La festival de mil tambores

This weekend was another fun filled couple of days around Viña. It all started on thursday with the going away party of Gabes sister. We hung out at his house for a while with all of our Chilean friends as well as the gringos. We went dancing and stayed out til the club closed which down here is around four thirty a.m. Since Ale was leaving we decided to keep the party going and head back to her house. I finally had to head to bed around 6 but the party kept going. What a great night and a great way to say adios and send her on her way to the States and Europe. As a result the next day didnt start until 2 pm when the nana knocked on my door asking if I wanted lunch. After a delicious lunch the gringos headed to Valpo for the festival of mil tambores. It was a giant street festival with all sorts of different percussion groups performing. They also had body painters and a bunch of people were running around as living art. After hanging out in the square for a while, the bands started moving and it turned into this giant parade of drum groups. Every once in a while the band would stop and jam for a while before carrying on their way. We stuck with this group the whole way and after about 4 hours of walking we made it to the stadium where the parade finished up. There were jugglers and fire spinner guys and all sorts of people on crazy stilts in costume. All in all it was a really cool show and no street fair is ever complete without a man dressed as a baby juggling toilet plungers so I am really glad he decided to follow the same band we did. We were all pretty tired so after the festival we each headed home. Saturday started bright and early with our trip to Santiago. It was the most recent of our excursions organized by our program. This tour took us to the University of Chile, the national cemetery, and a detention camp that was used during Pinochets military dictatorship. It was kind of eerie to see a beautiful park on the ground where just thirty years before people had been horribly tortured by the government. After an always fun bus ride home with the best bus buddy ever, anna, we started our next adventure to Reñaca. And what an adventure it was. Reñaca is the next town over but for some reason it is never easy to get there. After waiting about 20 minutes for the right bus to come, we took it to the wrong stop, and then had to walk back towards town to get another bus. We finally made it to our friends house and had a lovely little gathering with the Chileans. Another night of dancing was ahead of us but when we got to the club the line to get in was forever so we headed back for an early night (330). However, I wasnt late enough for my parents who went to a wedding last night and got home around 5 am. They of course did not wake up til around 130 this afternoon. Looks like the parents were the party animals this weekend. But as a result I did get to try my first Chilean Chinese food. Fear not its the exact same as in the States. Today was a study day, yes those do exist down here, because tomorrow we have a big test in our environmental science class. Should be fun. Well that caps another fun weekend in Viña. Las horas las dias las semanas mueven perfectamente lento, que bakan.