September 18 is Chilean Independence Day, celebrating the day that Chile became an independent nation under Spanish monarchy. The 18th is celebrated much like we celebrate 4th of July, only on a much bigger scale. The city starts setting up and decorating for the holiday near the end of August, and people often take an entire 2 weeks off work for the holiday. All stores are closed starting the afternoon of the 17th until the 19th, and it's impossible not to notice the red, white and blue splashed on every light pole, store front and bus stop.
I was really lucky to get to spend the 18th with some Chilean friends and their families, so I got to see how the holiday is traditionally celebrated. Scott flew in that morning, so he got to experience everything too! Scott, Allegra and I went to our friend's house out in the country, in a town called Melipilla. The landscape was beautiful: rolling hills, huge plots of land and absolutely no smog. We arrived at Babi's house, which was actually more like an estate, and immediately started celebrating. There were traditional Chilean games, the names of which completely escape me, along with other games like ping-pong and foosball, or taca-taca. There was also cueca dancing and of course, tons of food!
We were welcomed by Babi's entire family with food and drinks in hand. We ate an amazing lunch, drank chicha, the traditional liquor, and danced cueca. After hearing that Scott plays soccer, the men invited him to play in their soccer game. Then as we were eating lunch they called Scott up to the front of the table and gave him a Colo-Colo jersey, one of Chile's professional teams. He was thrilled, and later exchanged a Sounders jersey with them. Scott played in the soccer game while Allegra and I danced cueca. As the sun started to go down the music changed from cueca to salsa and reggaeton, and a dance party followed. It was awesome!
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