In Chile, the eighteenth of September is a national holiday, equivalent to our fourth of July, except that it is a week long party with everything in the country closed except the restaurants and bars. We got off of school on Wednesday and began the fun with an Asado (barbecue) at my house with my family which was VERY fun. Early in the night my aunt broke out her Waso outfit, and talked me into wearing it and taking some "patriotic" pictures by the Chilean flag... this is a picture of me and my family, (from left) my mom, me, sister, brother in law, and other sister's boyfriend.
After the asado we went to Valparaiso to practice our Cueca skills, and were able to find a street dance and some Chilean girls who were willing to dance with us... not to mention LOTS of Choripan (a spanish sausage with pebre (basically pico de gallo) and bread)!!! The Thursday was spent on lots of asados, where I was able to try something completely new: I came home and Tony (brother in law) handed me a muscle with some lemon juice. I ate it, and though it was a little undercooked, I liked it. Then they handed me another one and a knife... when I tried to stick the knife in to open it, the shell slammed shut! I was eating live animals! It was a bit unnerving at first watching them squirm when squirted by lemon juice or feeling them move inside your mouth, but all in all it was a very unique Chilean experience.
On Friday we went to La Campana, a mountain about an hour outside of Viña and climbed about a vertical mile. It was a pretty hard climb, a lot more than most people bargained for, but the view from the top was spectacular... definitely Vale La Pena!
A group of us in front of the cordillera Andes. Just to the left of this picture is Mt. Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the Americas!
The day after our grand adventure up the mountain, we went snowboarding/skiing in the Andes; Mountain skiing is a whole different world than Minnesota skiing!
I started the day snowboarding, and though I fell A LOT, I really did learn pretty quickly, and before lunch came I had learned to carve a little, which was fun. However, my sore body and the spectacular view of the mountain that I would never be able to see from a snowboard made me change my mind, and after lunch I switched to skiing.
Once I was back on skis I was able to really enjoy the mountain, and even got up to some of the black diamonds. The mountain skiing is something else... it takes so long to get down the mountain that I sometimes had to take breaks halfway down, something unheard of in Minnesota, land of the 30 second run. The view was also incredible!
All in all, the 18th of September was a Fiestas Patrias to remember, though one that took about a week of rest to overcome.
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