September the 18th in Chile is a big deal. In 1810 there was some kind of revolt, ultimately leading to independence from Spain. Chileans today choose to celebrate this by going to fondas. The concept of a fonda is quite tricky to explain. I went to two, a nice sedate one in posh Providencia, and then later to an altogether different kind of bash in Parque O'Higgins. Both have one thing in common - both are in parks and you can eat a lot of meat and drink in public. There's lots of dancing, staggering and bbq ing. There's meat on a stick everywhere - anticuchos - and if you get bored of that you can switch to sausages. The fonda in O'Higgins reminded me of a rock festival, without the rock. There were a million stalls selling cooked meat and so much smoke you could see it from space apparently, well, maybe. If you've ever been to a fonda you can expect dogs to follow you around for a good few weeks after.I was told that this is the only time of year that you can drink in public, although many people elaborate on this by just drinking anywhere. A woman on the radio was complaining that she doesn't see her husband for the two days of the national holiday. This year was particularly bad as there were actually 4 days off because of the weekend. Judging by the bloke we drove around on the motorway wandering home (in the slow lane to be fair to him) there were many who may have over indulged. One diminutive Chilean I know did her bit to eat a whole cow over the four days, at the fondas and at the big feed up we threw in her house. See pics.
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