Oktoberfest! Germans in Chile

Yesterday my friend Sofía invited me to Talagante, a little less than an hour from Santiago, to Oktoberfest! Oktoberfest in Chile?! Yep. There is a large German population in Chile, as part of huge government sponsored immigration program in the late 1800s. In order to development the vastly unpopulated south, the Chilean government gave incentives for European immigrants to settle here, and many German families came and started schools and founded churches, etc. There are still many German schools in the south, where the children goes to classes actually taught in German and from the first few years on. And so...in the heart of Chile, we found an Oktoberfest (basically a German beer/culture/music festival).

We took a bus, the metro and another bus to get there. The trip was actually pretty easy to make and of course dirt cheap. At Central Station, where we took the bus to Talagante, there was practially a whole mall to pass through before you hit the platforms, complete with food court and kiddie park.

The food was delicious! I had bratwurst, saurkraut and potatoes with my German ale. And during the meal, a group of musicians played old German songs on their trumpets and accordians. They also played the chicken dance and made us all get up and dance, haha! They were pretty funny old men all dressed up in old fashioned German clothes, and put on a good show.

There was also lots of booths. Some where typical Chileans crafts, goods and sweets, and some not so typical. At one you could look up your family crest from your last name, at another you could buy green beer and beer hats and sunglasses, and at another they sold typical Chilean jerky - made out of either dried cow or horse meat. Sofia and I chose some chocolate covered fruit on a stick instead, from a candy stand that was delicious. They had a kiddie carnival rides too - all that was missing was the face painting!

We also watched a bit of cuenca (typical Chilean folkdance) and visited her uncle's brewery stand, called Schoz (I think that's how you spell it?). There were tons of stands of different artisan beers from all the different regions in Chile. We also saw some pretty fun guys dressed up in costumes, and some clowns hopping about on what looked like a cross between pogo sticks and stilts.

It was relaxing and fun, and the weather was gorgeous. I could almost have been at any outdoor festival in Austin (except of course for all the Chilean Spanish!).




Oh and that night, Halloween night, when a bunch of us were watching movie's at Sofia, trick-or-treaters came by! Halloween isn't really celebrated here, but it's cathcing on a little bit with the kids and parents. A good number of Spidermen, pirates and witches all came by for candy, it was adorable. It of course reminded me of being in the states, and it was pretty funny to see the little Chilean kids running around in costumes and saying in spanish, "¡Ducle o Truco!"