"And I go back to [September] all the time..."

Fiestas Patrias is Chile's 4th of July. They do it a little better than us though in the sense that instead of taking just one day off to celebrate the homeland they devote an entire week to eating, drinking, (and subsequently littering) on the land they love.

The Chilean work philosophy is a little bit like that of the French and the Italians in that they'll take any excuse to take a day off. So when the actual day of independence falls on a Wednesday the entire nation collectively decides to just take thursday and friday off as well regardless of whether those days are actually encompassed by the holiday, because "hell! wednesday is practically the weekend anyways!" I'm just gonna put it bluntly: They know what's up!

The most abundant foods during this time are empanadas, choripanes (chorizo + pan = choripan), and brochetas.

The most abundant drinks are chicha (a slightly bitter fermented grape drink. the taste is about halfway between a beer and a wine), and terremotos (a pineapple ice cream + alcohol concoction so named because after just one people begin to walk as if the ground were shaking).

The parties that each comuna (like a county) holds are called fondas. Michael, Chris, and I set out early to one of the biggest ones in the city at Parque O' Higgins.