We spent last year’s Chilean Independence Day (September 18th, of course!) in Vina del Mar, and really were in for a treat.  It was the bicentennial celebration, and there were spectacular airshows, naval ship shows, fireworks, and even people dancing in the streets.  This year, living in a smaller southern town, we were in for a different sort of celebration, both more relaxed and more delicious than the previous year’s festivities.

Aji Chileno - Chile's Spicy Salsa

When our landlord brought us a card to invite us to Sunday’s misa chilena (Chilean Mass), we knew we’d be silly to refuse.  How often do you get a personal, hand-delivered card these days, and to attend a church a stone’s throw from your house, nonetheless?  Although I personally wasn’t able to attend (long story), I’ve heard the highlight was at the end of the ceremony when the Catholic church’s pews were pushed to the side to make way for singing, clapping, and dancing.  Not your typical Catholic mass, and it came as quite a pleasant surprise to the non-Chileans in attendance!  I imagine it looked a bit like the cueca we spotted last year on the streets of Vina del Mar (video below.)

Following mass, it was cookie making time for our family.  We had been invited to our landlord’s house for empanaditas (small meat pockets), and didn’t want to show up empty handed.  Despite a lack of either measuring cups, vanilla, or brown sugar, we (my husband) managed to make some delicious chocolate chunk cookies.  He simply replaced vanilla with a few drops of coffee, used 2 cups of raw sugar instead of the recipe’s request for 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar, and got extremely lucky with guesstimate measurements.  However, not having either a cookie sheet or a cooling rack did cause a few problems, so it took 3 attempts before we were able to compile a plate of individually formed cookies.  It took a bit longer than planned, but we figured, hey, when someone invites us over for 2pm-ish in Latin America, as long as we arrive in the afternoon sometime we’d be fine, as we were just invited over for snacks and not a formal lunch, or so we thought…  Well, at 2:30 we heard a knock on our door, and it was our landlord checking to see if we were still planning on coming.  We apologized, explained that we’re slow, and quickly wrapped up the cookie-making.

Ten minutes later we arrived at her house, and were greeted by our neighbors, our lovely landlord with her husband manning the grill, and some others we assume are family.  Apparently, an invitation for empanaditas really meant “come over for a full-blown lunch” complete with barbequed meat, potatoes, salad, salsa, empanadas, wine, chicha (house made alcoholic beverage, in this case prepared from apples), alfajores (cookies filled with dulce de leche/manjar), and a fruit salad for dessert.

Asado Time!

The food was all delicious, and we were glad that we brought gifts of wine and cookies for the host, and hope they enjoy them once they are opened and consumed.  They seemed to think it a bit odd that we brought food, so I am hoping that we didn’t violate any unspoken holiday lunch protocol with the cookies.  I think my toddler ate more than anyone else at the table, which made her quite popular; my husband had trouble cutting up meat for her faster than she could get it into her mouth.  I keep waiting for her to grow out of her eating-as-much-as-she-can-as-fast-as-she-can phase, though guess I shouldn’t complain as she will eat (with relish!) almost any food we give her.

After the lunch, we decided to head to the park to explore the holiday festivities.  Last year in Vina del Mar, a large park was full of stalls covered by tents, in which you could enter and purchase some food and chicha.  Terremotos (earthquakes, a popular alcohol-heavy drink) are also quite a popular on Independence Day, and were widely available, as were booths with local crafts.  Besides the food, there was a section with entertainment, with people dancing the cueca, Chile’s traditional dance, along with various bands and singers.  This year, in Valdivia, the food in the tents didn’t seem quite as appealing, we weren’t in the mood for any drinks, the crafts seemed very familiar, and we didn’t see any dancing.   However, there was still plenty of entertainment, in a much more laid back manner.

Independence Day Sand Castles

While we didn’t partake of any terremotos, a group of tourists did, and one of them then proceeded to mount a metalic horse sculpture for a photo shoot with her friends.  The sky was full of kites (which seemed prone top attacking groups of teenage girls), we discovered interesting sculptures in a quiet corner of the park, and my daughter learned a thing or two.  She learned key life skills such as the process for poking a hole in moss with a stick, how to imitate the frogs chatting in the pond, and how to make sand castles using wet sand.  Overall, it was quite a lovely day, and as the holiday continues on this afternoon we’re looking forward to a day to relax and recover from all of Sunday’s food and festivities.