Chile turns 200 next year! So everyone is anticipating the bicentenario, and the decorations during Chilean Independence Week were especially epic.
La Moneda, decked out with festive balloons.
The night before the official Día de Las Fiesta Patrias (Independence Day), there was a free concert in front of La Moneda. It was a lot like the inauguration concert...except a lot warmer, and with a bunch of songs I didn't know.
The cueca, Chile's national dance. It's pretty much obligatory during La Semana de Fiestas Patrias. People even did it at a dance club that I went to over the weekend...and considering the fact that it involves handkerchiefs and stomping and pretending to be a rooster, that's some serious commitment.
Oh hey, did I mention that I SAW THE PRESIDENT?!? Aaron, Alex, and I happened to be passing by La Moneda right before she was getting ready to leave, so we waited for about ten minutes to witness her exit. Michele Bachelet is the first female president of Chile --she's also divorced, atheist, and has family ties to the former Allende administration. And she still got elected in conservative, Catholic, post-Pinochet Chile! It kind of makes Barack's middle name seem lame in comparison.
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