Fondas: The public parks all around Chile had "fondas" which are more or less community festivals. There's plenty of food including choripan(chorizo on french bread), empanadas, and sweets. Their are also music performances and dance floors where the you can dance "la cueca" Chile's national dance. My host family took me to a nearby fonda and yes I did dance the cueca!It involves dancing in pairs, in a half circle formation, with some foot movements/stomping, and a "vuelta" where you change directions. If it doesn't seem like I'm describing it well, it probably means I didn't dance it so well. My host mom's 12 year old nephew was kind of owning me actually. But now I can at least say I danced the cueca!
Now that I gave some attention to Chile's biggest holiday, here comes my travel adventures,starting with the first day in Villarrica...
On Monday night I met up with my friends at their apartment where we headed over to the bus terminal to catch an overnight bus to Villarrica. We left at 9 p.m. ish and got in by 7 a.m. ,meaning I slept pretty much the whole time, except for when our bus made mid-night and early morning stops along the way.It was still pretty dark when we went to find our bed and breakfast. Unfortunately we hit a bit of a road block early on in the trip. After waking up the B&B owner to check in, we found out he never received our reservation! We used his computer to show him that hostelworld.com sent us a confirmation, but he proceeded to tell us that they took their listing off over a year ago. He explained how they didn't want the tourism and they we're just a little old couple who didn't know much about technology(oh yeah his wife came out in her slippers and robe). We were also told that there was probably no space in other places, since it was Independence Day(September 18th). So we went back to the bus terminal to wait for our other friend's bus that was scheduled to come in an hour or so later than ours. On a whim, we asked the front desk guy if he knew if there was any space at all for 6 people in town.Turns out he knew a lady who had a cabin free and he called her up on the spot...wow we sure lucked out! Plus it was cheaper than the other place would have been. The rest of the day was relaxing and not so action packed,but it was a nice change from the constant buzz of Santiago. We strolled through artesian markets and watched some dance performances in the town center. Now I know why my guide book said that Villarrica is where the locals live while Pucón is the tourist spot(more on this place in part 2).The town was just full of bed and breakfasts that were definitely not listed on any hostel websites and there was only one tour office in the whole place,compared to Pucón's one on every corner(again more on this place later). Instead there were just packs of locals spending the big Independence Day in a pretty relaxing manner, hanging out by Villarrica Lake flying kites and eating candied apples which were sold everywhere.
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| One of the many kites being flown on Independence Day-another little tradition! |
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| Me in front of Lago Villarrica-so beautiful and tranquil |
That evening some people in our group headed out to these "hotsprings, " which from the pictures looked more like indoor pools to me with some waterfalls. I didn't feel like throwing down money to do an activity I wasn't really into, so I stayed behind with another girl Taylor who actually goes University of Wisconsin, but she knew some of us California people through a class. We hung out in the of the bed and breakfast, figuring out on what we wanted out of study abroad, our impressions of our time in Chile so far,and other conversation topics that come up only when you have the amazing opportunity to live in another country.The owner came out and chatted with us for a bit, and when Taylor mentioned not feeling well, he immediately offered her soup-that's Chilean hospitality for you! While we were eating our soup the owner's dad came in, a sharply dressed,charming old man and talked to us to. When Taylor mentioned she was from Chicago, he said(in broken English) "I went Chicago...two months...mil novecientos cincuenta y nueve(1959)" and proceeded to tell us about his experience as a boxer. Apparently he went to Chicago for the Pan American Games. And it turns out he won bronze in the 1956 Olympic Games in Australia! He even pulled out his medals from his competitions to show us. I would have never know such a soft-spoken Chilean man in this small town was an Olympic boxer. Just goes to show how people can always surprise you! He was also pretty fun to talk to,because he kept talking to us in very broken English until his daughter said, in a joking yet slightly irritated tone "Papi, por favor habla con ellas en español!" (Dad please, talk to them in Spanish!). I appreciated his interest in practicing,but you can only get so far in a conversation when all he can repeat is "I have 82 years" while pointing to himself. By the way, I wikipedia-ed him and sure enough there he was, bronze winner 1956: Carlos Lucas Manríquez. There's my experience with a Chilean celebrity!
So maybe it wasn't exactly how I expected to spend the actual Chilean Independence Day,but who says the unexpected can't be fun! Look out for my adventures in Pucón in Part 2. Chao for now!
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