Friday night we went downtown to the plaza to see a Cueca dance celebration. The Cueca is Chile's national dance officially declared in 1979. More to come on that in just a moment. While we watched the Cueca dancing, we enjoyed some delicious empanadas. We had empanadas de pino which have a meat filling, usually pork, hard boiled eggs, raisins, olives among other things.
We also had empanadas de queso (cheese) which got a thumbs up from BJ. Any of you who know BJ will appreciate his love for cheese. Although he hasn't been able to enjoy American cheddar while we have been here, they have a very nice Gouda which works just fine for BJ.
Emily invited her cute friend Natacha with us to watch the people dance the Cueca. She is interested in learning more English and she also helps us with our Spanish. Plus she is just so much fun to be around.
We had to be careful with our Empanadas. I assume that there is not an animal control program in place here because of all the stray dogs we see. The dogs are actually pretty mild mannered. They don't bark at you or chase you, but will become very interested in you when you have food.
Here at the main plaza downtown, they had a errected a stand for different bands to play music while town members enjoyed dancing the Cueca. Early in the evening we were able to see these very cute mature couples in there traditional dance attire show us what the Cueca really looks like. Wikipedia describes it this way,"The men in the dance wear the huaso's hat, shirts, flannel poncho, riding pants and boots, short jacket, riding boots, and spurs. Women wore flowered dresses with an apron. The dance of the cueca is done with a sense of the rooster and the chicken. The man approaches the woman and offers his arm, then the women accompanies him and they walk around the room. They then face each other and hold their handkerchief in the air, and begin to dance. They never touch, but still maintain contact through facial expressions and movements. The white handkerchief must be waved." Later in the evening more dancing began to pour out more into the plaza. The last video shows a couple of little children dancing, They are so good at it. We should try to learn the Cueca while we are here. If you are seeing this post by email, you will have to visit the actual web site to view the videos. jillhaviland.blogspot.com.
Friday night we went downtown to the plaza to see a Cueca dance celebration. The Cueca is Chile's national dance officially declared in 1979. More to come on that in just a moment. While we watched the Cueca dancing, we enjoyed some delicious empanadas. We had empanadas de pino which have a meat filling, usually pork, hard boiled eggs, raisins, olives among other things. 
We also had empanadas de queso (cheese) which got a thumbs up from BJ. Any of you who know BJ will appreciate his love for cheese. Although he hasn't been able to enjoy American cheddar while we have been here, they have a very nice Gouda which works just fine for BJ. 
Emily invited her cute friend Natacha with us to watch the people dance the Cueca. She is interested in learning more English and she also helps us with our Spanish. Plus she is just so much fun to be around.
We had to be careful with our Empanadas. I assume that there is not an animal control program in place here because of all the stray dogs we see. The dogs are actually pretty mild mannered. They don't bark at you or chase you, but will become very interested in you when you have food. 
Here at the main plaza downtown, they had a errected a stand for different bands to play music while town members enjoyed dancing the Cueca. Early in the evening we were able to see these very cute mature couples in there traditional dance attire show us what the Cueca really looks like. Wikipedia describes it this way,"The men in the dance wear the huaso's hat, shirts, flannel poncho, riding pants and boots, short jacket, riding boots, and spurs. Women wore flowered dresses with an apron. The dance of the cueca is done with a sense of the rooster and the chicken. The man approaches the woman and offers his arm, then the women accompanies him and they walk around the room. They then face each other and hold their handkerchief in the air, and begin to dance. They never touch, but still maintain contact through facial expressions and movements. The white handkerchief must be waved." Later in the evening more dancing began to pour out more into the plaza. The last video shows a couple of little children dancing, They are so good at it. We should try to learn the Cueca while we are here. If you are seeing this post by email, you will have to visit the actual web site to view the videos. jillhaviland.blogspot.com.
1 comment:
Oh how I miss the empanadas de queso!!!
-Wes
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