As I mentioned, we were planning on going to a "county fair" type event on Sunday, La semana de la chilenidad, that was held just five minutes from our apartment in a large municipal park (Parque Padre Alberto Hurtado). For nine days there are activities at the park leading up to Fiestas Patrias (Independence Day). At my Spanish school I met an American family from Santa Clara with two daughters ages 9 and 13 so we decided to go with them to explore it. We are still trying to figure out what we saw but here are the photos with captions outlining as best as I can figure out what was going on! For some reason Picasa uploaded them in reverse from when we took them but the story is the same (just backwards).
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| La familia con Padre Hurtado (the priest for whom the park was named) |
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| Girls in traditional clothes (Renee will be wearing one grudgingly for her dance tomorrow) |
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| Alas, there were rides but very few and at least you got the view of the mountains as you watched your kids get ill |
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| Our patriotic child |
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| Consuming an anticucho (Chilean/Peruvian shishkabob eaten during this holiday) with a new friend, Frances. The skewers were handmade and really thick. |
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| Dancers doing a typical Northern Chilean Dance - La Diablada - which had some amazing costumes |
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| This is the band that accompanied the dancers. Renee got really sad watching and listening to the baritones. |
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| Elisa playing a "typical" Chilean fair game |
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| The Rodeo |
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| My snack (pig carcasses if you can't see them well) |
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| Jonathan in a replica of the shaft used to rescue the miners |
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| A humvee manufactured in Mishawaka, IN and used by the Chilean army for the UN |
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| Each of the armed services were there showing off their equipment (and recruiting?). This was actually the first thing we saw when we entered the park! |
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