Feliz Dieciocho

Chase and Merrill loving the Chilean hats

Dieciocho is Chile's day of Independence and everything shuts down in order to celebrate. There is no school the entire week and people start taking work off on Wednesday although some people work a half day on Thursday, but on Friday nothing is open not even grocery stores, nothing. We had no idea the extent to which Chileans would go to celebrate their Independence, but it ended up being a really fun cultural experience.

Trying to get on the train

Thursday we met Rodrigo, one of the owners of Traduc, at the office along with Andrew and set off for the train station called Estacion Central. It was a mad house apparently all of Santiago was trying to get out of Santiago at the same time. We bought at ticket for the 2:45 train but could not get on the train because there were so many people trying to get on. Actually Andrew and I pushed our way on to the train only to get a call from Chase that he and Rodrigo had not quit made it. Chase was wearing a backpack and the door kept closing on his backpack, so he had to get off. Luckily the train only pulled about 200 yards forward, I guess so people would stop pushing on to the train, and the doors opened up and we took the opportunity to get off.

Much better second time around, we had seats but it was still really hot and there was no ventilation

View from train

Very crowded train, people just kept pushing on at every stop

We rode the train south for an hour and half to Hospital, Chile a very small town outside of Santiago. It was beautiful, completely surrouned by the Andes Mountains.

chase and Rodrigo

The very small town of Hospital

Chase trying Chiche, the special drink of Deiciocho, it is a very young wine

waiting for a ride

Natalia, the other owner of Traduc, picked us up near the train station and drove us to her farm about 15 minutes from the station. Already at the farm house were the other Traduc teachers. I guess you could say this was our corporate retreat.

The farm house

We had an Asado, or barbeque, which is huge deal here. After dinner we learned the Merengua and enjoyed being able to see the stars.

Our delicious Asado, best steak since we have been here

Chase and Andrew enjoying some choripanes, a special sausage in some bread

Some of the other Traduc teachers

Chase starting the only heat for the entire house, I was freezing the whole night

Table set for dinner

Gringos had to do the dishes because we did not help cook

Natalia teaching Andrew how to dance

Playing a typical Chilean game

Chase and Andrew found some funny hats

All the dogs seemed to love Andrew

Friday, we got a ride with Natalia and Rodrigo back to Santiago but on the way back we stopped in a small town called Paine to see their Fonda. Fondas are these fairs that Chileans build during Dieciocho. Every town has them and in Santiago they were built in most of the larger parks. At the Fonda you can buy food and souvenirs and play games.

Merrill at the Fonda in Paine

We set down to eat at this restaurant in the Fonda and apparently because I took a picture of the guy drinking out of the horn the Chileans took it as I wanted to try it. I can be a little of a germaphob and I was not about to put my mouth on that thing. Luckily Andrew was good sport and took a sip for me.

Ordering the best Pan Asado (baked bread) I have ever had

One of the many games to play at the Fonda