A Fonda for Dieciocho

The biggest holiday in Chile is on the 18th of September, “dieciocho”, commemorating the formation of the first government of Chile.

Yesterday was my first dieciocho, and today marks my one year anniversary in Chile. Ezequiel and Maria Jose took me to a “fonda” for lunch. I had little idea what they were beforehand, aside from the possibility of there being lots of drinking (though I expected that would be later in the evening).

When we arrived, I had an immediate match with things I have attended before: county fairs! There were bouncy castles, fubol tables, people selling random things, and places to buy food and drinks – a great place to spend an afternoon!

Our first order of business was finding food; we walked through a tent with a few vendors (selling perfume?) and a large stage with a band. A man with a microphone was walking around, interviewing people – I had a brief flash of dread as it occurred to me that, if I got too close, he could shove the microphone in my face, giving me the chance to announce “no hablo español” to everyone in the tent! But, luck was on my side and I made it to the food tent while he was occupied with another fonda-attendee.

The foot tent offered quite an assortment of dining opportunities, all with essentially the same menu, consisting of different combinations of bread and assorted meat. Perfect.

I went for an “antichucho” – a kebab with only enough pepper and onion slices on it to provide a bit of color contrast with the steak and sausage filling the skewer. We also had some french fries and cheese empanadas to round out the lunch.

We then went outside to let their son play and eat ice cream. Full confession: I had ice cream too.

After a few hesitant approaches, their son finally worked up the courage to get his photo with the Minions. We ended up getting a few photos with them as well:

After some playing on the inflatable slides we called it quits, just as people began streaming in for an afternoon at the fonda. The fonda was a fun experience and reminded me of fun times at county fairs in the US. I am sure I will be back at one next dieciocho.