Today we got to see a traditional festival for the Fiestas Patrias. We went with Samuel and Pablo to Renca, a poor suburb where Pablo grew up. There was a big mountain that is a park, and there the people gathered to celebrate. The dusty dirt road was lined with booths with families selling traditional food, kites, and other wares. At the end of the road was a rodeo ring, and then the mountain itself covered in footpaths.
Pablo’s family had a booth, and his brother had a loud speaker and microphone to attract customers for their churipan. When we showed up to meet them, and bought some churipan, he even announced, “These people came all the way from the US to try our churipan.” Then, we climbed the mountain, and got a great view—it was probably higher than Cerro San Cristobal (from yesterday).
Here are the Chilean traditions for Fiestas Patrias:
- Food:
- Empanadas de Pino. Like a Hot Pocket filled with ground beef, onions, olives and hard-boiled eggs
- Churipan. Big sausage—churizco—in bread, almost like a sausage dog
- Asado. Like barbeque, any kind of grilled meat (pork, beef, chicken)
- Activities We Saw
- Kites. People make or buy kites made in a square with tissue paper and light wood. The kids fly them, and even try to break the strings of other kites with their own
- Kite Catching. Kids tape long sticks together, with a multi-pronged branch on the end, reaching to 15 feet. Then, when a kite gets close to them, either because it flew too low, or because the string gets caught, flocks of kids try to capture the kite with their pole. It’s a contest to see who can get the most kites without tearing or destroying them.
- Other. We didn’t see this, but other traditional activities are three-legged race and top spinning.
