Fiestas Patrias Part 2

Now this is how the people with money celebrate! With a big asado (BBQ) with lots and lots of meat and food and drinks and some go to the main park in Santiago. The entrance fee is $8 per adult and $4 per child. That isn´t a ton from an American standpont but for a chilean it is. A lawyer here at Carlos´office makes maybe $3000 per month. A lawyer. Minimum wage (40 hours a week or more) is less than $300 per month. If you have a family, it is impossible to survive. That is why Chile has the larget gap between the rich and poor in all of South America. Anyways, the park reminds me of the country fair. Booths where they sell chilean crafts, cowboy attire, rodeo stuff, food, cotton candy, etc. They also have a few booths for advertising cars, etc. They had a petty zoo with pony´s and stalls with horses that had won prizes in competitions during the holidays. They had a rodeo (chilean version which has 1 event). A team of 2 horseman try to get a cow/calf to fall to its knees. Yeah I know. I was asking myself the same thing. What? They do this by pushing it up against the wall of the ring, going round and round. ts hard to explain but I have a video that you can see. A little weird. I watched maybe 10 teams do it and had had my share. Moving on.

They also had a main amphitheater where they did this amazing horse show. It was the history of Chile through the centuries. It had people dresses in costumes and riding horses, doing tricks, etc. While they were doing this there was a narrator explaining the history of the country, important people, events, wars, traditions. AMAZING!!! Once again my explaing won´t do it justice but it was great! My highlight of Fiestas Patrias.

So that was my holiday. I have now had a true experience. This holiday is the biggest of the year. Christmas and Easter aren´t really big and they don´t have Thanksgiving. This is it! And they do know how to celebrate. I will give them that.

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