Chile Day 1

Once I arrived in Chile I took a taxi out to a small town in a rural area to celebrate the festival of Domingo de Cuasimodo. This festival is a very interesting piece of Chile’s culture. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. It is now only celebrated in rural areas. Houses made of adobe were decorated for the festival. I noticed many people dressed in bright costumes. Some civilians were on horseback. Then, they paraded through the center of the town. They did this whilst holding pictures of Jesus. There were also a couple of priests in the procession. These priests were being escorted by a group of cowboys. These cowboys were often called huasos. The priests would occasionally stop and give communion to an elderly person or someone who was sick.  It was an interesting sight. I had never seen any procession like this before. After the procession, some of the townspeople offered me some food. I was taken inside one of their homes and given something to eat called portos granados and red wine. This dish was a type of bean stew that can be made with corn, squash, and meat in it.The people were very polite and had good manners. I noticed that they all took their hats off upon entering in the door. I would have most likely forgot to take my hat off, but luckily I was not wearing one. The family was very affectionate toward each other. They told me how their son had left for to join the army recently, as all men are required to do once they turn 18. After we finished lunch Their youngest daughter played the harp and the older daughter played a guitar with 25 strings known as a guittaro’n. The mother and father performed a dance called the cueca. In this dance they each held handkerchiefs, and they would walk swiftly towards each other, and then back up. The shuffled their feet to the music whilst doing this. It was a very interesting type of music as well as dancing. I felt like I was beginning to out stay my welcome, so I thanked them and returned to Santiago. Once I was back in the city, I stopped and got a dish called pastel de choclo from a restaurant. Pastel de choclo consists of meat with ground up corn resting on top. Even though I was lying in bed in my hotel room, the city was still awake and people were still dining around midnight.