Tag Archives: fireworks

New Year in Two Hemispheres

 

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I’m a little bit late for this New Year’s post, but we’ll just blame that on the jet lag. This year, I can say that I spent New Year’s Day in two hemispheres. At midnight, we watched a spectacular fireworks show put on by the city of Antofagasta over the Pacific. The show lasted nearly a half hour and was a definite crowd-pleaser.

Earlier in the day on the 31st, I took a (slow) walk around town in the hot summer afternoon. I noticed that the streets and sidewalks were emptier than usual. When we went out to get dinner, we were surprised that even the fast-food restaurants (pizza places, McDonalds) were closed for dinner. We found the one restaurant that was open, a Chinese place. We were a bit abashed: in the U.S. and Canada, New Year’s Eve is certainly one of the busiest nights of the year for restaurants. Of course, we should have assumed things would not be the same. (How many times have I said that since August?)

It became apparent why the city had been empty all day at about 10:30 pm that night when everyone of all ages started flooding the streets and sidewalks, walking towards the water with noisemakers, decorations and coolers filled with snacks: everyone must have been napping earlier that day! Of course.

 

The fireworks started off a whole night of partying. After midnight, the streets were as busy as rush hour as families and revelers went to neighbours’ houses for meals and parties and bars and restaurants opened to serve patrons all night long.

The next day, we walked to the beach and were stunned by the mess in the streets, sidewalks, parks and beaches: mounds of glitter, streamers, confetti, balloons, empty silly-string cans and broken wine and champagne bottles were littered everywhere. (I’m surprised there weren’t more cars pulled over on the side of the road with flat tires). One city street cleaning worker was pitifully trying to broom up a small patch of glitter, a lost cause in the miles and miles of waste from the previous night’s revelries.

We left for Canada the afternoon of the 1st. Our taxi driver informed us that most parties had ended that morning at 8 or 9 am. I hoped that our airline pilots were not one of the revelers who had a sleepless night!

We left hot weather (and I with a sunburn) and promptly arrived in subzero temperatures 22 hours and nearly 5,000 miles later.

I’ll be in Quebec for the next few weeks, but I thought I might take advantage of this blog to give you all a little wintery taste of “la belle province” before I return to Chile and continue to blog about my adventures down there for the remainder of 2012.

This photo isn't really related to the post, but I took it on Dec. 31st. I love these little old cars that I often see around town.

New Year’s Eve, Chilean Style

Yesterday I mentioned something about doing a part two recap of the past 5 months in Chile post, but I think that will just have to wait a little longer. Because right when I thought I had written everything to write about Chile before my break, New Year’s Eve arrived.

I was naively thinking that New Year’s would be more or less like Canadian or American New Year’s Eve. Some celebrations in the evening, bars and clubs open until late at night. Mostly a holiday for the young and hip while the “rest of us” lay around eating cheese and watching Ryan Seacrest broadcasting a chilly crowd in Times Square.

Little did I know that it would actually be a big holiday here in this northern Chilean town. Comparable to the American 4th of July and – dare I say it – even comparable to Christmas in terms of the scale of celebrations.

I first noticed something wasn’t quite right when businesses were shut down during New Year’s Eve day, except for the grocery stores which were open until 6 for hordes of desperate last-minute shoppers stocking their carts with hefty cuts of beef, potato chips, and beverages. I took a long walk in the afternoon and the streets of the usually-busy city were eerily silent. I found some life at the mercado, or center of the city, where street vendors were trying to interest pedestrians in noisy air horns, glitter bombs and cans of silly string-like fluff. That was my first hint that tonight would be a big night.

We had also been told early in the day to expect some spectacular fireworks that evening along the coast. At about 11pm, I started seeing families walk towards the public beach and congregate along the coastline outside of my window. At 11:58pm, the fireworks started over the water and lasted nearly a half hour, ringing in the New Year in spectacular fashion with crowds of families clapping, whistling, and blaring their air horns.

Earlier that evening we had ventured out of the house in search for dinner at 9 pm. In the U.S. and Canada, this is one of the busiest nights at restaurants, so we were surprised to find everything but a Chinese restaurant closed. The restaurant had a tv on, and as I watched the anchors were interviewing Chileans in Santiago about what they would be doing that night. From what I gathered, most planned to eat, drink and celebrate until 7 or 8 am the next morning. I realized that the deserted streets would not be so deserted after midnight, which is when the parties start.

Indeed, parties got started right after the fireworks display ended at nearly 1 am. Looking around at my neighbours, apartments began to light up and become occupied after the fireworks show. No wonder the streets had been deserted when I took my walk in the middle of the day: everyone had been resting up for the night!

The memory of fireworks being set off over the Pacific with the quarter moon slowly setting into the ocean in the background and the appreciative cheers of the Chilean spectators is not a New Year’s Eve experience I’m likely to forget. Perhaps most memorable, though, was when I happened to look over at my neighbour’s balcony where she and her husband were watching the show. She eagerly waved to me, and called out, “Felicidades!” or “happiness!/happy wishes!” as the fireworks went off. Unsure how to reply, I simply waved back and smiled as the fireworks continued.