking a picture of this crazy meat being grilled, and the man working the station thought it would be a great idea to take pictures of ME with the meat. So he put his apron on me, had someone hand me a giant knife, and took my camera!)
It was a fantastic mix of beautiful horses, outstanding riding, and some interesting dancing combos. There were Paso Finos from Peru, Chilean cowboy ponies, and some great bareback trick riding. Tina, Monica and I loved it and thought all in all, it was a pretty perfect day.
No comments:
Post a Comment