ANDREWFORD/BAREFOOTFORD Two chilean women rush past a fire truck in downtown Santiago as it sprays water onto screaming children below.

On Saturday and Sunday Chileans joined together to celebrate their 200th Birthday by splashing, singing and shouting across one of Santiagos busiest streets.

Avenue Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins, or Alameda as most the locals call it due to one Stretch of the winding road, was twisted off for the celebration of all things getting wet.

A lot of things are vastly different in Chile from the United States. Incomes, currency and language to name a few. But, more often than I expected, I see the similarities and the weekend was an enormous example.
While the age of the country seems similar to the U.S., the Country has a regained sense of pride and optimism because it’s only regained it’s democratic status in the last 30 and been true to it for the last 20 years.
The memories of a military dictatorship that killed hundreds of Chileans is still fresh in the fabric of the country.
While most of South America has had enormous highs and lows, Chile has remained relatively stable. The former military dictatorship caught off guard the majority of Chileans never expecting an end to their relatively peaceful democracy.

Tags: bicentennial, Chile, firetrucks, Santiago, water

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 8:18 am and is filed under Santiago de Chile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.