Ya viene Fiestas Patrias! (The national celebration has arrived!)

This week is the week of patriotism here in Chile! Everyone is already hanging & flying the Chilean flag, including me, I have mine tacked up on the wall :-) Thursday (18 September) is National Day, and Friday is the day of the military. During both days, the large park 3 blocks from my apartment will be full of party-makers, eating their empanadas & enjoying their beer (it's the only 2 days where it's allowed to drink beer publicly in the streets, etc... thus people have told me that this weekend will also be full of drunkards in the street... can't wait for that...) On Friday, the military participates in an afternoon of parades, marches, and bands in the park, and for the past several weeks they have been practicing in the mornings (so my a.m. jogs have been animated as I dodge the calvary, bands, regiments marching and shouting, etc, haha)

Yesterday (Saturday) they had what looked to be a dry rehearsal, with lots of groups lining up and marching into the park. My street happened to be one of their lineup spots. Here are a few photos and a video of the preparations for "Fiestas Patrias", taken outside my apartment window.